TVSquad

(S14E16) Before I begin this week's review of ER, I want to speak for a moment about the ambulance bay at County General. The place should be considered an Extreme Danger Zone and permanently closed. Over the last fourteen seasons it has been the location of car accidents, tank accidents, explosions, falling helicopters, and now a gas fire. The gas fire was courtesy of a patient who came in from an ambulance drenched in gasoline and was started by a careless smoker. By the way, smoking should be banned from the ambulance bay as well.

If you review some of the ER records you'll find that a good portion of the patients were actually injured in the ambulance bay itself. That doesn't bode well for the hospital. So, I say close it down, make it a nice little park area, and have the patients brought in through an underground parking garage. At least no helicopters will crush them should they fall off the roof of the hospital.

With that out of the way, let's get going with this week's review.

I was going to start my review criticizing the return of Abby to the emergency room: from the previews it looked like she was going to work to redeem herself once again after she did wrong to herself and her friends once again. Well, I shouldn't have taken the previews to heart (I never learn) because Abby wasn't looking for squat this episode. All she was trying to do was save some lives. Although, it always seems that Abby saves a mother and child after something bad has happened to her. I can recall an episode in the seventh season where, after a particularly dark time in her life, she helped keep alive a very premature baby in order for it to be baptized.

At least she could control her circumstances in the ER. When it came to her home life it was a totally different story. It was revealed that, while in Croatia, Abby told Luka about her little one-night stand with Dr. Moretti. Luka, while being a fairly nice guy, was not very forgiving about what happened. And, he had every right not to be forgiving. Illness or not, weak or not, there was still some part of Abby that could have stopped what she did. Now, Abby is in wait-or-see mode to find out what her husband of only a few months is going to do. By the end of the episode it looked like Luka was going to move out. Whether this will be for a short period of time or forever remains to be seen.

Staying on track with Dr. Kovac, a few episodes ago we learned that Luka quit County General to do something else. That something else was hospice work, and we found him looking for such a position this week. He ended up taking a position at a facility where he spent time playing poker with one of the residents. This was significant for two reasons. One, it gave newer viewers a chance to get a brief history of how Luka came to Chicago and County General. Two, it showed a different side of Luka that we normally don't see.

Most of the time he has had that stoic, tight-lipped, low-lidded look about him. When talking to the hospice patient (played by actor Hal Holbrook) his face was different. He was animated; his eyes were wide open; he smiled broadly from time to time; he spoke with more passion than he normally does. Maybe it was just the camera angle making things different, but, to me, it showed another side to Luka that he hasn't shown to his former co-workers.

So, what else went on in the hallways and trauma rooms of ER this week?

• Once again we saw an example of how Lucien Dubenko can get too involved with the people he works with to the point of being a bit defensive. This time around it involved Skye Wexler, the woman he's been involved with since earlier this season. Lucien knew how much of a free spirit Skye was, but he still became jealous when he saw Simon Brenner flirting with her. Of course, his little outburst did nothing to help their relationship.
• While on the subject of Dr. Brenner -- he's still a git. Plus, he speaks too fast and so low that I can barely hear a frakking thing he says. At least he had his head handed to him thanks to his little screw-up over the speakerphone -- blurting out that one of Abby's patients had cancer while the patient was listening. We can only hope that Neela doesn't fall under the spell of Brenner that other women at County have done.
• Sam and Tony: What's happening here is that Sam doesn't have a clue how to act in a semi-normal relationship after a few years playing the field. She's being ultra-cautious at work, which causes a rift in her very new relationship with Tony. Luckily, she realized what she was doing and made up for it with a lovely dinner on the rooftop. Can this mean that we finally have a solid romantic relationship on ER? Nah, it can't be true!
• Pratt decided to let his girlfriend make the cancer journey alone, according to her wishes. Unfortunately, Archie wouldn't let him get away with it. So, he ended up going to her apartment, only to freeze up. It's a delicate state he's in: go and be there with her and have her accept Pratt with open arms, or go in and have her accuse Greg of giving her attention because she's sick. What's a love-struck Attending to so?
• Finally, Archie Morris has a man crush on Dr. Brenner.

That's all for this week. Next time -- despite all of the new security someone still is able to bring a gun to the ER, causing a hostage situation. Well, at least we get a Morris-centric episode out of it.