Hi friends, welcome to TV Tuesday. Today I’m back with season four of ER.

The season starts on this hand-held camera type filming. I have to say I’m glad that it was only that episode that was done like that because it was hard to watch because everything was so all over the place.

The reason for it was PBS was shooting a documentary on the ER. Then they added these ‘hidden’ cameras to protect them from future incidents like what happened to Mark, but they all hate them. I wonder if they are going to keep them.

Anna was introduced at the end of last season, but damn are we finding out how annoying she is this season… maybe she’ll grow on me like Weaver did.

We have new characters, Elizabeth Corday, she’s a transfer from the UK, so far I have no opinion of her yet, other than she just says what she thinks and I think that’s hilarious. Then there’s Henry, he’s Carter’s student and he hasn’t practiced practical medicine in years because he’s been working on this master’s paper on the brain. He’s interesting, he does come in handy when they’re waiting on a CT and Henry knows what it’s going to say because he’s studied the brain for so long.

Because Carter changed his major from surgery to ER he’s now a first year intern once more, and he finds that annoying; I think it’s funny. He also thinks that Benton is cold because he left his service.

I forgot about Carter saying he was willing to not be paid last season, when he does get paid he obviously likes it, but turns out he won’t be, that’s hard.

Are they interviewing for a new clerk? I still love Jerry, he’s adorable and witty, definitely has his moments. I wish we got more of him sometimes.

Aw, Benton’s baby is doing well, I’m happy to see that! But now all the logistics have to be sorted out that they didn’t want to deal with before, bleh. Aw, they name their son Reece Benton.

Doug and Carol are a couple, cuuuute. Oh my, Carol wraps an actual drawer meaning Doug gets a drawer in her house, they are so freakin’ cute!

Damn, Jerry shoots up the ER by accident. He’s playing with a gun he doesn’t think is loaded, or well he’s told it isn’t loaded, and bam! Geeeez.

I hate how Mark has become a smoker. He really seems to be going downhill. The incident from last season has still really shaken him, but I get it. But it’s now affecting his work. When Carol has an unexpected delivery and the baby falls out of the mother, and he dies later, the woman wants to sue. Carol asks if Mark believes her, and he tells her he can’t pretty much, he tells her he can’t talk on something he didn’t see.

Turns out that baby actually died a few days before in the womb, and they had seen that woman before but never ordered a pregnancy test, and Mark has seen her twice. Damn. The feud building up between these two is heating up.

They do hire a new clerk, she’s shy and timid. I wonder how long she’s going to last. It’s really strange to see Mariska in this role as I’m so used to seeing her play her role on Law and Order.

So, every time Peter sees a baby he’s going to just freeze and think about his son. They end up losing this pre-me baby and that actually crushes Peter, I think this may be one of the only times we see him sad.

Ugh, Peter is about to leave on time, when an emergency comes up… because it’s the emergency room, and he decides he needs to stay. I’m very glad for this new Elizabeth character for sending him home… he actually listens. He tries to go home but Carter stops him to have a talk because Carter is upset that Benton’s not talking to him. I do like their little fight they have, they really air out their problems.

I thought that Anna and Doug had gotten over their differences, I guess not. They both think they’re better than the other and it’s getting annoying.

Watching Benton become a father is so cute! Now he’s trying to find the balance between work, school and being a father. I like the friendship he’s starting with Elizabeth.

Oh god, Carter’s student, if he’s not puking, he’s passing out. My gosh.

What is with the new clerk and Mark, they have this odd kinda connection.

So the black teenager that died last season, and the brother ‘allegedly’ beat Mark up is suing him and it is not going well. They want to know if his care for a black person is the same for a white and he can’t answer it, uhhhh I used to really love Mark, but ehhh my perspective is so changing.

Genie’s husband, Al, gets into a car accident with his co-worker which leads him to tell him he has AIDS and he should get checked out. This gets Al fired from his job, and now they all think he’s gay. It gets so bad that it becomes a bar brawl. Shit. Now that I’m thinking about it we don’t know how Al got AIDS… or I don’t remember.

I don’t understand why Carter is pretending to be poor. He’s been hanging out with Anna and you can see she’s really struggling to get by, but Carter is pretending to be like her… but his family is rich. When she finds out she’s going to be pissed.

Oh well, so Carol is going to meet Carter’s grandmother to propose her idea so she can get some funding for her clinical project and she talks about it with, of all people, Anna. Anna says she wants to go along with Carol. You know shits about to go down. Oh, the look on Carter’s face, ha!

Ah, the truth comes out; he felt threatened because she said she hates rich people. I can see where he’s coming from because he wanted her to get to know the real him, but he should have told her straight up instead of pretending to be poor.

Well, now Mark is actually being sued, before it was the hospital that was being sued, now they are personally suing Mark. This is not going to go well.

As I’ve mentioned, I love the friendship that Peter and Elizabeth are starting, but I don’t like that the other doctors are putting them up against each other, because obviously this makes Peter jealous and I want him to be in his son’s life and I want them to be friends.

This doesn’t look healthy. Mark is really spiralling, and when he storms out, obviously Cynthia runs out after him, and obviously they kiss. She seems to be the only one Mark can be an actual human around.

What?! So Weaver needs to let people go and she up and let’s Jeanie go. That came out of left field.

Twice in one episode I went ‘What?!’ Doug’s dad died?!? Holy crap. Seeing Doug so sad is just so heartbreaking. He goes to see Mark after everything, and I think they may wake up Mark from his PTSD asshole state.

Well, Carol knocks the meeting with Carter’s grandmother out of the park and gets $75,000 to start, goddamn!

We get an episode where it’s just Doug and Mark on a road trip to California, as that’s where Doug’s dad was living. It turns out that not only did his father die, but his wife (that no one knew about) and a father of 6 died as well due to his dad blowing through a stop sign. This leaves Doug very conflicted about how he feels about him, whether he loved him or not.

Mark, on the other hand, conveniently his parents are in California, and so he stops by and that becomes a disaster. His father is sick and needs to stop smoking, but he doesn’t like being told what to do, so it’s just this yelling match by the end. It kinda shows you where Mark came from though. Definitely an interesting episode and really moved the story along with these characters.

This also really made Mark realize how much of an ass he’s been at work the past couple months. I’m hoping that he’s not as annoying now.

I love how Carol came in the end and you can see how far these two have come.

Cynthia and Mark are getting really close, so close that he’s all about defending her when she messed up big time. She opens Carol’s clinic a week early and Carol is furious. To top that off, Mark passes along a letter marked CH for Carol from Doug, only Cynthia (who has the same initials) thinks it’s for her so she thinks Mark wrote it. Oh god.

I have to say Peter becoming a father has really given him empathy for parents of patients. It’s this softer side that is really foreign from him, but I like it.

Ugh, I’m getting tired of Anna and Carter fighting with each other. It isn’t until Henry goes down that they have to work together. When he comes to, he gives them this high speech about both of them being his angels, now will they stop fighting?

How did Henry not know he was allergic to latex? He passes out when they have an emergency in the ER and it turns out he’s anaphylactic shock and very close to death, but they do revive him.

Jeanie is obsessed with the budget and her firing. She’s mad that another nurse was hired, and mad that Weaver got a raise, and she thinks it’s because she’s HIV positive. So Jeanie has now gone above Weaver to get another look at the budget. My gosh, what a mess.

So now Jeanie has what, lawyered up? Now she’s going back to work to spite everyone that she was fired on the fact that she has AIDS. I don’t know who I can’t stand more, Weaver for firing her or Jeanie for being so defiant.

In the end, Jeanie gets her job back. That’s one way to not get fired.

Damn, Carter gets arrested. It’s all a joke to him though; this cop is so deadest on killing this woman that when Carter gets in the way and flushes “evidence” the cop arrests him.

Aw, Anna is going to help bail him out, who would have thought?

Mark has himself a shadow. His lawyer makes a deal with him, in order to represent him he wants to be a doctor for a day. He surprisingly knows a lot about medicine. In the end this lawyer got rid of his lawsuit, well then.

Ha, so Al, Jeanie’s husband gets a job in Atlanta, and before she was all about going with him until she gets her job back. Now Al is going to Atlanta without her.

Benton magically cures this guy who was blind… now this other guy wants him to help him walk again, haha they think he’s this miracle worker, hilarious! Well it doesn’t last long because the guy is blind again.

Cynthia is so strange, now she has a five-year-old son? But she seems so skittish about it, like she’s lying.

There’s this patient who gets abused and Mark fights so hard for her due to his history, but it’s nice to see him sympathize and help her out.

Jeanie is helping Carol in the clinic, and it’s the same time that Carter’s grandmother comes for a visit and she shadows Jeanie and finds out that she’s HIV positive. I thought that would make her pull the funding, instead it increases the funding to $150,000. I’m so glad it went in that direction and not the latter.

Mark is told that he has to say sorry to the family even though the lawsuit was dropped, so he stops by on Christmas Eve. He confronts the guy and tells him he knows he wasn’t the guy to assault him. I like that they can finally put that to rest.

Oh.My.God! So Carol and Doug decide to tell everyone they’re seeing each other at their Christmas get-together, and they were all betting on it HA! Then Doug says he’s going to try and convince her to marry him. AW!

I give credit to Elizabeth for standing up for herself and her patient, but Dr. Romano is not one to do it with. He’s very stubborn and wouldn’t want to give his patient to anyone, he’s extremely annoying. Wow, is he going to try and take down or ruin her career? I’m glad to see that Benton is on Elizabeth’s side.

Elizabeth takes Peter out to play darts, that was a sight to see. I’ve never seen him so loose, even though he “doesn’t like the taste” of alcohol. But she gets him to drink and man they are so cute together.

Dr. Anspaugh’s son has had cancer, but now that he has a stomach-ache he’s worried about him, but his son, Scott, wants nothing to do with any of it. He’s 13 and so done with it all and I don’t blame him. We find out his tumour is back, which is sad, but the connection he’s formed with Jeanie is really sweet.

Carter is now dealing with his cousin who’s addicted to heroin. He’s finding it hard, but Carter has a strong, no bullshit attitude which helps in this situation. Anna ends up coming to help him out, it’s really sweet.

On the night Doug planned to take Carol to city hall to get married, Carol is working with the paramedics again and she lets the paramedic she’s doing a ride along with kiss her! Whaaaat?!  Oh man. Of course Doug’s worried about her, but she tells him the truth, so I’ll give her that. I don’t like the way she worded what happened though, she tells Doug “I kissed him” when really she let him kiss her, she didn’t initiate it.

A third victim comes in, this time he carved ‘whore’ into this woman. But they finally catch the guy and end up saving him. Carter is having an ethical dilemma, he didn’t want to use the bags of blood on him because he doesn’t think he’s worth it, that there are so many other people more deserving so he used the guy’s own blood for the transfusion. Anna is mad at first about it, but after the two talk it out, she’s more on his side.

I wouldn’t know what to do in that situation either, that’s a hard situation to be in.

I’m liking these episodes outside of the hospital. Mark has to fly to San Diego, at first I thought his father had passed, but it turns out his mother had taken a fall and had some kind of stroke. Mark just wants to do everything he can to help her, and of course his father is stubborn and just wants her home. They get into an argument that sends him into the hospital. Geez.

We learn a lot about Mark. First that he doesn’t love Cynthia, even though she flew all the way out there to be with him. It’s finally come out that he really cares about her, but he doesn’t love her. We learn that his parents barely dated before having him, and that they stayed together for him which is why all of their relationships are so estranged.

What was really nice to see was the fact that Mark finally got to have a really good talk with his father and they could air things out, and hopefully have a better relationship. Seeing his dad say he was proud of Mark was really sweet.

What a crisis! At first it starts when Elizabeth goes on a ride along with one of the paramedics and she goes to try and help a man who is trapped in a building that has collapsed. That turns into a bit of a disaster, but she somehow manages to pull him out but by the time they get to the ER the ER is in a state of utter chaos.

A man comes in but he’s exposed to a toxic gas and now they have to figure out how they’re going to handle everything, and everyone is talking on top of each one another. It’s Carter who steps up and gets everyone to move where they need to go, even if it’s not directly protocol his assertiveness really helps to move things along. I enjoy watching Carter care so much and just take charge. It’s also so easy to forget that he’s still an intern.

Man, Weaver goes down due to the fumes.

Doug and Carol get stuck in an elevator with a child, even though they aren’t really talking to each other they manage to work together to get out of the elevator and save the little girl.

It’s so eerie to see the ER empty.

Jerry is getting a little annoying. He’s always trying to get on Weaver’s good side ever since the accident with the gun. As much as I love Jerry, he’s gotten very winey and desperate.

So now Cynthia has quit as desk clerk and Mark is desperate to find her. He finally does, as she’s moved and he finds that she’s living with her son, and that’s when he decides he’s going to try and win her over… but it doesn’t work. Bye, bye Cynthia.

Carter is going through quite a bit. His cousin, Chase comes in and he’s not good. He’s stuck in a coma and Carter might lose him. He now has to tell his grandparents, well his grandfather is furious, I’m glad that his grandmother sees reason and tells Carter she doesn’t blame him.

I love how technical this show can get. They are so caught up in their research and their papers as well as the medicine it’s really fascinating. Doug is now in the midst of writing a peds paper.

Scott Anspaugh has such a crush on Jeanie, it’s cute, I just hope it doesn’t get creepy. Jeanie has been hired by Dr. Anspaugh to be Scott’s personal assistant and they’ve grown rather close.

God, this battle between Elizabeth and Romano is getting so old. They keep going behind each other backs to get ahead and it’s just child’s play.

Well Carter’s cousin Chase is out of his coma and is living in some sort of home, but he’s got limited mobility and his brain function has decreased substantially. On one hand I feel bad for the guy, but on the other I don’t because he did it to himself with drugs.

Carter and Anna are in this weird place, where they may be more then friends but Carter doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. When Carter finally builds up the courage, we find out that Anna is actually seeing someone, aw.

I’ve never spoken about Dr. Morgenstern, the chief of surgery because he’s been so in and out of the show without any real plots. Last season he had to go in for surgery after a heart attack, but now he’s back he’s trying to get back into his work, but you can tell he’s very on edge. When he messes up and Benton has to step in, well it’s too late and their patient dies. This is going to be a big thing. Morgenstern thinks it’s Benton’s fault and vice versa.

So Doug wants the ER to create Pediatric Attending, and he wants to run… everyone kinda thinks it’s a joke, but damn Doug is really pulling up his socks.

Oh I see what happened. So Carol isn’t sure what she did to Mrs. Carter because the check for the clinic was revoked. Carter goes to talk to her, thinking it was his fault for the way he handled Chase, he ends it with saying he doesn’t need the family money, and now Carol has the checks back… Carter’s money is now going to Carol? That’s my thought.

Oh my god, seeing everyone singing That’s Amore at their ER banquet is hilarious. I love seeing the silly side sometimes because it’s so worth it.

Damn, Scott is not doing well. When none of the treatments are working, Jeanie has this idea that might work, but Scott is so infatuated with her he’ll do anything she wants. Doug can see what’s happening, and he has to explain it to Jeanie, and when Scott almost dies, she has to tell him that he needs to do what he wants for himself. This poor boy isn’t going to last much longer and I’m really sad about that.

Well, Scott does in fact die, but the way it brought Jeanie and Dr. Anspaugh closer was nice, and it made Dr. Anspaugh as a character more flushed out and someone the viewer feels for.

Benton and Morgenstern have their review of the operation which ends in Benton getting suspended until they can really investigate the man’s death. He’s about to leave when Mark really needs him so he has to continue working, I hope that doesn’t affect his job.

So there was a tape of the surgery! Morgenstern claimed there wasn’t one! I’m kind of glad he’s coming around to not being an ass. He figured Peter wasn’t going to go against him, and now that Peter has told the truth, Morgenstern is trying to deny, deny, deny. Well, when he looks at the tape and realizes that he was indeed the one to make the mistake, he tells Peter he’s reinstating him, and that he’s stepping down as Chief of Surgery. Damn, it was a really nice moment.

It’s interesting to watch too, because when the show started Peter was so hot-headed and ready to defend himself in any situation, now he seems a little unsure of himself because he wasn’t going to tell the truth because Morgenstern is his superior, but it’s a nice change to see in Peter, that he, in fact, doesn’t know it all.

There’s a bombing at an abortion clinic which leads to a lot of opinions on abortion. I like when shows like this take on big topics like this because they get to show the different sides and that there really is no “right way” of thinking, and that, if done right, can portray different viewpoints. ER did a good job, even though there were moments of tension, you can see what different people believe, and the different reasons women get abortions, it was really fascinating.

Just when Elizabeth and Peter get together, Romano wants to see Elizabeth… she thinks it has to with her fellowship, nope he wants to ask her on a date… oh, my dear lord. That was hilarious! She tells him that she doesn’t date co-workers, so now she and Peter have to be careful. Well, they aren’t too careful because they get caught by Romano, and now that’s why Elizabeth thinks he’s being so rude. So what does Peter do, he tells Romano off, woah, go Peter. Turns out Romano had no idea about the two of them. I do think that Peter and Elizabeth are very, very cute.

Carol and Doug, like how am I crying? These two, they are absolutely the cutest. I love how they just talk to each other when they have an issue.

So new character alert, although how smart is it to bring in someone new so close to the end of the season? Max, Anna’s ex-boyfriend, still boyfriend, I’m not even sure. He’s a peds doctor and is joining the team because Doug really wants to create a better peds team in the ER. Well you can already see and feel the tense between him and Carter.

Doug’s gotten himself in hot water, he’s been secretly treating a baby who’s been addicted to methanol his whole life because his mother is an addict. He had no consent and no one knew this baby was there… except Carol. This may be very bad.

Well, Doug makes sure that all resident doctors are on the same page, kinda behind Weaver’s back. Weaver is so pissed that he went behind protocol. The baby is at least doing very well. I don’t know about Doug or Carol’s jobs. No one seems to be too upset about it, just Weaver who wanted to run for Chief of Surgery now that Morgenstern has stepped down, but now she’s thinking not.

Peter and Elizabeth end on weird terms. She’s desperately looking for someone to sponsor her in the hospital since she doesn’t want to leave, nor leave Peter, but Peter thinks she needs to go to other hospitals, other states. Interesting.

The season just ends on this case where the father of this family tries to kill his wife and kids by shooting them, my god. What a way to end a season. Next season is sure to be just as dramatic.