February 15, 2007: Crisis of Conscience
Thankfully, tonight's episode brought us back to the interesting cases and patients that draw out the best and the worst in our favorite
ER doctors and nurses. We were also treated to some more superlative guest-acting.
Sean Young is certainly no
Forest Whitaker, but she was poignant and sympathetic in her portrayal of the mother suspiciously dying from liver failure. Though I wasn't the least bit surprised that the hateful older son was complicit in her scheme to slowly kill herself without jeopardizing the insurance money for her sons, I did think this was an interesting way to once again call Gates' moral compass into question. Luka's assessment of Gates' ability to lie without a second thought was spot-on. It was interesting to juxtapose this story against Neela's refusal to participate in Manish's surgey due to her own reservations about his motives for donating a kidney. (Frankly, I was somewhat surprised at Dubenko's pragmatic approach to the situation since he normally seems to be a higher-ground type of guy.) It was just another example of how different Gates and Neela are in their approaches to their work and their values.
Meanwhile, we were also treated to a reunion of sorts between
Maura Tierney and her former
NewsRadio costar, the hilarious
Andy Dick, as the temporarily psychic epilepsy patient. There is something just so inherently funny about Mr. Dick that I find it difficult to take him seriously. But if there is any role that he is well suited for, it is certainly a person with neurological anomalies.
For those of us who were wondering why Crenshaw had suddenly turned so not detestable, tonight we got our explanation. Apparently, he and Jane (
Sara Gilbert) have been partaking in some "hospital kink," complete with a slightly off-putting dominant-submissive twist. I had practically forgotten that there was a subtle flirtation between the two of them back before the holidays, and I appreciate the follow-up on the part of the writers. But, in a word, yuck.
Things are apparently not looking so hot on the love front for Sam. I'm bummed about Ben's lightning quick departure, because I thought there were some interesting places to go with that character. But my guess is that
Kip Pardue was underwhelmed by the stagnant story line and took his leave sooner than expected. Or maybe he just hates Alex. Based on your comments, I would say he is not alone. (You know who you are!) Alex did not do much to muster sympathy tonight, but I do have a crazy new idea that I am going to posit via this week's blog. (I want it on the record that I thought of this scenario first so that if it comes true, you can all back me up in my quest for compensation from NBC.) OK, on the one hand we have Gates and his maybe-daughter Sarah. On the other hand, we have Sam and her demon spawn. Get Sam and Gates together so they can swap parenting horror stories, and maybe the eager-to-please Sarah (who obviously has a lot of caretaking experience) will bring out the best in the eager-to-be-slapped Alex. I think I'm on to something here. What do you think?
And finally, from the files of the NBC shameless cross-promotion police, how many of you caught Dubenko's little "Save the cheerleader, save the world"
Heroes shout-out after operating on the little girl brutalized by her teammates? She could have used some of Claire's self-healing powers big time. I'm just saying.
Next week, a blizzard and a missing child. I've got chills already.
