ER on NBC

There's no escaping destiny, if you believe the folks on Lost, and the saying was never truer than this week. Lots of TV people met their endings, and so did two shows — one in the satisfying way we've come to expect, and the other in a way no one saw coming. Please enjoy our Top Moments, sealed fates edition.

Thursday's ratings recap:

8 pm/ET
Survivor returned with a season-low 11.2 million total viewers, thanks in part to NBC's ER retrospective, which drew 10.56 mil. Bones placed third with 9 mil, a dip of 570K from its previous outing. 

ABC's comedies were not laughing, as both In the Motherhood (5 mil) and Samantha Who? (4.8 mil) plunged 26 percent. Smallville (3.8 mil) saw a 50K uptick.

9 pm
ER's two-hour (and rather awesome) series finale was the night's most-watched program, averaging 16.2 million viewers and even flirting with 18 mil at the 10 0'clock mark. That tally represents the largest audience for the final episode of a drama series since Murder, She Wrote circa 1996. (Be sure to check out Trish's fantastic recap of the ER ender.) CSI's William Friedkin-directed 200th episode placed second at 9 pm, drawing a season low of 14.38 mil. Facing stiff competition, Hell's Kitchen (7 mil) saw one-third of its audience get flambéed. Supernatural gained 110 thou, hitting 3.28 mil.

10 pm
Placing second behind ER, Eleventh Hour returned to an audience of 10.38 mil, down 12 percent from its last fresh episode.

In the very last song of their very last album (and with all due respect to the fans who will point out that the last song is actually "Her Majesty") The Beatles summed it up best. "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Like the musical jumble that characterizes Abbey Road's "Golden Slumbers" medley, the series finale of ER proved to be a fitting homage to the constant chaos that has transpired at County General over the last 15 years. It has been a glorious joy ride through everyday human drama and the lives and loves of the doctors and nurses who became more to us than just characters on a television show. They became a part of the fabric of our pop culture, grabbing hold of our imaginations, defining a genre and leaving a lasting imprint on our hearts and our collective consciousness. read more 153 Comments

ER (recap show: Thursday, 8 pm/ET; two-hour series finale: 9 pm/ET, NBC) has weathered 15 years on the air by maintaining a strong ensemble through several cast changes. One consistency in the roster is Abraham Benrubi (also formerly of Men in Trees), who plays Jerry Markovic, the smirky front-desk clerk. Jerry has been around for all 15 seasons, give or take a season or four. Benrubi tells TVGuide.com what it was like acting opposite nearly everyone in the cast, whether he thinks Jerry is gay, and what happens to Jerry after NBC closes the doors on County General.

Now that you've seen ER's series finale, take a look at your favorite moments from NBC's groundbreaking medical drama. Out of the many fine suggestions, we've assembled this list of 16, one for — but not from — each season of the show, plus one we couldn't leave out. They are in no particular order, and each includes some of your thoughts and a link to a video clip to refresh your memory and to get the water-works started for your own tearful goodbye.