TVSquad

(S14E11) Welcome back Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet.

For those of you who don't remember Jeanie, which would be those of you who jumped on the ER bandwagon from season 7 or later, Jeanie was a Physician's Assistant at County General waaaayyyy back at the beginning of the series run. Originally, she was the physical therapist for Dr. Peter Benton's mother. Eventually, she ended up sleeping with the good doctor while she was married. Then, it turned out that her husband had HIV and, lo and behold, she contracted the virus as well.

Gallery: ER

Her story flitted in and out of ER for several seasons. In the beginning of the sixth season Jeanie left the show after she adopted a HIV-positive baby -- whose mother died in the emergency room -- and married a police officer named Reggie Moore. Since then, according to this week's episode, Jeanie has opened up several clinics and ended up divorcing Reggie.

Seeing Jeanie again really brought back memories of the old ER (season 6 and earlier) into the forefront of my mind. It had to because, for the life of me, I couldn't remember how she became the mother to her son, Carlos, in the first place. Thankfully my wife, who sometimes retains more information than I do, remembered that he was adopted. Everything clicked at that point and I was able to recall all of the issues she had with Reggie when he tried to get close to her.

Her return really symbolized how much the show's cast has changed since she left the series. Other than Chuny and Haleh there wasn't one other familiar face that Jeanie could go to in order to get her son the treatment she wanted. Perfect evidence of this was her initial conversation with Dr. Pratt. Since Dr. Weaver was no longer around she was looking for the senior attending to help her out. Pratt's comment of "I am the attending" was the perfect answer to her query.

Although the ER has changed, Jeanie doesn't seem like she did that much since she left. She was stubborn back when she worked at County General (at least in later seasons) and she was stubborn here as well. If anything, she seemed much more dedicated to HIV education and prevention now as opposed to when she was on the show. That's most likely due to the circumstances that brought Carlos into her life.

There is one major change that I saw, though -- she looked exhausted. I guess I would be as well if I were in charge of two clinics and worrying if she or her son would get full blown AIDS at any time. It certainly didn't help that Al, her ex-husband, died two years prior to AIDS. That's probably the reason why she nearly raised the white flag when her son was on the operating table for a biopsy.

Jeanie's 'giving up the good fight' storyline paralleled events going on in Greg Pratt's life, which is probably why they were so intertwined this week. Like Boulet, Greg was raising the white flag on his chances to become ER Chief at County General. Seeing that, he decided to jump at the chance to work at Northwestern. But, after talking with both Jeanie and Reggie, and seeing that leaving County would be leaving his family, he decided to keep fighting. I was surprised at this, since it was reported that Mekhi Phifer was leaving the show. I thought that this episode was going to be Greg's swan song.

Despite his initial decision to leave County, Pratt really had no reason to chew Skye Wexler a new a-hole. All she was trying to do was help Jeanie get the information she wanted. Isn't that what a doctor should be doing when it comes to patient care? Skye definitely didn't show her strengths as a Chief during that little confrontation with Pratt. Still, I was on her side of that argument.

I wasn't on her side when she told Sam not to reveal personal information to patients in order to relate to them. One of the mainstays of all of the doctors and nurses who have worked in County's ER over the years is that they can relate to their patients dilemmas in one form or another. On one hand I think that has been a strength of all of them. On the other, that really tells us how screwed up all of their lives have been. Despite that, Skye's request was a bit out of line in that case.

Some brief notes on the other adventures going on in this week's ER.

• The rape storyline seemed a bit off to me. I just didn't find the actress who played the pregnant soldier very believable. In addition, I was very surprised that Gates didn't beat the crap out of the patient's husband after he shoved Tony to the wall.
• Harold and Archie are the newest comedy team and should have their own show once ER completes its run. I was laughing the whole time during the scene where they were fighting over Neela's cousin. By the way, I had a hard time understanding Jazz when she first came on the scene. She has that fast, clipped British accent that requires a volume increase on the old television.
• Jeanie and Haleh's conversation about past ER staff was a nice touch. It was interesting to hear about Doug and Carol and how their kids were in 3rd grade already, and Carter possibly returning to Chicago in the spring (in time for sweeps, I guess).
• No Abby or Luka this week...I didn't miss them one bit. Nice to have an episode where Abby isn't complaining.

Wow, I had quite a bit to say. Hopefully, you'll read it all. Next week -- Abby returns. Woo.