TVSquad

(S14E15) So, Neela.

We all know her. She's cute. She's smart. She has that lovely English accent. She draws every single man and woman into her universe with her mutant ability to make people fall in love with her (Professor X, I hope you're aware of this). We just haven't seen much of her this season. Well, except for the season premiere, but even then she was unconscious for most of the episode. Perhaps the producers decided to give Ms. Rasgotra a break this season after the whole Dubenko/Gates/Ray love triangle took up a good portion of last season. That was corrected this episode as we finally had an episode that put some focus on the good doctor after a 24-hour shift.

Why focus on her after such a long session? To show her screwing up, of course.

ER is notorious for featuring doctors going on their second day of coverage without any sleep. They did it as early as the pilot episode. In fact, there were several years where there was at least one episode where Dr. Greene was featured in a situation where he was running on nothing but fumes. You would think that these episodes would feature doctors like Greene, Carter or Lewis just fumbling around causing nothing but trouble. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Fact is, in many cases they usually thrived in the chaos of the emergency room.

Such was the case with Neela. After completing her last 24-hour ortho rotation she ended up doing another shift back in her old stomping grounds of general surgery. But, she was tired. You could see it in her eyes and hear it in the way she talked. It came through the television and made you tired in the process. Of course, you may have been tired already because you're too damn old to stay up past 10:00 PM, but I digress...

Yet, rather than slouching through it all, she did beautifully. That's both her gift and curse. Neela can see things that some doctors and surgeons can't, and that's even when she has been up for an entire day. In tonight's episode she was able to discover a small tear in a mother's aorta which probably saved the patient's life. She was also able to save Sarah's grandfather after a clot in his intestine got a bit too aggressive. That one was a close call, as it seemed that she fell asleep while performing the surgery. Yet, the blood started pumping to her brain again and she was able to snap orders to the surgical staff without any further issues.

On top of all of this, it was Neela's birthday -- which makes the whole thing quite sad. Here she is, a bright, young, single girl who only wants to spend her birthday on her couch watching Project Runway and here she is at County General doing what she is so good at. because, really, what else does she have in her life? Okay, Dubenko tried to cheer her up by showing her all the good she did, but that didn't help the fact that no one, save for Gates, remembered or even knew it was her birthday. Harold was right to leave surgery for pediatrics: surgery is no place for the young at heart.

By the by, the dream sequence that started the show was a bit unique. Something was wrong when Neela walked in bare-ass naked, but it was hard to tell if it was really a dream because much of the stuff being mentioned (Harold wanting to talk to her at lunch, Sam shying away at questions about Tony) was in her dream without even knowing it. Yet, as the scene progressed it was clear to see that this was quite an elaborate dream. Perhaps all ER docs dream that way after 24 hours of no sleep.

Despite the promos for this week's show focusing on Neela (did you watch them? Shame on you!) this episode was actually fully staffed and featured a number of other stories. The other main plot involved the grandfather of Tony's stepdaughter Sarah. A rare day off for Tony and Sarah turned into a day a the hospital and a life-threatening illness for Sarah's grandfather (doesn't that always happen). Two items were addressed in this story line: Sarah's hatred of Neela, who couldn't save her mother, and the frustration of Sarah's grandmother on the way Tony always had to be right.

The second stemmed from Gates' opinions on what should be done to remove a clot in the grandfather's intestines. Tony suggested a clot-breaking drug. While both Morris and Neela recommended surgery. Possibly after hearing it from Sarah's grandmother Tony obtained a sense of how others view him. It took that, plus a dressing down by Neela, to realize that his ways may not be the best to resolve the issue without killing him ahead of time.

About Tony and Sam...they'll be good for each other. Both of them have taken a spin on the relationship wheel one too many times now. Particularly Sam, who has been with so many guys since Luka it's hard to keep track. They are both ready to settle down now and focus on one relationship. One can hope that it's going to be one that lasts until the end of the series run. Then again, this being ER...

The third story of the night featured Pratt and the adventures of a man with many broken bones. I'm sure many of you thought 'Yeah, he did it' the first time you saw the man's obnoxious teenage son speaking to Pratt and Sam. Yet, there was something else about him that didn't shout out 'abuser'. And, after some deft negotiation with the boy, it turned out that his father had a thyroid condition that was reducing his calcium levels. It was a good lesson for Sam to learn. But, I'm sure she'll fly off the handle again.

Finally, this week's comic relief was courtesy of the Martin & Lewis of County General -- Frank and Archie. These two actors are really good at feeding off of each other, and the results are pretty humorous when they interact. In this week's episode Frank was downright pissed at Morris because he didn't invite him to a sushi and karaoke party. Their battle escalated to the point that Archie taped up Frank's entire working area. Luckily, Pratt was there, fresh off his management training, to resolve the issue in a more peaceful manner.

Next time -- Abby's back and she's out to redeem herself. Again. Didn't she redeem herself earlier this season? Good Lord!