TVSquad

(S14E17) "I already know. Get over yourselves." -- Archie Morris, passing by a kissing Samantha and Tony.

Ye gads, that was bloody! I mean, we've seen plenty of blood in the ER over the last 14 seasons, but that was one of the more bloodier sessions I've seen in a long time. It was just flowing everywhere. Too bad that its flow was hampered somewhere down the line by a clot because, if everything was okay, then we wouldn't of had a serious spotlight on one Archie Morris.

So, I guess things turned out well. For us, not for the patient. That was actually pretty bad. And, not for the patient's husband who...well, you'll need to find out what happened to him after the jump. So, Spoiler Alert ahead, mateys.

We haven't had a serious outing for Archie since ER began its fourteenth season. Fact of the matter is, ever since Hope decided to up and leave the country, Morris has been more of his old self than the maturing person of last season. I liked that maturing Archie and I wanted to see him back as soon as possible. Since the Strike delayed any chance of seeing that the second-to-last-episode was the best we could get.

The producers gave him a lot to work with, thankfully. There were so many different feelings and emotions that ran through Archie this in such a small physical space. There was confidence that his patient was stable and would be okay; stress when she crashed; sadness when she didn't recover. Anger and fear mingled together when Daniel decided to pull the gun. Anger replaced by frustration when he and Neela had to perform futile surgery. Then, there was relief when Daniel finally said good-bye to Rebecca, which was quickly followed by shock and utter sadness when Daniel was shot by the police sniper. More on that down the review.

Emmy Award material? Possibly. It was certainly a strong performance by Scott Grimes, who has not been known for too many dramatic monologues during his time on ER. And, it was a moment that will define the character for the rest of this season as well as the next, and final, one. It was also a moment that will probably change his relationship with Neela. This could possibly bring them closer and make their relationship something more than just friendly.

Let's focus on Neela for a second. Beside the tears running down her face when Daniel pushed the gun into Neela's neck, she was pretty calm about the whole thing. She could have easily freaked out when Daniel initially asked her to close all of the blinds and cover up the windows so no one could see. Perhaps this trait of being so stoic, so calm admist diversity is due to her surgical background. Or, that whole stiff upper lip thing they have in England. Either way, she worked well with Archie to keep things as calm as possible in the trauma room and deserves credit for being so strong.

There was only one major issue that I had with the hostage situation, and that was with the way Daniel was handled at the very end. Instead of being caught by the police once he handed the gun to Archie, he was shot down by a member of the Chicago police force. Why did this happen? Because Daniel stopped negotiating? Isn't the rule to only shoot if there is imminent danger of a hostage getting injured?

This certainly wasn't the case once Daniel said good-bye to Rebecca. It was clearly shown to us that Daniel gave the gun to Archie. Did the police sharpshooter not see the transfer? Sure, it was probably done for dramatic effect, but Archie and Neela could have had similar reactions to being taken hostage if Daniel had just surrendered to the police. Either way, it was a traumatic experience. But, perhaps it was done to push Archie that much more over the edge and put him on the troubled path that many of the ER doctors have walked before.

Besides the hostage situation there were other events that took place in and around County General. Abby's promotion to Attending was one of these, and was the one that didn't belong in this week's episode at all. Much of the stuff she went through this week -- the nanny taking baby Joe to Luka, her questions to Pratt about her promotion, her research of positions at other hospitals -- could have been put into next week's episode. And, she seemingly vanished halfway through this week's installment since I didn't see her in the chaos of the ER evacuation. The only time she was entertaining was when she was taking care of the overweight, silver-skinned Carmine "The Big Ragu" Ragusa.

Pratt's story, while not a good fit in this week's installment, was more interesting than what was going on with Abby. This was a significant turning point for Greg both romantically and emotionally. Since he came to the ER Pratt has not been one to show his hand. Fact is, he was almost like Peter Benton in character. Lately, much of that bravado has disappeared and been replaced with a maturity that is needed for both is professional and personal life.

His confession to Bettina that he was in love with her was the final piece in his transformation. For him to stay with someone who is as sick as Bettina is (she had her entire colon removed, for Pete's sake) is a pretty bold move and not one he could have done when he was younger. At this point you could say that he is now ready to take on the reigns of Chief of Emergency Medicine with this life-changing decision.

One more thing to talk about this week -- Simon. Damn it, now I can't hate him as much anymore! He was teaching the interns this week, plus he took charge during the ER's evacuation. And, he did a darn good job at it. Man, now I need to find someone else to call a git. Hmmm, maybe we need to have more Crenshaw appearances.

Next week -- Some loose ends are tied up as we revisit with Neela, Abby and Archie.