John Carter, a third-year medical student, begins the first day of his rotation in the ER at County General Hospital. Dr. Mark Greene, an ER resident physician, considers an offer to go into private practice. Dr. Susan Lewis, another ER resident, deals with myriad patients, including one diagnosed with advanced cancer. Dr. Doug Ross, the ER pediatrician, confronts a woman about potential child abuse. The head nurse, Carol Hathaway, returns several hours after her shift as a patient, following an apparent suicide attempt.
Lewis butts heads with the resident psychiatrist, Dr. Div Cvetic, over care for a senile patient. Greene deals with an elderly man who insists on keeping his wife on life support despite her DNR request. Benton corrects a diagnosis made by his own physician. Carter is seduced by a patient. A family comes in after an alcohol-related car accident. Greene's wife has passed the bar exam, but their celebrations are interrupted. Ross visits Hathaway, who is recovering from her suicide attempt.
Hathaway returns to work after her suicide attempt, and gets support from her co-workers and her orthopedic surgeon boyfriend, Dr. John "Tag" Tagliari. A mysterious woman comes to the ER and sings to the doctors and patients while the doctors try to find out who she is. Lewis deals with a heart patient. Benton works with an injured convenience store clerk who insists on defending himself when his store is robbed.
Ross attempts to reconcile his lingering feelings for Hathaway while dealing with a single mother and her young son after it is found that she hears voices. Benton clashes with another surgeon over a hit-and-run patient. Carter must make the notification to the parents of a young boy. A married man comes in suffering a mild heart attack while handcuffed to his mistress.
Greene mulls a decision to move to Milwaukee so his wife, Jennifer, can pursue her law career. He and the rest of the ER staff tend to a dying heart transplant candidate. Ross counsels a woman who cannot afford medication for her asthmatic daughter. Carter may have made a mistake with a former patient. Lewis has to juggle dealing with an alcohol-poisoned fraternity brother and calls from her mother to get her prodigal sister, Chloe, a job.
The air conditioning at County General is broken. Greene brings his daughter, Rachel, to work with him while Jennifer goes apartment hunting in Milwaukee. Ross works with a 5-year-old girl that ingested cocaine. Benton tries to save a young robber shot by his frequent convenience store clerk patient. Lewis tries to deal with Chloe's worsening mental problems.
Ross and Hathaway save a young boating accident victim. They give in to their feelings briefly, making Hathaway reconsider moving in with Tag. Chloe disrupts a date between Lewis and Cvetic. Benton is competing for a prestigious fellowship. Greene observes Carter in the ER, giving Carter some confidence.
Greene calls in sick so he and Jennifer can spend the day together, leaving Ross in charge of the ER. Carter works on a high school wrestler that starved himself to make weight. Hathaway counsels a young rape victim. Benton is dealing with his senile mother, and butts heads with Ross. Lewis is worried about Cvetic's growing temper problem.
Lewis is caught in the middle as both Cvetic and Chloe have problems. Carter tries to help a suicidal transgender woman. The ER tries to save two boys who killed a girl in a car accident. Benton invites Carter to Thanksgiving with his family. Hathaway confesses her feelings about Ross to Tag after Ross begins a new affair.
It's a December blizzard, and the day starts out quiet. Hathaway announces her engagement with Tag. Suddenly, County General goes into crisis mode when a 32-car pileup on an expressway inundates them with patients. Among the patients are a young male that Benton knows that lost his leg, a patient of Ross' that dies suddenly while waiting for treatment, and a man who is snowed in at home and calls Greene when his wife refuses to go to the hospital to have her baby. Lewis tries to save a man that suddenly develops an aneurysm, and the patient is saved by the most unlikely person.
A transfer team is due by helicopter to receive donor organs - but Benton has not yet obtained next-of-kin approval for the organ harvest. And although it's Christmas Eve, Greene has not found time to shop for gifts. Ross crashes a party.
Carter proves he's ready for the OR - but his first day in surgical attendance is a comedy of mishaps. The consequences are grave when Lewis discharges a cardiac patient. Benton must deal with a family conflict.
The nonstop parade of crises and stricken young innocents weighs heavily on Ross. Meanwhile, the heart attack victim under Lewis' care is the doctor who nearly wrecked her career. Benton hires a physical therapist, Jeanie Boulet, to take care of his mother.
Morgenstern surprises Greene with a new job offer. A terminally ill breast cancer patient asks Greene to help her die. An armed boy threatens the hospital staff.
Kayson pursues Lewis romantically. Ross and Hathaway cope with a young Russian girl with AIDS whose adoptive mother abandons her. A humane policeman hauls in a dog he hit with his car.
Greene and Benton each have family birthday parties to attend, but ER demands may keep them away. Meanwhile, Carter mistakenly thinks it's Benton's birthday and hires belly dancers as a celebratory surprise. Hathaway considers adoption.
Benton runs on no sleep for 48 hours. A con man works the floor. A mental patient poses as a hospital efficiency expert. Greene's wife wants a divorce. Hathaway's past comes back to haunt her.
Greene misdiagnoses a pregnant patient, leading to a long and arduous surgery.
The moon is full and so is the ER - filled with popsicle pledges, a would-be werewolf, and others affected by "lunar lunacy" - and Lewis is the only resident available. Coping with emotional problems, Greene's not making a good impression on the new ER chief.
Greene must lead seminar on the ill-fated pre-eclampsia case he recently misdiagnosed. The rivalry between Carter and Chen causes Chen to make a disastrous mistake. Lewis' pregnant sister Chloe returns from Texas.
Benton compensates his inability in helping his mother by going beyond the call to help his patients. Meanwhile, Greene attempts to save his marriage - but that means less time at work and more disfavor with the new ER chief.
Carter's family background is discovered. Benton starts falling for a married woman. Hathaway has trouble writing her wedding vows. Greene is living with his wife in Milwaukee, but their marriage is still broken. Lewis treats a suicidal patient.
Ross must deal with commitment issues. Carter's future is uncertain. Lewis helps deliver her niece. Benton receives some bad news about his mother.
Both Greene and Carter get some surprising news. At Hathaway's wedding, not everything goes as planned.
The ER treats victims of a gang shootout. Carter arrives late and unprepared for his new position. Mark learns all about being an attending, including senior staff's habit of bad-mouthing the residents, particularly Doug Ross. Mark hires a new chief resident, Kerry Weaver. New third year med students arrive to complete their ER rotation.
Kerry Weaver manages to offend just about everyone in her first day as chief resident. Carol goes on a ride-along with paramedics Shep and Raul, sharing a ferris wheel ride with Shep. Peter and Jeanie's secret relationship comes to a head. Susan is stuck caring for Little Susie while Chloe attends school. Dr. Ross has his hands full with a young pyromaniac. Carter shows interest in med student Harper Tracy.
Carter gets his first patient. Susan's feud with Kerry Weaver intensifies when Weaver demands all of Susan's procedures be cleared with her. Chloe abandons Little Susie again for a lucrative career in the flea market business. Carol finishes her paramedic recertification by picking up a very overweight, lethargic man. Shep hits on Carol. Jeanie ends her relationship with Benton. Wendy conducts interviews with various ER staffers for an article on Dr. Greene. Dr. Ross cares for a four-year-old Asian boy with AIDS.
Weaver and Susan's feud escalates to the point where Mark needs to step in and fix it. Benton is involved in a parking lot altercation, resulting in a broken hand and Carter replacing him in surgery. Mark cares for an abandoned elderly woman. Susan tries to juggle her work and care for Little Susie. Shep risks his life to bring in a gunshot victim.
Dr. Ross treats the dying Chia-Chia. Susan tries to find a way to keep Little Susie, asking her parents for help. Benton treats an injured woman who refuses to press charges against her abusive policeman husband. Carol and Harper are tricked by a patient from the "turkey file." Lydia helps Loretta the prostitute outfit herself for a job interview. The staff celebrates Weaver's day off.
Speculation runs through the ER, on a very hectic day, about Randi's possible criminal history. Mark faces an ethical dilemma when he has to decide whether to report yet another of Doug Ross's indiscretions--Doug slept with med student Harper Tracy. Carter becomes upset when Harper confesses this to him. Carol meets with a mobile notary to finish the paperwork to purchase a house. Bernstein informs Doug that he need to look for other employment. Benton is visibly upset when Jeanie begins work in the ER as a physician's assistant.
In the middle of a torrential rainstorm, Dr. Ross stumbles across a child trapped in a drainage pipe rapidly filling with water. Doug does everything possible to save the boy, Ben Larkin. Harper develops a bond with a young girl with separated parents.
Doug's heroics earn him a second chance as Bernstein and Morganstern ask him to stay on. Doug and Mark clash when each treats a seriously injured patient and want to use the same equipment. Benton learns that Jeanie has separated from Al. After missing an earlier diagnosis, Carter overcompensates on his next patient and catches a break when the test results reveal something. Shep gets on Carol's bad side when he makes disparaging remarks about the people who make botched suicide attempts. Doug gets a phone call from his estranged father.
Carol and Jeanie try to find a home for a schizophrenic architect. Carter signs Benton up for an interview with Vucelich for a prestigious study. Carter and Harper try to find a place to make out. Jenn and Rachel are involved in a car accident; Mark is thrown for a loop when he learns that Jenn has been having an affair with a coworker. Doug dines with his mother. Susan receives $3000 in the mail from Chloe.
The ER staffers are in decidedly unfestive moods as Christmas arrives. Carol's spirits are lifted by a Santa-like patient. Mark is outraged when Jenn decides to stay in Milwaukee over Christmas. Benton and Carter score points with Vucelich when Carter convinces an older gentleman, Ruby, to include his wife in Vucelich's study. Mark gives a deposition in the O'Brien case. The death of a priest threatens to start a gang war. Weaver receives a surprise visit from an African friend. A Holocaust survivor, the victim of a carjacking, brings Chanukah to the ER.
Shep and Raul bring a dozen malnourished and abandoned children into the ER, keeping everyone very busy. Shep has a run-in with Malik and Benton when he makes an off-handed racially insensitive remark. Carter's high from the admission of Mrs. Rubadoux to the study ends when she shows no signs of recovery. Jeanie and Carol clash when Jeanie receives a poor evaluation. Al asks Jeanie to give him another chance. Mark is served with divorce papers.
Mark tries to find a way to tell Rachel about his impending divorce. Benton attends a banquet at Vucelich's home, with Jeanie as his date. Carter finally tells Mr. Rubadoux about his wife's terminal condition, making the man furious. Morganstern is admitted to the hospital after breaking a leg at a Scottish family reunion.
Mark is riddled with self doubt as the hospital prepares to settle the O'Brien suit. Kerry appoints herself as Susan's personal mentor. Carol mind a bucketful of expensive worms. Doug balks at counseling a teenage boy who thinks he might be gay. Benton uncovers some disturbing information concerning Vucelich's study. Carter steals a diagnosis from Harper.
Benton decides to blow the whistle on Vucelich's unethical study methods, causing Vucelich to drop him from the study. Susan treats a street couple, one of whom has passed HIV to the other. Doug receives a visit from his estranged father. Carter spreads rumors about an affair between Mark and Susan. Mark buys a motorcycle. Prostitute Loretta has cervical cancer.
The ER hosts roughly a dozen pregnant women when a sprinkler bursts in the maternity ward. Carter plays tour guide for the visiting surgical intern hopefuls before going through the interview himself. Benton tries to bring a hopeless patient back from the brink of death in a marathon surgery. Jerry tries to convince the others that basketball player Scottie Pippen visisted. Doug visits his father.
Shep and Raul respond to a massive fire without proper equipment, risking their lives to save addicts and their children. Shep will be okay, but Raul has third-degree burns covering his body; it's only a matter of time. The ER is flooded with burn victims. Chloe returns to Chicago. Doug is stood up by his father for a basketball game.
Susan institutes extra precautions in case Chloe tries to reclaim Little Susie. Mark changes his look, growing a goatee and wearing contact lenses. Carol and Jeanie square off over the care of a transient. Carter celebrates when he receives his residency match, putting his patient and his job at risk. Shep, still suffering from Raul's death, is surly with new parter Reilly. Benton and Ross have differences when Peter discloses a critical mistake made by Doug, raising animosity between the two.
Mark finds himself manning a very crowded ER on his scheduled night off, filling in while Doug is out with whiplash and Susan meets with her lawyer. He tries to juggle hunger pangs, 40+ patients in the waiting room and a never-ending stream of traumas.
Carter engages in competition with new surgical resident-in-training Dale Edson upon learning that residents will be evaluated and graded; only the top ones advancing to second year. It doesn't help that Dale once had a relationship with Harper. Mark flirts with infomercial director Iris. Peter faces the fallout from his altercation with Doug when surgeons begin dropping him from procedures. Shep begins exhibiting uncontrolled hostility, first to a patient being abusive with Carol, then a pedestrian. Susan and Chloe try to reach an agreement regarding Little Susie.
Susan throws herself into her work to escape her stressful personal life, earning recognition from Kerry and Mark, who begins preliminary discussions on next year's chief resident. Carter needs a pedes rotation, and fast, with Doug to graduate med school. Doug takes up with his father's girlfriend. Shep overreacts and attacks an Asian boy interfering at a scene. Mark and Jenn try to discuss their divorce amicably, with unforeseen results. Benton is named Resident of the Year. Harper leaves for an OB rotation at Parkland in Dallas.
Susan visits a psychiatrist to cope with the loss of Little Susie. Jeanie's estranged husband Al checks in the ER complaining of flu-like symptoms, which turn out to be caused by HIV. Shep expects Carol to back his version of events during an official investigation of his behavior. Loretta takes a turn for the worse. Doug discovers that his father has disappeared with a LOT of Karen's money.
Carol is pushed to the breaking point after another day when politics triumph over health care, and she quits. Dr. Greene "trades his soul" when he agrees to back Weaver for ER attending, in exchange for her support of Susan for chief resident. Jeanie takes an HIV test and informs Peter he should get himself tested as well. Carter invites Benton to his med school graduation, which he himself misses. Shep's refusal to see a psychiatrist risks his relationship with Carol.
Carter begins the first day of his internship with the difficult task of filling in for Benton as the ER surgery consult. Jeanie makes difficult decision regarding her HIV-positive status; Peter's test comes back negative. Weaver implements an incoherent system for tracking patients. The ER staff attends a Fourth of July softball game, where Carol runs into Shep and his new girlfriend. Peter runs into an old friend, Carla Reese, at Jackie and Walt's barbecue.
Jeanie begins to realize the burden of living an HIV-positive life when bills start mounting up and Benton throws her out of a trauma. The staff nervously awaits news on the hospital's future when it's rumored to be closing. As it turns out, South Side is closed instead and County takes on a new chief of staff, Dr. Anspaugh. Mark and Susan endure disastrous blind dates. Benton sends Carter to the ER for the day after he arrives late.
Mark is befuddled by an invitation from Susan to go on a joint vacation to Hawaii. The ER is filled with more refugees from South Side, Drs. Maggie Doyle and Abby Keaton among them. Peter decides to join Keaton's pedes team. Carter gets on Anspaugh's bad side when he exaggerates a patient's condition to book an operating room. Jeanie tries to keep her HIV status a secret in the face of Weaver's queries. Jerry tries to trap a loose kangaroo. Mark spends his entire day working on one patient, against Anspaugh's decree that ER attendings and residents should handle 2.5 patients per hour. Carter's apartment building burns down.
Dr. Ross brings a one-night-stand into the hospital when she has an epileptic seizure, earning him the stares of his colleagues when he can't remember her name. Carter screws up Benton's lecture when he realizes his presentation materials were in his apartment fire. Keaton takes a shine to Carter, meanwhile, when he persuades a teenage girl to undergo surgery. Carter also finds a place to live, with Dennis Gant. Jeanie begins experiencing side effects from her medication and is asked out by a handsome construction worker. Carol ponders enrolling in med school.
Doug and Carol man the Healthmobile, a roving medical van that caters to the homeless. Benton tries to be more warm and friendly towards children, even taking a group of hospitalized youngsters trick-or-treating. Gant demands more respect from Benton. Mark anxiously waits for Susan to return from vacation.
Mark and Susan take to the air for helicopter flight rotation, which brings to the ER an entire family injured in an accident. Benton's overconfidence in Keaton's absence results in a dire mistake. Carol deals with a "floater" nurse who can't cope with the speed of the ER. Jeanie and Maggie are given the task of keeping a dead man on ice in anticipation of cryogenic storage.
Benton fights to save the life of a gangbanger already declared dead by Doug. Nurse Rhonda Sterling floats down to the ER again and makes another critical mistake. Carter fights Edson for the rights of an incompetent patient and bonds with Anspaugh in the meantime. E. Ray worries that an MRI test gave him negative karma. Carter and Keaton get closer. Mark fears Susan is dating Morganstern; she tells him that she's moving to Phoenix.
Susan's last day in the ER finds Mark unsure of himself. Despite Doug's urgings, Mark still finds himself afraid to admit his feelings for her. He chases her all over the city until he finds her at the train station. He declares his love for her, but she decides to leave for Phoenix anyway. Grabarsky and Lydia finally get married. Carol agrees to become "management" in exchange for an end to the policy of floating ER nurses elsewhere. Al Boulet delivers divorce papers to Jeanie. Doyle calls the cops on a pregnant woman who is piss drunk, trying to kill her unborn baby. On Healthmobile duty again, Doug meets a young girl named Charlie.
Mark, still reeling from Susan's departure, crosses ethical lines to obtain Jeanie's confidential files after learning Al is HIV-positive. Benton rides Gant hard. Carter and Keaton find it harder to maintain their secret relationship.
Rumors sweep the ER when Kerry and Mark cloister themselves to discuss policy regarding HIV-positive employees, prompting Jeanie to publicize her illness. Charlie brings the child she has been caring for into the ER. Doug treats the cihld and feels obligated to report the child's mother for neglect. Doyle treats an abused woman, and conspires to help her escape her husband. Carter blows off an evening with Gant to spend the night with Keaton. Mark inherits a mangy dog from a patient and gives it to Rachel for Christmas. Carol and her mother host a Russian holiday celebration, to which Doug takes Charlie.
A long, cold night finds ER staffers with hours of time to kill. Kerry recruits staffers to participate in a study on sleep deprivation combined with physical activity. Gant appeals to Anspaugh after a public scolding from Benton. Carter ditches Dennis again to escape his whining, only to discover deadly results. Peter is denied a recommendation from Keaton one last time before she leaves for Pakistan. Mark and Chuny discover that they have a lot in common. Carol is at a crossroads when management demands she cut two RNs. Charlie comes into the ER severely beaten.
Carter blames Benton for Gant's death. An overmatched Carol makes a fatal mistake when the nursing staff is on a sick out. Jeanie dates infectious disease specialist Greg Fischer. Mark and Chuny continue their relationship. Dr. Ross tries to help a non-cooperative Charlie.
Carol takes an interest in an ailing police sergeant who's hiding a degenerative ailment. She also meets with a newspaper reporter to air the complete story on her fatal mistake and is subsequently suspended. Peter runs into a pregnant Carla, upsetting the rest of his day. Carter, already fed up with Benton's lackluster attitude, accepts a transfer to Hicks' team after Peter fails to show up at a lecture the two were to give. Jeanie and Greg Fischer disagree on whether to inform a patient's spouse that he's suffering from neurosyphilis. Weaver and Mark each take a trio of prospective students through a day in the ER, with widely differing results. Chuny and Mark break up; however, he has another date by the end of the day.
A gleeful Carter removes Benton's appendix. Dr. Ross treats a 17-year-old cystic fibrosis patient who wants to die, but isn't old enough to sign a DNR. Mark juggles dates with three women, including psychiatrist Nina Pomerantz. Jeanie and Greg team up to find the culprit behind a rash of staph infections. Haleh has a tough time filling Carol's shoes.
Carol is held hostage in a bungled convenience store robbery. Her medical skills are put to their toughest test as she works feverishly to save the gravely wounded store owner.
Dr. Greene tries to get a congestive heart failure patient with Down's Syndrome onto a heart transplant list. Carter disagrees with a diagnosis by Anspaugh. Carol agonizes over whether to take the med school admittance exam. Jad Houston returns to the ER, old enough to decline emergency care. Greg and Jeanie agree to continue seeing each other.
Mark examines his prejudices when he's accused of neglecting a black gunshot victim, Kenny Law, in favor of a white victim. Jeanie discovers Peter's impending parenthood when Carla comes into the ER. Carter spends the entire day treating a hopeless case. Kerry tries to persuade a disabled junkie to enter a rehab program. Carol treats a college student who was drugged with roofies. After Jenn's mother has a stroke, Rachel comes to stay with Mark for a while.
Carter goes behind Anspaugh's back to get a gambler admitted for surgery, earning Anspaugh and Hicks' wrath and jeopardizing his residency. Carol clashes with Doyle, angered that a 25-year-old intern is able to order her around. Peter illegally obtains Carla's ultrasound to look for abnormalities. Doug treats an ill teenager who doesn't want to miss her prom. Greene deals with a patient who feigns symptoms because she likes having surgeries. Jeanie faces her feelings towards Al when she cares for a remorseful AIDS patient who infected her child. Jerry hits on a way to make money from a sperm bank: pass himself off as "Dr. Markovic."
Carol finds herself at a career crossroads when her MCAT results come back. She's torn between nursing and becoming a doctor, with Kerry grooming her for medicine, while Carol tries to care for a mother with a dying child. Carter debates whether to report Edson for falsifying a patient's chart. Benton takes a personal day to care for Carla. Dr. Greene treats a couple concocting odd situations to see how quickly the staff finds a solution. Jerry, Wendy and Jeanie search for a genetically engineered mouse.
The staff springs into action when Dr. Greene is violently beaten by an unknown assailant. Dr. Ross treats the son of a wealthy man, leading Carol to suspect Doug of giving the child special treatment. Greg demands that Jeanie choose between him and Al. Speculation runs rampant when a torrid novella, author unknown, is found at the admit desk. A new pediatrician arrives from Philadelphia. Olbes shows up out of uniform for a change, bringing in her grandfather, who has suffered a stroke. Carla is admitted to the hospital after she goes into premature labor; the contractions are stopped for now.
Mark returns to work, scarred both physically and emotionally. Carla goes in labor again, four weeks prematurely, and delivers a baby boy. Doug thwarts Carol's efforts to quietly celebrate her birthday. Carter begins to doubt that his future lies in surgery.
Mark, still recovering from the attack, vents his emotions in a violent fit in the break room and buys a gun for protection. Carter decides his future lies in emergency medicine, not surgery, and tries to convince an irate Anspaugh likewise. Drs. Ross and Del Amico work together when Charlie is brought back into the ER. Peter's child strengthens. Doug and Carol share a kiss. Jeanie and Al are back together.
The ER is under the bright lights when a television documentary is filmed depicting a typical day in the ER. British trauma specialist Elizabeth Corday joins the staff. Carter restarts his residency, this time in the ER. A man is paralyzed while breaking up a gang fight. Morganstern suffers a heart attack. Greene's stress level continues to build.
Dr. Morganstern gives Weaver increased authority while he recuperates from his heart attack. Dr. Corday adjusts to the differences between British and U.S. ERs. Dr. Greene is served with a wrongful death suit from the Law family. Carter trains an inept, undedicated med student. Mark and Carol interview applicants for a vacant desk clerk position. Benton and Carla name their son: Reese Benton.
Carol's trust in Doug is strained when she overhears an errant comment. Weaver puts her newfound power to use immediately. Jerry commits a large-scale blunder with a patient's rocket launcher; Weaver advises him to take some vacation time. Carter suspects Doyle of giving Anna preferential treatment. Cynthia Hooper works her first day as a desk clerk. Benton and Carla argue over circumcision. Mark can't get it up with Heather Morgan. Al Boulet is involved in a mishap at work and must tell a coworker about his HIV status.
The ER is flooded with injured children following a school bus accident. Greene turns surly when Jenn refuses to let Rachel visit until he cleans up his act. Jeanie faces a crisis when she's forced to use her hand to stop a patient from bleeding. Carter demands that Benton stop treating him like a student, and start treating him as an equal. Carter and Anna get new students, with Carter getting the short shrift once again. A junkie mother claims that Carol dropped her newborn child. Al Boulet loses his job. Reese is discharged from the hospital.
Mark undergoes deposition with the Law family for their lawsuit. Jeanie and Al are involved in a barroom brawl. Carol mulls the idea of opening a free health care clinic. Carter successfully diagnoses a serious injury, only to have Edson steal the credit. Benton's familial duties earn him a waist-high stack of back paperwork. A Dr. Romano returns from a European sabbatical, pioneering the latest in robotics technology. Anna treats a young man with testicular cancer.
Kerry investigates Synergix, an ER management group specializing in balancing budgets. She is later forced to fire Jeanie. In turn, Jeanie is asked by Al to move to Atlanta with him. Greene is still suffering from the aftereffects of his attack, snapping at patients and staff alike. Dr. Ross is stunned by a collect phone call from California informing him of his father's death. Benton clashes with Corday after she apparently "steals" a rare procedure out from under his nose. Carol meets with Carter's grandmother to pitch her idea for a free health clinic. Anna is perturbed when she discovers Carter's wealthy background.
Doug goes to California with tag-along Mark to identify his father's body and put his affairs to rest. Doug deals with his father's legacy while Mark visits his family in San Diego for the first time in years.
Benton takes advantage of a grieving father for a chance to write a paper on a boy with reversed internal organs. George Henry returns to complete his clerkship and suffers a near fatal attack. Jeanie confronts Kerry and Anspaugh over what she perceives as wrongful termination. Cynthia's error forces the free clinic to open a week early; Carol enlists new ER nurse Yosh to help out. Mark strikes a deal with attorney Herb Spivak for legal representation.
Dr. Carter is arrested when he refuses to honor a warrant seeking evidence in a domestic abuse incident. Corday is overjoyed to be able to perform a rare femoral transplant. Doug returns from California. Benton and Corday discover that they have a lot in common. Cynthia takes Rachel to the dentist--and other places. Jeanie threatens to sue to get her job back, to Kerry's dismay. Anspaugh rehires her, and Al leaves for Atlanta without her. Ellis West invites Kerry to St. Bart's.
Benton is hailed as a miracle worker after he seemingly heals a blind man. Corday operates on Allison Beaumont again. Mark discovers Cynthia's hidden past. Carter discovers his cousin Chase shooting heroin. Greene treats an elderly rape victim, learning about forgiveness. Kerry is apparently seeing Ellis West now. Carol and Doug announce their relationship to the staff.
Another elderly rape victim is brought into the ER. Carter picks up an aspiring med student at a seminar he taught and brings her to the ER for a brief lesson. "Wild Willy" Swift returns as a Synergix attending physician. Romano clases with Corday after she goes over his head for Allison Beaumont. Dr. Anspaugh's son comes into the ER with cancer-like symptoms. Carol and Doug argue over marriage.
Carter takes time off to help Chase kick his heroin addiction. Doug confides in Mark that he plans to marry Carol in a surprise ceremony. Carol spoils his plans with a spontaneous kiss with EMT Greg Powell. Benton and Corday visit a bar together after another frustrating Romano day. Scott Anspaugh and Jeanie bond when tests reveal that his cancer has returned. Kerry becomes disenchanted with Ellis West and Synergix after discovering that they close most trauma centers that they acquire.
Carter faces a dilemma during a blood shortage when a serial rapist is in need of a transfusion. Carol and Kerry deliver the baby of a mentally challenged couple who fear a relative is going to take the child away. Benton turns down Corday's romantic offer. Kerry actively campaigns against Synergix. Doug comes to grips with his relationship with Carol and tells her that he'll wait for as long as she needs.
Mark, with surprise guest Cynthia, returns to San Diego to be with his ailing mother. While trying to diagnose his mother's condition, Mark decides that he and Cynthia have no future together and tries to come to terms with his seemingly distant father.
The ER must be evacuated when several workers at a chemical plant track benzine all over the floors. After Weaver is felled by the poison, Carter takes over, directing the evacuation. Dr. Corday does a ride-along with EMTs and rescues a man trapped under a building. Doug and Carol are trapped in the elevator with a sick child.
Several heroin ODs are brought into the ER, including Chase Carter. Mark tries to track down Cynthia. Anna treats a John Doe sent from another hospital because he had no insurance. Doug accuses two parents of child abuse, but finds out that their child is disturbed. Benton and Corday run into his sister Jackie. Scott Anspaugh finishes his chemotherapy.
Corday tries an experimental new procedure on an Asian gentleman without permission from wither the patient or a relative. Scott Anspaugh, finally released from the hospital, suffers an attack during a wall-climbing expedition with Jeanie. They discover that he will need a bone marrow transplant. Benton accidentally backs into a pedestrian at a gas station. Dr. Morganstern makes his return to the ER, with a new outlook on life and his patients. Carter visits Chase, who is brain-dead.
Dr. Ross wants to become an ER pedes attending. Scott Anspaugh decides to stop fighting when faced with the prospect of an experimental new chemotherapy treatment. Jerry and Mark take charge of the annual ER banquet. Benton is forced to take over an operation by force when Morganstern is unable to continue. Carol worries that Millicent Carter retracted the funds for her clinic. Anna donates bone marrow.
The bombing of an abortion clinic brings in many victims, pregnant women and protestors alike. Benton is temporarily suspended after his incident with Morganstern comes to light, until Morganstern decides to resign. Benton later shares a kiss with Corday. Carter cares for an elderly patient who appears to be the victim of neglect. Scott Anspaugh is buried.
It's another busy night in the ER, as case after case comes through the doors. Hathaway comforts a burn victim in his dying hours. Carter and Anna struggle with a man afflicted with celebral palsy. Dr. Ross deals with an infant's heroin addiction and its drug-addicted mother. Weaver cares for an elderly couple who may have AIDS. Peter and Elizabeth decide to keep their relationship a secret.
A televangelist broadcasts from inside the ER. Doug, with Carol's help, attempts a detox of Josh McLean, the methadone addicted infant, instead of returning him to his mother. Del Amico's old boyfriend shows up, conducting a feasibility study for a pediatric ward in the ER. Jeanie begins exhibiting pneumonia-like symptoms. Romano realizes Benton and Corday are together.
Greene and Weaver threaten Doug over his illegal treatment of Josh McLean. Dr. Rosher ingratiates himself with Anspaugh. Corday receives a letter from Romano informing her that he won't be sponsoring her for another year. A despondent patient shocks Carol with an unusually violent act. Kerry becomes upset when Anspaugh tells her that even though she has been Acting Chief of Emergency Medicine for a year, the hospital still plans a nationwide search for a permanent one. Carter accuses Max of taking some Percocet from a medicine cabinet. Benton arranges a hearing test after a day care worker tells him that Reese is unresponsive.
Third-year med student Lucy Knight reports to the ER for the first day of her rotation. Greene takes a teacherly interest in her, helping her get acquainted, but she gets off to a bad start with the irritable Carter when she speaks insensitively, and without Carter present, with a patient's wife about her husband's very serious condition. The rest of the day finds her comforting a woman who has suffered a miscarriage, getting locked out on the roof, having Carol bail her out on a simple procedure, and trying to figure out Kerry Weaver's "Tour on Tape."
Dr. Corday's father visits from overseas in an attempt to convince her to join his medical practice. Weaver suggests that Elizabeth look into alternative methods to stay in America, like starting over as an intern. Weaver also doesn't let an opportunity pass to remind Doug of the way he bypassed her authority in the McLean case. Lucy continues learning, earning more of Carter's respect than she deserves. Peter takes Reese in for another hearing test. Mark has several discussions with paramedics about the state of the EMT program. Carol hires a nurse practitioner to help out in the clinic. Carter is having trouble being an RA in the dorms.
Mark goes to a trauma scene with the EMTs, where he treats a gunshot victim who has a bomb strapped to himself. Later, Mark’s daughter persuades him to treat a horse with colic, and Jerry gets the bad end of the enema. Carter intubates an elderly woman who is DNR. When her HMO declines to admit her, Carter either has to find a relative quickly or let her die. Kerry finds herself more and more frustrated when Anspaugh suggests that they're not considering her for ER Chief, and she discovers she’s the last to hear that Doug was made a pediatric attending. Corday serves her last day as a surgical fellow. Benton meets with Carla to discuss getting Reese hearing aids. Jeanie returns from vacation. Carter goes out with Roxanne, the insurance saleswoman he treated.
Dr. Corday begins her first day as an intern, first by being assigned to Dale Edson, then being treated as Romano's lapdog. Kerry is interviewed for ER chief. Doug and Carol ponder parenthood when Carol realizes she may be pregnant. Carol and Lynette try to keep a wounded gang-banger from leaving and seeking retaliation. Lucy faces the wrath of Carter when he discovers that she doesn't know how to start an IV. Jeanie asks Doug if she can be a full-time PA for the pediatric ER.
Halloween night finds the ER awash with allergic or otherwise incapacitated children. Kerry tolerates a visiting candidate for chief while she waits for the official vote. Romano operates on an 11-year-old girl and finds she's genetically male. Carter leaves Lucy in charge of a dorm party he's supposed to be overseeing, with unfortunate results. Mark learns that Jenn's moving to St. Louis--with Rachel. Mark and Carol treat a pregnant schizophrenic.
After Mark saves a 16-year-old assault victim in a daring rescue, he tries to convince the boy to leave the streets for a shelter. Carter loses his beard when two carpet installers come in covered with glue. Peter consults a deaf physician regarding Reese's hearing condition. Corday is reassigned as Benton's intern. Kerry hears more discouraging news regarding her bid for ER chief. Carter loses his RA job, forcing him to go apartment hunting. He finds one--in Weaver's basement.
Dr. Corday commits a deadly error after being on-call for nearly 36 hours straight. Peter visits Dr. Kotlowitz and receives encouragement regarding a cochlear implant for Reese. Dr. Amanda Lee, a prospective new ER chief, visits. In the wake of a failed pregnancy attempt, Carol lashes out at a mother using abortion as a means of selective birth control. Carter and Lucy feud when Carter accidentally uses her palm computer and finds out what she thinks of him. Mark panics during a paramedic initation.
Carter and Lucy scramble across Chicago to find a dying girl's father who's a perfect match for her very rare blood type. Benton operates without transfusions to save the little girl's life.
Carter plays tour guide for Ruth Johnson, who was born in the hospital 100 years ago to the day, and her large family. Carol treats a boy who was hit by a car and tells a story of being chased, his friend being shot in the process. Peter observes Kotlowitz install a cochlear implant and decides to wait before scheduling an operation for Reese. Mark dines with Dr. Lee, new ER chief. Dr. Corday proposes radical changes in scheduling at an M&M conference, and later decides to break off her relationship with Benton.
Benton's attempts to get away to Carla and Reese on Christmas Eve are continually thwarted by Romano, culminating in Benton forcing the drunken Romano away from a patient. Carter believes he's found a Christmas miracle when a teenage girl with a rare blood type needs an organ donation at the same time a brain-dead patient with the same blood type is in the hospital. After witnessing Dr. Lee rifling through Greene's locker, Jerry becomes convinced that she's stalking Mark.
Amanda Lee's obsession with Dr. Greene comes to a head when Mark inadvertantly digs up old med school records damaging to her career. Carter tries to save Lucy from Edson's advances. Peter treats Dr. Parks' grandchild, who interprets for her deaf mother and grandmother. Police officer Reggie Moore asks Jeanie out. Kerry receives a call from someone claiming to be her mother. Doug receives a job offer from Portland.
Doug jeopardizes future federal grants for the entire ER when he breaks a double blind study by giving a sample drug to an ailing patient. Doyle lodges a sexual harassment complaint against Romano, hoping Dr. Corday will lend support. Lucy begins her surgery rotation under Benton's tutelage. The two of them treat a man claiming to be 140-years-old. Mark declines to proceed in the NASA program. Carol questions Lynette's intentions when she hosts a women's health clinic for African American women only. Mark goes to bat for Pickman when she inadvertently leaves a severely injured man at an accident scene.
Ricky Abbott returns to the ER. Doug forges papers to allow Joi to treat Ricky at home. Corday decides to back out of the Romano sexual harassment investigation after he threatens to expose her relationship with Benton. Romano is later named Acting Chief of the ER. Dr. Greene treats a Nigerian janitor for back pain and impotency. Carol and the nurses watch a bunch of dogs when their owner is hospitalized. Carter diagnoses a med student with Hodgkin's disease. Kerry initiates a search for her biological parents.
Doug faces possible criminal charges after Ricky Abbott dies when Ross bypasses system lockouts to enable Joi to give Ricky a lethal dosage of dilaudin. Doug is delegated to desk duty, Carol's clinic is shut down for acquiring the P.C.A. machine for Ricky, and Greene and Weaver face future disciplinary action for not reporting Doug's tampering with the double blind study. Carter and Lucy discover a mutual attraction. Benton studies with a sign language instructor.
Greene assists paramedics in treating injured children at a school bus accident. En route, Doug and Jeanie survive their own accident. Kerry stops Doug from treating Jeanie… or any other patient. Doug decides to resign and leave Chicago for the Northwest and asks Carol to come with him. She decides against it, but he leaves anyway. Carol steps down from running the clinic so that Anspaugh will keep it open. Jeanie discovers she may have contracted hepatitis. Hospital janitor Mobalage's wife is stabbed.
Peter accepts Romano's suggestion and takes a two-week job in Minnesota to earn some extra money. Unfortunately, before he gets a chance to leave, he's transferred to backwoods Mississippi, where the hospital is only a two-room building. Peter battles local racism, delivers a difficult infant while battling the grandfather's concerns that the child might be black, and uses unorthodox methods to save two shrimp boat workers. Meanwhile, back in Chicago, Jeanie's condition worsens.
During a paramedic ride-along, Carter is forced to drive the ambulance while fleeing a riot scene and inadvertently runs over a teenage boy. Later, a paramedic is shot by an angry mob looking for the driver of the ambulance. Carol is despondent following Doug's departure. She later discloses that she's pregnant. Kerry is intrigued by an injured pro wrestler and his relationship with his father. Lucy tangles with an Asian family that requests their matriarch not be told of a cancerous tumor. Jeanie turns down dates with both Dr. Baker and Reggie, telling each she's seeing someone else.
Greene tries to help Mobalage when he's about to be deported. Kerry tries to save a woman she believes is her birth mother. Hathaway decides to have Doug's child. Benton and Corday clash over an ER fellowship. Carter is in charge for the day, part of a requirement for applying for chief resident.
Romano forces Benton to choose between the trauma and cardiothoracic fellowships. Carol worries that she may have lost her child. Corday and Greene bond on the way to a medical conference. Carter mentors an aspiring teenager. Lucy, on a psychiatry rotation, treats an overmedicated foster child. Jeanie finds her faith while treating a reverend.
The hospital suffers through a series of power outages. Carol's decision to send Doug a fax about her pregnancy is thwarted by the power outages. The staff is on alert after a raped and beaten patient is found in a hallway. Romano begs Corday to stay in trauma. Carter and Roxanne break up. Carter and Lucy treat a pheromone saleswoman.
The ER docs tend to three teenagers who were in an accident on the way to their senior prom. Greene and Carter treat the most severely injured, a boy suffering from third degree burns over 80% of his body. Benton receives the ER trauma fellowship. Carol finally tells Doug about her pregnancy; Kerry also figures it out. Mark and Elizabeth draw closer. Lucy tells Carter about her Ritalin addiction. "FBI agents" bring in a shot stripper.
Carol's pregnancy becomes public knowledge as she learns that she's having twins. Lucy has problems trying to go off Ritalin. Peter learns Carla plans to move to Germany. Kerry finds an abandoned youngster and brings him to the ER. Mark and Elizabeth discuss their relationship. Jeanie and Reggie draw closer again.
Multiple traumas come to the ER after a truck crashes into a coffee bar, narrowly missing a very pregnant Carol. Rumors fly around the ER about Anspaugh retiring as chief of staff and Romano taking his place; the rumors are later found true. Mark speaks out against Romano in a staff meeting. Weaver double-crosses him to move ahead with her career and is later named permanent chief of the ER. Carter meets his cousin's ex-wife, whom he is attracted to. Reggie proposes to Jeanie, and she decides to adopt an HIV-positive baby. Benton and Carla meet with a mediator. Lucy asks Weaver to mentor her; Weaver turns her down because she is the new chief and it would be inappropriate. Two new doctors are introduced: Dr. Luka Kovac, a Croatian doctor moonlighting in the ER, and Dr. Cleo Finch, a pediatric resident in the ER.
Returning from his mother's funeral, Mark clashes with Kerry over the treatment of a teenager who rescinded her DNR. A new second year resident that likes to be called "Dr. Dave" clashes with almost everybody from the surgical department to the paramedics. Romano promotes Corday to Associate Chief of Surgery. Jeanie decides to marry Reggie after her bid for adoption is denied. Carol and Luka treat a dying woman who wants to see a priest. Peter and Carla meet with a psychologist about Reese. Carla later tells Peter that Reese may not even be his son, an idea he vehemently denies.
Mark clashes with new attending physician Gabriel Lawrence. Lucy and Luka try to convince a woman that her husband is dangerous. Carter tries to be supportive as Elaine undergoes her mastectomy. After Weaver puts in a good word for her, Jeanie receives baby Carlos on a temporary basis; she and Reggie get married later in the day. Cleo treats a family who was in an accident. Benton talks with his lawyer about having a DNA test.
Lawrence exhibits signs of forgetfulness, which Lucy catches, while treating a teenager who tried to hang himself. A negative article about the hospital and Corday appears in the newspaper after last week's reporter visit. Malucci learns a lesson in sympathy dealing with a man dying from a skydiving accident. Cleo is racked with guilt after misdiagnosing a four-year-old with iron poisoning, who later dies. Carter makes plans to meet with Elaine. Carol treats a pregnant waitress with no insurance.
An explosion in a high school science lab brings many patients to the ER. Lawrence's memory continues to go downhill and more staff becomes suspicious. Elaine tells Carter her intentions to leave for Europe for a couple of months and they cuddle. Lucy and Carol compete for one rehab bed for each of two patients--a painter snorting coke and Meg, the pregnant waitress, who is shooting heroin. Dr. Dave learns some sympathy from a girl facially burned in the explosion. Benton inquires about DNA testing. Jeanie's home life becomes hectic, taking care of her new baby.
Benton struggles with the idea of taking a DNA test to determine whether or not Reese is actually his son. As the signs continue to pile up, Kerry and Mark use a fake patient to convince Dr. Lawrence of his Alzheimer's. Carter has trouble persuading a woman from a nursing home fire to sign a DNR for her husband and later is asked to forge charts for a family with no insurance. Carol continues to meddle in Meg's life, having her arrested so that she can be detoxed. Cleo is blamed for an explosion in the suture room, but it may actually be Dr. Dave's fault.
Greene searches for his father, who is supposed to have arrived from San Diego earlier in the day. Corday crosses ethical lines to save the life of a rapist while Kovac and Weaver work feverishly to save the woman he raped. Lucy regrets letting a choir director leave the hospital. Cleo treats an alcoholic teenager. Dr. Lawrence saves a life before departing to live with his son. Carol visits Meg, who has now had her son and is preparing to go to jail.
Carol goes into labor on the L. With the help of Luka, she makes it into the ER and delivers one twin, Tess, there. She is then moved to the OB and put in the care of OB nurse Abby Lockhart. Dr. Coburn delivers Kate through an emergency c-section but Carol and both babies turn out to be fine. When Mark has to leave Thanksgiving at her house to be Carol's Lamaze coach, Corday is stuck with his father and Rachel. Dr. Dave helps Carter with a diagnosis of a very rare disease.
Lucy desperately tries to find a way for a young woman to receive a new heart in order to stay alive, going as far as going to Romano's house in the middle of the night to find the only doctor qualified to perform the surgery. Corday tries to convince Dean Rollins to have surgery on his leg. Carter gives away the ER's Secret Santa gifts as part of a guns-for-toys exchange. When Kate comes down with a fever, Carol takes the twins to the ER, where Luka takes care of them. Alcoholic teenager Chad Kottmeier returns; Cleo enters him in an alcohol treatment facility, taking him away from his mother. Carla tells Benton that Reese will be staying in Chicago because her husband lost his job transfer.
Greene flies to San Diego when his father runs away from his retirement home. Former med student Deb Chen returns to the ER, now known as Jing-Mei Chen, and also a full-fledged doctor. Corday tries to coerce Dean Rollins into revealing the location of another body. He asks her to end his suffering. Kovac tries to help two brothers, one of whom is mentally-challenged. Finch treats a young teenager who may have too much on her plate. Dr. Dave tries to fix Weaver's car, and has to break bad news to a young kid.
Lucy struggles to get patient Valerie in for surgery when an infection threatens her heart transplant. Carter and Chen disagree over the treatment of an elderly woman and her care-giving daughter. Mark tries to help an abusive gay couple. Carol has trouble adjusting after her return from maternity leave. Dr. Dave goes out of his way to shut an illegal pharmacy down. Luka treats some circus performers. The ER suffers from a water shortage. Benton asks Cleo out.
Third year med student (and part-time OB nurse) Abby Lockhart begins her ER rotation. A flu bug sweeps through the ER. Carter tries to help a kid with muscular dystrophy while Cleo treats a kid who's been injecting hormones into himself. Corday discovers that her mother will be coming to town and then decides to pay her a visit. Lucy treats a dying homeless man. Benton and Romano clash over the treatment of a surgical case. Luka and Carol treat a young boy whose mother is injecting him with saline to get surgical procedures done.
The staff prepares for Valentine's Day. Romano brings his dog into the OR for surgery. The rivalry between Chen and Malucci hurts a patient of theirs. Abby treats a former patient of Carter's and learns that not every story in the ER has a happy ending. Luka must tell two children that both of their parents are dead. David Greene and Isabelle Corday meet and hit it off. Lucy seeks advice from Carter while treating a young law student who may have schizophrenia, but he keeps brushing her off. When he finally gets around to checking on Lucy, he finds her lying on the floor, stabbed in the chest, just after being stabbed himself…
Weaver discovers Carter and Lucy. As police begin to arrive, Benton rushes between the two, being the only surgical resident on duty. Greene and Corday are paged to return to the hospital. Carter almost loses his kidney, but with quick thinking by Anspaugh, Benton is able to save it and Carter will be okay. On the other hand, Lucy has her chest cracked because her heart stops but she is stabilized. In the OR waiting room, while waiting for emergency surgery to fix a life-threatening blood clot, Lucy flatlines. Romano and Corday desperately try to save her life but she dies and the staff receives the news. Meanwhile, Paul Sobriki is found running naked down Michigan Avenue and is brought in. His wife arrives at the ER; incapable of believing her husband would be capable of such a violent act. And while Benton is busy with Carter, Cleo is forced to crack a man's chest open to save his life, resulting in Benton's ire.
Corday discovers that her mother and David Greene spent the night together. Greene later discovers that his father has lung cancer. Lucy's mother visits the ER to empty her daughter's locker and pay a visit to Carter, who is regaining strength and recovering. Abby goes behind Weaver's back with a patient on a gut instinct. Luka witnesses a hit-and-run accident and rushes the victim to the ER in a plumber's truck. Carol must tell a promiscuous 14-year-old that she has cervical cancer.
Greene takes charge of a chaotic shift while dealing with his father's refusal of treatment for his lung cancer and Corday's insistence on harvesting a brain-dead patient's organs. Carter returns to work and later visits his grandmother. Carol deals with constant phone calls from her nanny. Abby commits an error with a patient, costing him his life. Dr. Dave drinks Carol's breast milk with Corn Pops in a vomit bowl.
Mark and Elizabeth squabble after he disagrees with her treatment of his father. Carter gets in trouble when a patient of his that he had discharged for insurance reasons comes back into the hospital near death. Weaver is suspended after disobeying a direct order from Romano, regarding the care of a mentally challenged girl. Kovac and Corday are faced with a blitz of possible kidney receivers, but Luka has a problem with the one who gets it. Cleo and Benton endure Romano's ire for scribing a messy prescription that nearly kills a man. Chen faces some personal obstacles when treating a man who refuses to tell his daughter about his genetic condition.
Greene deals with his father's worsening condition and his desire to be placed in a hospice. Carter almost loses it as he treats a construction worker he thinks is faking an injury. Carol's girls start daycare and she reveals to Mark that Doug has asked her to move to Seattle again. Cleo asks Benton to overrule Corday's surgical advice concerning a teenager who was in an auto accident. Romano takes control of the ER in the wake of Weaver's suspension. Kovac treats a man having anxiety attacks from his impending divorce. Abby treats a mom with five kids who is pregnant again and considering an abortion. The ER gets a letter for Lucy, informing her that she had matched the County General psych department.
Greene takes the day off to care for his dying father but ends up in the ER anyway where the older Greene is diagnosed with pneumonia. Carter is plagued with flashbacks from his attack and visits Samantha Sobricki in an attempt to gain some insight on why Paul might have gone off the handle. Carol and Luka spend a day on the town shopping for a used car, and are drawn into a kiss. Weaver returns from her suspension. Abby treats a young girl in need of a bone marrow transplant, but whose mother won't allow it out of spite for the father. Benton and Finch have breakfast with his sister, where Jackie tells Peter that Cleo is not serious about him.
Carter buries himself in his work to take his mind of his troubles, coming under fire from Weaver and Kovac when he defies ER policy and performs an ICU procedure himself. Luka, meanwhile, has his own problems when Benton confronts him about poor patient follow-up. He also attempts to romance Carol, who is distracted from her work by the arrival of a birthday present from Doug. Chen lobbies Romano to do genetic testing on all newborns and is forced to blackmail him into signing a petition for it. Corday tries to help an anorexic girl determined to leave the hospital. Malucci discovers that an accident victim has been sexually abusing his six-year-old daughter. David Greene dies in his sleep, but not before giving Corday his late wife's pearl necklace and telling his son he is proud of him.
Carol resuscitates a terminal cancer DNR to say goodbye to her family, and realizes that life is too short. She runs out of the hospital after saying a quick goodbye to Luka and Mark and hops on a plane to Seattle to see Doug. Carter's mental status is dissipating rapidly to the point where he almost kills a woman. Chen notices and tells Mark her concern that Carter is bipolar. Weaver goes on the warpath after noticing ER staff taking shortcuts in their work, including Abby, who discharges a woman prematurely without running extra tests. Corday offers Malucci a sobering assessment of his performance. Mark prepares to bury his father and enjoys his daughter's company.
Kovac and Benton are rushed to the site of a school shooting, where they disagree over who is more critical: the severely injured gunman or one of his victims. Luka later tries to convince a stabbing victim to have surgery to save her unborn child. Abby catches Carter injecting unauthorized pain medication into his wrist. She tells Greene, who confronts Carter with Weaver. Carter denies it but Greene takes him off patient care, assigning him paperwork. Greene stages an intervention with Chen, Benton, Anspaugh and Weaver, giving Carter two options: he either goes to Atlanta and a detox facility, or he is fired. Carter quits and walks out of the hospital. Benton confronts him with a reminder of what happened to Carter's cousin Chase. Carter hits him but then breaks down in his arms. Later, as Weaver waits for word that Carter has gotten on his way to Atlanta, we see Benton sitting silently next to him on the plane.
Benton drops Carter off at rehab in Atlanta. Three months later, a custodial strike is making life difficult in the ER. Chen discovers she is pregnant. Carter prepares to leave rehab. Benton interviews with Romano for a surgical attending position; he later gets it. Carter makes a slow journey back to Chicago, and gets busted for smoking in the aircraft lavoratory. Due to her ex-husband failing to pay her tuition, Abby cannot continue med school until the beginning of the next quarter and confronts her ex-husband at the driving range making a big scene. The ER is swamped with participants from a riot at a high school football game. Carter arrives at the ER and leaves promptly.
Domestic troubles cause problems for Greene and Corday. Later in the day, however, Mark shows Elizabeth their spacious new digs and proposes to her. Chen tells Weaver about her pregnancy; she is 22 weeks along. Carter sees Abby at an AA meeting and she tells him she was an alcoholic 5 years ago, later John asks her to be his sponsor. He also meets with Greene and Weaver about coming back to work. Abby, down from OB, helps a young couple whose baby was born much too early. Benton and Romano clash over an obnoxious homeless man who once again requires extensive treatment resulting from his chronic disdain for maintaining his dialysis appointments. Weaver and Kovac are helpless to assist a severely comatose woman whose longtime life partner is not legally empowered to make decisions on her care.
Carter treats a young paraplegic on his first day back at County. Corday and Greene try to work around a surgeon shortage. Benton discovers that Romano has fired him for his actions last week. Weaver offers Abby a position as a full-time ER nurse. Abby later plants an impromptu smooch on Kovac. Various weird patients arrive at the ER following a beam collapse at a sci-fi convention. Dr. Dave goes out of his way to discover who the father of Chen's baby is. A patient with 'spontaneous human combustion' catches fire.
Benton encounters trouble finding a new job after Romano blacklists him across town. He considers taking a job in Philadelphia, but decides to stay with County in a no-benefits job after Carla won't agree to a visitation schedule. Benton's nephew Jesse comes to the ER after getting in a fight at school. A shooting in the ER interrupts Carter's first day of treating trauma patients. Chen treats a dying young boy whose mother wants surgery for him, no matter what the outcome. Kovac and Abby go on a date, which is interrupted when they are mugged. Luka then beats the mugger to death. Greene treats beauty pageant contestants and is also enlisted by Malucci for a hockey game. Weaver treats a dementia patient who has been AWOL for 50 years.
Greene flies to Indiana to receive a heart-transplant patient. The flight back endures several problems, however. With Greene in Indiana, Weaver on her day off and Kovac missing, Romano places Benton in charge of the ER. Carter treats a teenager with HIV who has not been informed of his condition yet. Luka searches for the identity of the mugger that he killed. He and Abby later meet up in his hotel room.
Luka blows Abby off, and an already-stressed Abby has to deal with an unexpected visit from her estranged mother, who isn't taking the meds prescribed for her bipolar disorder. Corday, eager to leave work for a vacation with Greene, makes a poor surgical decision; after she leaves, her patient experiences post-surgical complications. Benton's nephew is shot and dies. Benton hears Malucci refer to his late nephew as a "banger" and Benton beats him. Chen decides to put her baby up for adoption and visits the child's father, nurse Frank Bacon. Luka accuses a pregnant girl's father of beating her.
Abby's mother decides to stay in Chicago, causing Abby even more trouble. When Weaver accepts Dr. Legaspi's dinner invitation, Weaver learns that she has misunderstood Legaspi's intentions. Carter tries to find a drug addict who has left the hospital against medical advice. Chen's mother visits the ER and invites her to dinner, even though she is surprised by Chen's pregnancy, and speechless when Chen tells her that the father is black. Greene discovers that he has a brain tumor. Corday is sued for malpractice by Mr. Patterson, the patient whose surgery she rushed so she could start her vacation, and later discovers that she's pregnant. Carter saves Abby after an explosion in exam room three.
Abby wakes up with Luka in his hotel room. At a job interview at a department store, her mother causes a disturbance and later flees town. Benton treats Jesse's girlfriend, who talks to the cops about Jesse's killers and later comes to him for help after a hit is put on her. Corday undergoes a grueling deposition for Mr. Patterson's lawsuit and lies to save her ass. Greene discovers that his tumor is inoperable and later has a seizure. He finally decides to tell Corday about his condition.
While giving birth, Chen undergoes second thoughts about giving her baby up for adoption, a decision complicated by the adoptive parents watching her every move. With an enormous lack of sleep, Carter is called back to the hospital to act as Chen's coach, and is later tempted to take Vicodin to stay awake. Finch and Benton encounter trouble trying to keep Kynesha hidden from the gang. Legaspi plants a kiss on Weaver. Greene and Corday spend the day in New York seeking help for his brain tumor.
On New Year's Eve, A father injured in an auto accident is unworried about his own health, only his son's. Greene undergoes experimental brain surgery in New York with Corday by his side.
Kovac treats a bishop who took a fall and questions Luka's faith. Abby pressures Carter to tell Weaver about the Vicodin he nearly took. Abby later tells him that she cannot be his sponsor anymore. After Kynesha is placed with a foster family, Benton and Finch discover their home trashed by her. Corday's malpractice suit is settled; Mr. Patterson later visits her at the hospital, causing Elizabeth to panic with another patient. Weaver and Legaspi are divided over personal and professional issues.
Weaver and Legaspi have spent the night together, although Kerry appears shy of beginning a relationship. She also battles Luka over calling the authorities about an illegal sweatshop employing one of his patients, which causes the owners to torch the place. Greene is back to work, but mixing up his pronouns, referring to a male patient as a "she." Corday freezes again during surgery, but is able to overcome her fears. Romano talks benton into taking a job as County's director of diversity. In the wake of his Vicodin slip, Carter is banned from prescribing drugs. He later visits Chase at his home, and admits his addiction. Abby treats two horny old men.
Bishop Stewart returns, seeking pain medication from Luka, who also has his hands full dealing with the parents of a 16-year-old who does not want another heart transplant. Abby fills in as Carter's date for a Carter family function and sees her ex-husband there. Malucci treats a gay man who wants to contract HIV from his positive partner. Greene continues an abrupt personality change in the wake of his surgery. Weaver calls someone, making an appointment for a competency review for Mark.
Weaver spends an evening with Legaspi and her lesbian friends. Greene is furious to learn about his competency review; Corday screams at Weaver about ordering it. Chen returns from maternity leave and treats a young boy with measles. Benton struggles to get a young med student applicant an interview after learning that he was only accepted due to affirmative action. Bishop Stewart returns in even worse condition.
Carter meets a new pedes intern, Rena Trujillo. He and Luka are then dispatched to the site of a major train wreck. Carter must perform a tricky double amputation on an injured firefighter after Corday goes into early contractions at the scene. After Elizabeth returns to the hospital, Abby and Chen treat Corday, who is told to stay on bed rest. Benton lets prospective med student William White follow him around the ER. Weaver calls Legaspi for a psych consult on a suicidal girl who caused the train crash by driving her car onto the tracks. Luka wrestles with his faith, revealing that he could have saved his wife by sacrificing his daughter. Bishop Stewart grants him absolution before his death.
After Abby leaves the room for a second, an infant disappears from the hospital. After spending the night at her place, Carter is shocked to find out that Rena is a 19-year-old undergraduate. Greene gets his competency results. Malucci and Mark treat a young boy injecting steroids who is frightened of his father. Legaspi has been accused of sexual misconduct by the teenager who caused the train crash. Weaver is more concerned with hiding their relationship, so Kim dumps her.
Peter and Cleo may be at fault when a police officer shoots and kills an old woman with dementia. Carter misinforms Rena and tells him that he and Abby had a past liaison. April Fool's Day causes the staffers to play pranks on each other; Malucci gets the worsts of them. Corday endures a particularly long surgery just to prove that she still can. Greene treats three young students who have been huffing carpet cleaner. Luka treats another pregnant teenager, who wants the comfort that a child will bring her.
Mark must overcome numerous obstacles, mostly weather-related, in order to get to the church to marry Elizabeth, who is stuck with both of her bickering, divorced parents. Abby has a major cold, but cannot leave the hospital, due to most of the nurses being at the wedding. Many patients come in to the ER from an accident involving a prison van; Luka and Carter clash over the treatment of an injured cop and a prisoner with a dislocated shoulder. While waiting for a flight to Vegas, Weaver (who wasn't invited to the wedding), strikes up a conversation with a friendly man. Chen misses her son. Cleo doesn't want to go to the wedding, because the bride is Peter's ex-girlfriend.
Corday goes into labor and delivers a baby girl named Ella. Benton treats his junior high school science teacher. Numerous college students come into the ER, victims of fraternity/sorority pledging pranks and hazing rituals. Carter and Abby take a road trip to Oklahoma to pick up Maggie, who has locked herself in a motel room. Rena dumps Carter over the phone. Maggie steals sleeping pills from a convenience store and attempts suicide.
Abby goes to court to argue for a 90-day psych hold for her mother. Her mother is released, and later shows up at Luka's hotel room. Weaver treats an old children's television show host and an animal suit fetishist. Carla checks into the hospital after a fall. Benton treats Carl Ferris again after he suffers a heart attack. Malucci clashes with Jing-Mei and Cleo when his past track record gets him in trouble. Carter treats a young girl whose boyfriend has been interfering with her pregnancy by feeding her herbal root extracts to cause a natural abortion.
Abby is flabbergasted when Maggie reveals her plans to move back to her birthplace of Minneapolis. Abby reveals to her mother that she was pregnant once, but had an abortion, scared about the genetic possibility of herself or her child turning out bipolar. Meanwhile, Carter and Chen are both shot down in their bids for chief resident. Weaver meets Legaspi's new girlfriend. Carla hits on Benton and freaks out at Cleo after she turns her back on Reese for a second and he injures himself. Mark treats a young abused boy with an extremely irate father. Several staff members play softball.
The father of the abused boy that Mark treated last week goes on a shooting rampage throughout the city, looking for anyone connected with the placing of his son in a foster care facility. Mark fears for Elizabeth and baby Ella's safety when Corday doesn't answer her pager. Chen moves one step closer to the chief resident position. Romano fires Legaspi. Weaver confronts Romano, and comes out to him, threatening that she will quit if Kim is not rehired. Carla's husband, Roger, accuses Benton of sleeping with Carla. Cleo cuts her hand while treating an HIV-positive patient. Abby is unhappy with Luka when he sends in her med school reapplication without her consent. Carter expresses his feelings to Abby and begins thinking about his future at another hospital. While treating the shooter alone in an elevator, Mark makes a critical decision regarding his care when the man flatlines.
Three weeks after the death of Derek Fossen, Greene faces interrogation at an M&M conference. However, Corday is the only one to suspect something wrong. Meanwhile, Carter's parents return to town for his grandfather's funeral, which Abby briefly attends. Abby has decisions to make; Luka wants her to move in with him. Weaver returns from an impromptu vacation, worried that Romano has outed her to the staff. Chen is the new chief resident. Benton deals with Cleo's meds and Jackie's problems adjusting to life after Jesse's death. The ER is filled with patients after a brawl at a talk show taping. Legaspi got a job in San Francisco.
Carter inquires about an attending position; Weaver pretty much turns him down. He also gets stuck at the hospital with a never-ending rush of patients from a stampede at a rock concert, and slips, hurting his back, while looking for Weaver. A frazzled Chen disappears for awhile, while Weaver goes to Doc Magoo's with her old private investigator--he's found her mother for real this time. Luka and Abby go to a bar; she gets mad when he ignores her and flirts with a French waitress, and they break up. Corday and Greene find it difficult to balance their schedules; she wants to hire a nanny to take care of Ella. Benton discovers that Carla died in a car accident; Reese was slightly injured also. Malucci makes a fatal assumption with a patient, which Chen signs off on anyway, earning them both Weaver's ire. They blame it on Weaver not answering their pages; we later see that Weaver left her pager in the bathroom at Doc Magoo's.
Carter is having back problems that aren't helped when Abby asks him to help move a new fish tank into Luka's apartment to replace the one she accidentally broke while moving out. Benton encounters problems finding a sitter for Reese when Jackie decides that she can't do it. Chen is having trouble with Weaver "helping" her with patients; she treats an abandoned infant with a birthmark in the shape of the sign of the Virgin Mary. Cleo's HIV test results come back negative. Rachel Greene shows up at the hospital; she ran away from Jenn and wants to stay with Mark for a while. Corday falls asleep in surgery. Malucci is stuck in an elevator with a cute female paramedic and a guy vomiting blood. After saving the guy's life, Dr. Dave is caught "celebrating" with the paramedic in the back of an ambulance by Weaver, who promptly fires him. Appealing unsuccessfully to Mark, Dave and Weaver finally have it out at the end of the day. He begs her not to fire him because he needs the money
Susan Lewis arrives in Chicago to interview around town and have lunch with Mark. She gets reacquainted with the nurses and Carter, meets Corday, and is later offered a job by Mark. Chen and Weaver discuss an upcoming risk management meeting for the Marfan's patient death; Weaver's presence is not required, but she wants to be there anyway. At the meeting, the focus quickly shifts away from Chen to Weaver, as she is forced to admit that Chen was 5 days short of attending status, and she herself was off hospital grounds. After Weaver decides to save her own ass, Chen is suspended for a month and must resign her chief residency. She tells Kerry to go to hell and quits. Weaver offers the position to Carter, watches silently as Malucci cleans out his locker, and attempts to unwind at a gay bar. Mark and Elizabeth treat a six-year-old Edwards Syndrome patient, whose parents abandon him while he is in surgery. Benton must resort to calling Roger to pick up Reese after he's tied up tre
Weaver prepares to call her birth mother, while she treats a man who was accidentally run over by his daughter while she was drunk. Susan's first day back is typically hectic, as she treats a girl with an ectopic pregnancy who refuses to stay for treatment and a man faking a coma to escape his bookie. Abby seems to notice the chemistry between Susan and Carter and gets a little jealous. Cleo has gotten a better job 40 minutes outside of Chicago. The Greene household is pretty crazy now that Rachel is living there. After Elizabeth loses another patient to a post-op infection, an investigation is launched and someone is assigned to shadow her all day to check her cleanliness. Benton panics when Roger reveals that he can't find Reese--it turns out that Jackie picked him up from school after he got in a fight. Carter's day as chief resident is marred a little when his grandmother comes to the ER after slipping.
Susan and Carter attend a yoga class before work and discover an outbreak of meningococcus. Abby discovers that Luka had Nicole hired as a runner, even though she doesn't know what she's doing, and flirts with a fireman with a broken leg. Carter and Abby discuss their relationship. Corday continues to be shadowed by Infection Control and looks for a pattern after her fourth post-op sepsis death. She discovers that an official investigation has been launched into her being an "angel of mercy" and the police will be contacting her. Corday also fights with Rachel upon discovering Ella unattended. Benton tells Roger that he doesn't want him having any more contact with Reese. Luka treats a young man using his portable catheter for heroin injection. Benton and Abby treat a kid who tried self circumcision to please his girlfriend.
A new med student assigned to Carter finds all sorts of surprises in store for him on his first day. Elizabeth spends her day searching for the angel of death, finding that all signs point towards Dr. Babcock. Nicole has a rough day training to become a nurse's aide, and draws Abby's ire after Luka invites her into a trauma. Puzzled by his grandmother's fainting spells, Carter discovers that she is at great risk for a heart attack or stroke. He and Susan treat a law student/med student who has been cutting herself. The two grow closer, as Carter finally tells her about his stabbing and drug addiction. Mark picks up Rachel at school after she's suspended. Peter is sued by Roger for custody and takes a DNA test to determine whether he is Reese's real father. Despondent over badly injuring a young skateboarder, a mall security guard tries to hang himself.
An enormous rainstorm pelts Chicago. Cleo's last day at County is interrupted by the arrival of Benton's DNA results: he's not Reese's biological father. Benton meets with his lawyer regarding the trial; she advises him to let Roger see Reese; he refuses. Money from the nurses' secret stash and Frank's Palm Pilot go missing, only to turn up in Nicole's purse. She later tells Luka that she's pregnant. Susan accuses Mark of being grumpy with his patients; he spends the day treating a kid who fell in the river with his younger brother and whose parents blame him. Weaver travels to an accident site, where Pickman's ambulance was rammed by an SUV. She treats a pregnant stab wound, going as far as to give her a C-section in the broken ambulance, with Gallant's help. Carter's grandmother comes in after being involved in a hit-and-run and breaking her hip. She becomes delusional in an MRI machine, calling out for her husband.
Susan and Carter treat a newlywed couple where the wife may be allergic to her husband's semen. Carter later kisses Susan. Weaver asks firefighter Sandy Lopez out. Mark and Gallant treat members of a boxing family. Rachel's boyfriend is admitted with a broken ankle and tests positive for marijuana; she comes out clean though. Elizabeth tends to a comatose woman whose husband will only agree to a risky procedure to harvest her organs. Abby openly questions Nicole's pregnancy; Nicole confesses to Luka that she was faking it and that she plans to move to Montreal. Benton's custody trial for Reese is hampered by his long hours. Cleo's testimony doesn't go well either.
Benton commits perjury on the witness stand in order to gain custody of Reese. When Romano refuses to give him a more even schedule, Peter resigns and seeks a job at the clinic where Cleo is newly employed. Benton is granted custody of Reese and he and Cleo decide to move to the suburbs together. Meanwhile, Carter's father visits for Christmas with the news that he's getting divorced, Weaver and Sandy Lopez finally go on a date, and Abby catches Nicole in the maternity ward, recovering from an abortion.
Abby has a horrible birthday, beginning with meeting her new squabbling neighbors. She treats a young woman hoping to get pregnant by taking fertility drugs, and discovers that Luka is going to Bosnia for two months as part of the Doctors Without Borders program. Her ex-husband tells her that he's getting remarried just before she sees Carter and Susan sharing a private moment. She takes care of a young boy abandoned in the ER after the death of his mother. Paul Sobricki is admitted with a head lac, and Abby unsuccessfully tries to keep Carter from seeing him. Abby's day ends with her sharing a beer with her neighbor. Carter has problems of his own: his mother is back in town, just getting in the way and refusing to admit to her mistakes. He also meets with Chen, who reveals that she has the evidence to take Weaver down in the Marfan's case. Weaver and Lopez are an item until Sandy discovers that Weaver has not widely come out yet. Mark finds cigarettes and condoms in Rachel's
Chen returns to the hospital with proof of Weaver's misplaced pager and demands her job back, threatening a lawsuit. Weaver doesn't like the idea, but Romano forces her to do it. As her colleagues watch, Sandy Lopez plants a kiss on Weaver, effectively outing her. Carter attempts to mediate between his bickering parents. Mark and Elizabeth's opinions on Rachel's future differ, but Mark decides to keep her in Chicago for the time being. Rachel likes that idea. Abby attempts to mediate between her fighting neighbors after Brian beats Joyce. Lewis treats a death row inmate who wants a DNR.
Eleanor Carter tends to a young leukemia patient, trying to make up for Bobby's death many years ago. Mark treats the victims of a letter bomb, and later treats his own daughter when Ella is rushed in after swallowing some of Rachel's Ecstasy. Abby treats a young girl who has been chauffering her drunken mother around. Abby also hides Joyce in her apartment while Brian searches for her and causes a ruckus. An allergic Gallant treats a blind man with a dog. Chen returns to the day shift, working with Weaver for the first time. Romano gives some of Weaver's duties to Lewis, making Kerry mad, until she meets a new friend on her way home.
Mark worries that his brain tumor may have returned, as Elizabeth tells him that she will leave him if Rachel is not sent back to St. Louis. Lewis has a busy day running the ER after several staffers come down with food poisoning after eating tainted bagels donated by a pharmaceutical company. Luka returns to cover shifts. Eleanor Carter flees the hospital after realizing how poor Mickey's condition is. Carter talks her into staying to comfort the boy during his treatment. Finding that Brian has beat Joyce yet again, Abby encourages her troubled neighbor to seek help in a group home. Brian later confronts Abby at her apartment and punches her for interfering. At County, Luka and Susan treat Abby, who has a broken nose and a few cuts and bruises. Luka finds Brian at a bar, and beats him, threatening to kill him if he touches Abby again.
Mark learns that his tumor is back and inoperable, giving him 4-5 months to live. Corday is living in a hotel, and confesses to Benton that she thinks she's left Mark. Susan cares for Mark after his first radiation treatment. Abby learns that the case against Brian has been dropped because somebody beat him up. Seeing Brian enter her building, she seeks comfort at Luka's, where he's engaged in a game of Pictionary with his friends. Jerry and Frank clash, leading to a fistfight. Chen has a stalker.
Abby wakes up at Luka's while Carter finds Susan returning from spending the night at Mark's. A dominatrix's client is brought into the ER, and she leaves a bag of her toys behind. Abby, Carter, Luka, Susan and Gallant explore in the bag, until Weaver catches them. Susan tries to take responsibility, until Weaver finds a purple dildo in her locker and sends them all to an all-day sexual harassment seminar. While waiting for the tardy instructor, everybody learns a little more about each other. Luka and Carter actually have a duel. Susan and Abby bond, while Susan has doubts about her relationship with Carter. At the end of the day, they break up and Susan tells Carter to tell Abby that he's madly in love with her.
Corday, still living in the hotel, is avoiding Mark, until Ella says her first words. Elizabeth pressures Susan to tell her what her husband is hiding, and figures out her husband's fate. Romano advises her to return to Mark for the little time he has left. Chen treats a man too traumatized to speak. Mark tells the staff about his prognosis. Weaver worries about Sandy Lopez as she is reported missing in a fire. Weaver tracks her down at a bar, and the two make out. Stabbings on a college campus bring girls to the ER.
Mark serves his final day in the ER overseeing the first day of Gregory Pratt, a cocky yet eager new intern. Through observing his patients, he decides to forego chemotherapy, and spend his remaining days in peace. He also meets with his ex-wife, tells Weaver to live a little and leaves. Meanwhile, Abby plans to move back into her apartment when her landlord lets her know that Brian's moved out.
Susan receives a message from her niece on her answering machine, saying that Chloe's "sick." The call is traced to New York City, putting Susan on a plane. Officers Boscarelli and Yokas are assigned to chaperone Susan in the search for her sister. Chloe is found in "Urinetown," suffering a broken heart, but Little Suzie is not with her. Pratt hits on Chen several times throughout the day, and also performs an unauthorized procedure with Gallant on a dying man. Abby returns to her apartment, where Carter catches her drinking a beer. He confronts Luka about her relapse, and Abby herself later. She tells Carter not to worry about her. Romano signs Weaver up to meet with the Women's Health Coalition. Corday requests immediate time off from Romano to join Mark and Rachel in Hawaii. (Unleashed (2) aired on Third Watch, season 3, episode 19.)
A letter from Dr. Greene arrives via fax, and Carter reads it to the staff. Everybody is stunned when he reaches the last page, a note from Dr. Corday, stating that Mark died that morning. Frank posts the letter and various staff members who weren't in attendance take time to read it. Sandy gets Weaver to admit that she's lost a friend. Luka, Abby, Haleh, Susan and Gallant are joined by Weaver and Sandy at a bar. Carter comes looking for Abby and they end up talking all night at Doc Magoo's. Abby goes to an AA meeting later that day, and tells Carter that she went for him. Carter takes his place as the rock of the ER. Meanwhile, Susan learns that Chloe is in rehab and Suzie is staying with Joe, Pratt matches County, and Romano operates on a girl with a genetic deficiency.
Mark decides to use his remaining time to help "fix" Rachel and takes her to Hawaii to show her where he grew up. He teaches her how to surf, and how to drive a stick shift. Mark catches her chasing one of his Vicodin with a shot of vodka and confronts her about wasting her life. One day after surfing, he has a seizure, and Elizabeth arrives with Ella in tow. She wants to take him home, but he refuses. Early in the morning, he dies. After the funeral, Rachel tells Elizabeth she'd like to visit Ella, and Elizabeth agrees.
The day begins slowly as Weaver calls to say she'll be late, and Chen thinks she's developing a fever. Then multiple MVAs come in, quickly followed by two children suffering what appears to be smallpox. The staff panics, but not as bad as the patients, when a lockdown is ordered for the ER. The feverish Chen is quarantined with homeless Stan. Lewis takes charge as Weaver arrives and the police won't let her in. The girl infected by smallpox dies and Pratt embarasses Carter in front of her parents. Carter notices Pratt is sick as well, and sends him to Chen's room. Jerry phones the news, and the patients riot, nearly using a gurney to break open the emergency bay doors. Control of the ER is relieved from Weaver by an infection specialist. The staff prepares to stay, still not having a confirmation on whether it is smallpox or not, and the lockdown continuing as a result. Carter and Abby kiss after being quarantined together.
Abby, Carter, Chen, Pratt and homeless Stan will be confined to the ER for two weeks, while all of the other patients are evacuated and sent to different hospitals. While on the roof arguing with Luka about the use of a helicopter, Romano backs up into the tail rotor, and has his arm severed above the elbow. Anspaugh arrives to perform surgery, and reattaches the arm. Susan is stuck on the roof with a dying patient. After 2 weeks, the ER reopens. While all of this has been going on, Elizabeth has been in London, working at her father's hospital, where her supervisor doesn't like the American mannerisms and vocabulary she's picked up. She ultimately decides to return to Chicago.
Two months after the lock down, a new group of med students arrive in the ER to pandemonium, caused by the closure of another city ER. Corday returns to the ER, having lost some of her bedside manner. Gallant is on a psych rotation, annoying the ER staff. Romano continues physical therapy. Weaver is acting strange, she breaks down and cries in front of Elizabeth. Pratt brings a man, pronounced dead, back to life.
Lewis treats an end-stage Huntington's patient, whose mother has already watched her husband wither from the disease. Abby's brother Eric, an Air Force traffic controller, visits on his way to a new post in Nebraska. Carter tends to a 12-year-old drug-addicted prostitute with a serious STD, until her pimp shows up and whisks her away. Pratt aggravates a drug-seeking man who comes back brandishing a gun at Chen and Abby and demanding Demerol. Abby gives him his shot but purposefully ODs him. In the aftermath, Carter flips his lid, demanding better security and the installation of metal detectors. When Weaver refuses, Carter leads a walkout. Weaver eventually caves, albeit before telling Carter that he must fire three senior nurses by tomorrow to make up the budget. Abby, Lewis and Chen go to a concert to decompress.
Weaver makes a mistake on live television while demonstrating flu shots, inadvertently sticking two reporters with the same needle. In the bathroom later, Susan and Abby catch Weaver in a stall with a needle. Weaver confesses to Susan that she's taking hormones. Carter, assuming Susan knows already, tells her about Abby's drinking problem. Abby becomes nurse manager, and argues with Carter about her drinking. Luka flirts with a patient's mom and is caught emerging from a storage closet with her. Gallant has a rough day: Pratt butts in on a patient of his, and Stella Willis dies because Kayson didn't bother with thorough treatment.
On a busy Halloween night, Carter and Abby are the only staffers in costume when victims of an apartment building fire pack the ER. Corday takes on a new med student for a surgical rotation--Paul Nathan, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, and only decided to pursue medicine after his diagnosis. Despite a difficult first day, both professionally and medically, Nathan makes a difficult diagnosis. Romano's rehab lags behind his expectations, and he begins to doubt his role if surgery is no longer an option. In a moment of personal weakness, he tries to express his feelings for Corday. Weaver continues to display erratic behavior, raising staff suspicions she might be going through menopause. Luka's affair with Chuny is revealed, and tensions rise when he treats a patient with a perpetual erection.
Corday clashes with new surgical resident Paul Nathan regarding his intervention into the treatment of a sickly young woman, Alison, who has signed a "do not resuscitate" order. Abby wonders about the erratic behavior of her visiting brother Eric, and feels conflicted over a nurse's official complaint against Kovac. Meanwhile, Pratt comforts Chen after a patient threatens her, and Corday suspects that an unconscious, 14-year-old female patient has been sexually assaulted.
Abby fears the worst when her brother Eric suddenly disappears. Carter and Chen treat a frightened Chinese immigrant nanny, Tong-Yi, whom they suspect was impregnated by her employer. Meanwhile, new surgical resident Paul Nathan, who is struggling to overcome a physical disability, tries to help in the emergency room—but his fellow doctors do not appreciate his advice to patients. Kovac goes to extreme lengths to find an eye specialist to treat a young gunshot victim. Gallant and fellow medical student Erin Harkins engage in an escalating competition of medical knowledge. And Weaver gets some much-needed good news.
Abby's family nightmare continues as she and her mother Maggie search for Abby's missing brother Eric, who Abby suspects is suffering from serious mental problems. The two women go to a Midwestern air force base, hoping to prevent Eric from being court-martialed for being absent without leave. Carter struggles to get out of Chicago to join Abby. Meanwhile, Corday treats a family of patients who, while building a snowman, were severely injured after being struck by a truck driver. She must help the father, Stuart, make a life-or-death decision. Corday also sympathizes with troubled surgical resident Paul Nathan as he struggles with the increasing symptoms of his physical handicap.
Abby is distressed when her mother interferes with Eric's treatment at a psychiatric hospital. Pratt treats a frightened young girl who has been injured in an auto accident and desperately wants to hide a secret. An unhappy Luka forms an unlikely bond with a lonely elderly woman who makes him a surprising offer. Chen is overcome with upsetting memories when a baby is abandoned in the emergency room. Pratt takes action after Leon is fired from his menial job.
The past 24 hours play in reverse after Luka gets into a car accident with Erin. Luka was forced into working hungover after a staff Christmas party, leading to a patient being brain dead. At the party, he confesses to Abby that he misses her before an oblivious Carter interrupts.
When Pratt is witnessed bringing a gun into the emergency room, Carter feels compelled to defend him. However, Pratt's erratic behavior makes Carter reconsider. Meanwhile, Weaver hopes to keep her pregnancy a secret, but physical complications might compromise her plans. Lewis warily watches self-destructive patient Chip Mealy, who admits to molesting young boys. Romano warns guilt-stricken Kovac not to admit to a grieving mother that his miscalculation caused her son's death. Chen treats high school students who overdosed on Ritalin. And Gallant confronts the scheming young wife, Koko, of an aged, dying man.
Weaver confronts a dilemma when influential alderman John Bright, seeking treatment after a fall, tests positive for syphilis—potentially damaging information that could become public. A sympathetic Kovac defies conventional ethics when he tricks a seriously injured patient who refuses to leave his dying wife's side into believing that she has already expired. Pratt ignores a dying mother's wishes in hopes of keeping her kids out of foster care, while also dealing with more problems with Leon. Meanwhile, Carter's family fortunes fail to pay off for an ailing doctor running a local clinic. Weaver and Kovac differ on what to do with a young boy whose medical history suggests repeated child abuse.
Carter's plan to help an ailing doctor leads to a dead-end — and a decision about his own career path. Pratt intervenes after a burglary lands Leon's pal in the ER, along with the cop his so-called friends shot. Kovac goes AWOL from his job after Weaver is unsympathetic to his depressive spiral. Alderman Bright returns, bearing financial gifts of gratitude for Weaver. Corday is caught off guard by hot-shot new surgeon, Dr. Dorset, and Romano risks his standing at County by overseeing an operation he is incapable of completing. Abby's brother Eric, now on his bipolar meds, visits and reconciles with her.
After taking care of a wounded prostitute and bringing her case to the attention of social services, Chen tells Pratt about giving up her baby for adoption. Romano is furious after Anspaugh notifies him he's not allowed to take part in surgeries. Kerry gets a promotion, due to Alderman Bright's aid. Susan has a blind date. And while Carter is out of town, Abby receives word that Eric's private plane is missing.
With Eric still missing, Maggie returns to town. Carter tells Abby he wants to marry her. Weaver gives Luka an ultimatum regarding his job. Pratt digs himself into a deeper hole with Chen during his stint with the EMTs. Sean Simmons returns with pneumonia.
Three people are murdered at Doc Magoo's. One person is severely injured. In a search for the suspects, Gallant and Pratt are pulled over and arrested while returning from the gym. They take the arrest personally, and they later confront the officers when they are brought to the ER after being in an accident. Carter wants to pop the question on Abby, but decides it's not the right time. Kovac is forced by Weaver to see a psychiatrist. Lewis spends time with Sean, as his time winds down.
Alderman Bright returns to blackmail Weaver into treating his gay lover for syphilis (off the records, of course). Unfortunately, the man dies from an allergic reaction to penicillin and Kerry is forced to cover up her mistake. Carter and Abby come to terms with their ailing romance. Luka has a very unconventional therapy session. Romano's condition forces Anspaugh to replace him as chief of staff… with Weaver.
After being pushed out of his job as Chief of Staff by Kerry, Romano takes control of the ER and wreaks havoc and manages to get himself beaten up in a bar after work. Kovač implores Weaver and Corday to help him arrange a pro-bono operation for a dying Croatian child. A young woman with terminal cancer must make a choice between life-prolonging chemotherapy and the life of her unborn child. Pratt buys a birthday gift for Chen from a street vendor whose foot was run over by Elizabeth's nanny. Susan's husband (who she married the same week she met him) unexpectedly shows up from Las Vegas.
Abby treats a psychotic patient who has overdosed on his medication while Eric, Abby's brother, finally calls. Kovač welcomes an old friend - a fellow Croatian doctor - to observe the chaos of an American inner-city hospital. Gallant and Pratt receive their match letters. Carter receives bad news about his grandmother. Romano discusses grave options about his arm with Corday.
Kovac defies the rules to get a dying Croatian boy to Chicago in a race to save his life. Carter's sad family gathering is interrupted by Abby's mentally troubled brother Eric, who has left his voluntary care facility. Lewis and Chuck annul their marriage but choose to continue the relationship. Perez, a baseball player with a serious heart ailment, is treated on the eve of his pitching debut with the Chicago Cubs. Carter tries to prevent grieving gang member Curtis from seeking vengeance. A tormented Romano makes a dramatic decision about his mangled arm.
Carter's day shift and Pratt's night shift (his final shift at County) are intercut. Both men have extremely busy days. Doc Magoo's burns down. Luka calls Carter from the Congo and asks for help. Carter decides to go. Pratt decides to stay at County. In other parts of the hospital, Romano has his now-useless left arm amputated.
Carter travels to the Congo. During the course of his two weeks there, he learns how much different the conditions are against what he's used to. Luka decides to stay for a while as Carter heads back to Chicago, ending up at a sleeping Abby's bedside.
Continuing where last season's finale left off, Carter returns from Africa, going straight to Abby's bedside. Her response to seeing him is to ask for her key back. She is very chilly towards him all day until new med student Neela Rasgotra answers a phone call for Carter. The message: Luka is dead. Carter decides to go back to the Congo to bring the body back. Abby pleads with him to stay, but he leaves anyway. Neela has a tough first day in the ER, earning Chen's ire after Pratt flirts with her. Gallant, now a full-fledged doctor, helps to show her the ropes though. Romano returns from his medical leave. Susan is still seeing Chuck. Weaver screams a lot.
Carter reunites in the Congo with Charles and Gillian. Through flashbacks, we see Luka after Carter left 22 days before. He has caught malaria, and is soon captured by Mai Mai, who begin to murder the people he's with. Gillian introduces Carter to Debbie, a worker for the Red Cross. They search for Luka, and when finally shown the body, it's not him. Carter learns that the rebels mistook Kovač for a priest and left him alive. Carter, Debbie and Gillian find Luka, nearly dead, and put him on a plane back to Chicago. Carter gives him a letter to give to Abby and the news that he's going to stick around in the Congo for a while.
New residents arrive at County, including 2nd year Nick "Coop" Cooper. Coop talks back to Romano and is nearly killed when Neela gives him too much epi during an asthma attack. Abby's frustrating day starts with an awful round of managing triage and gets worse when she gets a special "Dear John" letter from Carter in the Congo while her fellow nurses threaten a walkout and her opinions are ignored. Romano's mood gets nastier when he is fitted with an antiquated hook for his missing arm. Pratt uneasily meets Chen's old-fashioned parents for dinner in what turns into a last supper for their relationship.
Pratt is left in charge of a busy night shift, with only a few med students and fellow 2nd year Dr. Coop. Pratt makes a mistake with one of his patients. Abby is looking for a loan, she finally gives in and begs her ex-husband to co-sign. Romano gets his Utah arm. Abby visits Luka, finding Gillian in the middle of saying goodbye. Corday and Dorset are sleeping together, although Corday wonders if it's too soon after Mark's death.
Luka's first day back in the ER is a busy one. While working out the details of his return with Weaver, he mentions that he'll be returning to the Congo in two months. Lewis treats an alcoholic mom who sets herself on fire in front of her son, and an elderly architect who tried to commit suicide because he's going blind. Abby appears as a surgical consult; she's back in med school. Sam Taggart replaces her on the nursing staff. Dorset's wife calls while he's in surgery with Corday.
Since his return to County, Luka has become obsessed with treating and streeting patients as quickly as possible. He argues with Pratt over the treatment of a pregnant woman who doesn't want her premature baby, as well as with Romano, who wants more tests ordered on patients so that the hospital can make some money. Abby is still on her surgical rotation and Romano is riding her hard. Coop flirts with Chen. Susan has been reading to Ben Hollander in her spare time. Luka meets Sam's son Alex in the new JumboMart (which has replaced the fire-damaged Doc Magoo's).
Lewis has a rough day: she misses an appointment with an auditor, and Ben Hollander commits suicide. Pratt receives an unfavorable review from Romano and also treats a con who was raped in prison. Abby, on her ER rotation, agrees to study with Neela. Gallant must gamble with a risky hospital transfer to help a young septic cancer patient. Sam's son Alex spends the day in the ER, following Luka around for most of it. Chen gets a call from the Chinese embassy and heads for a plane: her vacationing parents were in an accident.
Romano arranges a meeting with Anspaugh and Weaver to fire Pratt and catches Morris smoking weed in the ambulance bay. A helicopter crashes on the roof, falling into the ambulance bay where it lands on Romano and causes a huge explosion. Susan worries that Chuck was onboard, although it turns out he wasn't, he suffers internal injuries from debris. Abby must intubate and put in a central line without an attending. Luka has Thanksgiving dinner with Sam and her son Alex.
Gallant's sister is in town and Pratt hits it off with her. Nobody attends Romano's memorial service except for Corday. Alex steals a severed finger and later goes missing, turning up at County to see Luka. Neela treats two Amish kids who were injured on a sojourn into the city.
What has Carter been up to for the past seven months? He's been in the Congo developing a relationship with Makemba "Kem" Likasu, an AIDS-clinic worker, who is pregnant with his child. Carter needs to return to Chicago to take care of his grandmother's estate, so he talks Kem into going with him.
Carter is back in Chicago with Kem in tow. His return to the hospital is uneventful, although there is an awkward moment when Abby meets Kem. Sam gets called to Alex's school; it seems that he was suturing his own cut. She asks Abby whether the nurses' insurance covers family therapy. Gallant discovers that his sister has been sleeping with Pratt, although she later dumps him. Pratt accidentally breaks a patient's neck while doing an unsupervised intubation. A whole nursing shift cannot go home until they find one missing Valium. Luka informs Weaver that he's leaving for the Congo in two weeks. However, he later changes his mind.
Neela and Abby face their toughest rotation ever after being assigned to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit, where Weaver and Sandy come needing help with their newly born son, Henry. A case involving a very ill infant tests the souls of all the doctors. Abby does well whereas Neela struggles, but both ultimately decide against going into neo-natology.
Kem accompanies Carter to work and manages to annoy about half the hospital over the course of the day. Weaver has used the money that Romano left to the hospital and unveils the Robert Romano Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgendered Health Care. Gallant is doing a ride-along with Morales and Bardelli. Weaver offers Lewis the acting ER chief job, but Susan refuses because she's pregnant. Pratt is questioning his abilities as a doctor. Chen calls the ER to tell Pratt that her mom has died in China. Sam finds out about Luka's reputation as the ER bed hopper, but finds herself making out with him by the end of the day.
Sam treats a mother whose family was in a car accident and a 16-year-old pregnant girl whose boyfriend loaned her out to his friends. With Alex at a sleepover, she gets lonely and heads over to Luka's, where they end up sleeping together. Carter shows Kem the city and proposes they move into a townhouse he bought for them, but she leaves to go back to Africa for a while. A Human Resources consultant sent to the ER observes the staff.
An entire family suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning is brought to the ER. Claustrophobic Neela must spend a couple of hours in a hyperbaric chamber with the newborn baby. Carter misses Kem, who's been gone for a month now, so Jerry arranges a webcam chat for them. Alex finds out about Luka and Sam. Sam then suggests they take their relationship slower, Luka isn't too thrilled. Dr. Lawson asks Elizabeth out. Sandy's mom brings Weaver's son Henry in. Chen returns from China: her dad needs 24 hour nursing care and she's having trouble getting adjusted to that idea. Susan and Chuck visit her dad and tell him about the pregnancy.
Morris streets a patient without getting a psych consult, and the guy steals a tank and heads for County. Gillian is visiting Luka, and Sam's not happy about it. Frank finds himself fighting for his life after suffering a heart attack with Neela and Pratt the two unlikely doctors who successfully save Frank's life. In the process, surprising facts about Frank's life are revealed, including the deep respect he has for the colleagues he puts down on a daily basis. Corday plays the dating game, going out with two men.
Carter sticks up for Neela when the other attendings doubt her future in the ER. Neela caves to the pressure and accidentally gives a patient the wrong medication without checking medical history. When Neela is confronted, Gallant takes the blame for her. Sam and Luka try to plan Alex's birthday party. Frank visits on his way to therapy. Chen's home nurse quits after her dad behaves poorly.
Weaver rushes to the aid of her female partner Sandy Lopez when the firefighter is severely injured on the job and must fight for her life. Kerry is devastated when Sandy's family won't let her see Henry. Susan and Risk Management interview everybody who was involved in last week's death. Gallant reveals that the Army is sending him to Iraq and he and Neela share a bittersweet farewell. Sam is surprised by the arrival of Alex's dad. Neela passed her boards, although Abby did not. Corday discovers that she's the new Head of Surgery. After she has contractions, Susan is put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy--five weeks.
A patient accuses Pratt of paying too much attention while giving her a breast exam. Abby's on her psych rotation, while Neela begins her research rotation. Chen's dad is admitted to the hospital. Weaver is granted custody of Henry for the weekend. Corday is uncomfortable when Dave and Dr. Lawson meet. Abby discovers that Carter paid her med school tuition.
Still on her psych rotation, Abby treats a young mother who's having seizures caused by bad memories of her young son who died eight years earlier. Later, she takes her boards again. Weaver considers leaving town with Henry. Neela saves the life of one of her fellow researchers. Kem returns to Chicago, just in time for a Carter Foundation board meeting. Carter announces that the business will be switching focuses from arts & entertainment to medicine. His father and other board members are not pleased.
Carter is alarmed as he rushes his pregnant girlfriend Kem into the ER when he suspects trouble, but learns the baby died from an unforeseeable accident. Despite his own grief, Carter must help Kem say goodbye to their son after he is stillborn. Nineteen members of Neela's family are coming into town for her graduation. Abby, Neela and Lester graduate from medical school. Steve continues his efforts to get Sam back, visiting Luka at work and sending Sam a box of ice cream sundaes. Pratt refuses to believe that a patient of his is in congestive heart failure. Weaver suggests to Abby that she will match at County, unless she fails her boards. Rachel Greene is in town "looking at colleges," although she has a favor to ask of Corday.
Good samaritan Luka stops to help a woman with a flat tire, and watches her get hit by a reckless driver. Abby discovers that she passed her boards. Pratt is concerned about Chen when she comes to work with a black eye. Neela heads for the University of Michigan to begin her internship but decides not to follow through. When Steve announces his intentions to stay in Chicago, Sam decides to leave town. The custody battle for Henry Lopez goes before a judge. While Pratt drives Elgin Gibbs home en route to dinner with Chen, the three are shot at by an irritated driver.
Pratt's car crashes into the river. Chen and Pratt's injuries are bad, but they're not as bad as Elgin's--he dies. Abby begins her internship at County, as do Ray Barnett and Howard Ritzke. Alex and Sam crash at a motel, where Alex places a collect call to Luka. Luka comes to find them and asks Sam to return to Chicago with him. The Lopez family gives Weaver full custody of Henry, and will take care of him while Weaver is at work. Carter and Kem scatter their son's ashes and Kem returns to the Congo.
Carter suffers with insomnia and depression over his separation from Kem, and falls off the wagon. Luka tells Sam he loves her and invites her to move in with him. Neela's parents visit, confused by her choice to drop out of Michigan. The nurses freeze out Abby after a slip of the tongue to Haleh. Weaver advises Barnett to change his appearance. Abby treats a "damaged girl", a young Mexican woman kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery.
It's a busy 4th of July. Sporting a large scar on his head, Pratt is back at work, although Carter sends him home early. Neela looks for employment without much success before taking a job far below her expectations. Abby and Ray argue on the course of treatment of an altered bicycle messenger. The new OR attending, Dr. Dubenko, declines to perform an illegal organ donation procedure between two HIV+ people. However, Carter convinces Corday to perform the operation. Luka takes Alex to his soccer game, although Alex isn't looking for a replacement for Steve. Susan, Chuck and baby Cosmo visit. New resident Howard may be obsessive compulsive.
Two small children are rushed to the ER after falling from a third story window, allegedly escaping their mother's violent, abusive ex-husband; however, additional facts reveal a different cause. Susan becomes Chief of Emergency Medicine. Plagued by his OCD, Howard abruptly quits his residency, leaving a slot open. Susan can't find anybody to fill the position, so offers Neela an ER internship. Corday is in trouble after her illegal organ donation procedure, facing dismissal and loss of license. Weaver offers her a non-tenured position as a clinical instructor, but Corday decides instead to quit and return to England.
It is Neela's first day back at the ER and Pratt orders each intern to discharge 25 patients by the end of their shift, tracking their output. Neela struggles with frustration as she trails in the competition and is asked rude personal questions by a medical student Jane Figler while trying to help a patient with severe leukemia. Ray leads by a landslide, but makes a major mistake by green-lighting organ donation against the family's wishes after he sped through the paperwork. Not interested in the competition, Abby fakes a needle prick in order to get HIV-protective medication for a worried patient- and deals with a med student who is smitten for her. Dubenko looks out for Abby when Ray rides all over her in a trauma. Dubenko is also a little obsessed with physics.
The last 44 minutes of ex-con & alcoholic Charlie Metcalf's life are in the ER, as he slowly succumbs to end-stage liver failure.
Sam and Luka are moving in together. When a raped and badly beaten woman is brought into the ER, Sam wants to try a risky procedure to let the woman talk. The woman dies, however, and Luka covers for Sam. At Susan's one-month review, Weaver suggests that she be more of a leader. Lewis schedules a JCAHO emergency drill without telling the staff, creating chaos. Even after she gives birth, a young girl insists that she's not pregnant.
Lewis, Neela, and Ray treat a police officer shot during a robbery. His 15-year-old son must make a difficult decision on his father's course of treatment and he turns to Ray for advice. Ray promises to help the boy explain his decision to his mother, but he instead leaves for a gig and later gets an angry earful from Neela after the boy is browbeaten into changing his mind. Abby and Dubenko help a young girl whose mother does not want her to have critical surgery at County, but her condition worsens before her transfer can go through. Luka begins to take a more active role in Alex's life after he's suspended for bringing a copy of Maxim to school. An exhausted Chen returns to work, where Pratt finds her stealing potassium.
It is Christmas Eve in the ER, and the hospital is overrun by homeless. When Chen can't find someone to cover her shift, she quits, leaving Carter as the only ER attending. Carter and an off-duty Ray save a critically injured boy, and Ray learns the real story of his injury from his little sister. Abby and new medical student Jake treat a dialysis patient who is in critical condition, but she can't reach his physician, who is supposed to be on call. With encouragement from Carter and Dubenko, she breaks the rules to save the patient's life. Pratt heads to Chen's house and finds she is about to euthanize her father, who has begged her to do so in his lucid moments, and then take his body back to China.
While on a smoke break, Abby is kidnapped by two young gang members, who want her to fix a wounded friend. Frustrated with her subordinates not listening to her, Susan faces the fact that she can't be everyone's friend and their boss at the same time. Neela is having trouble relating to her patients.
Lewis assigns Kovač to teach the residents how to communicate more effectively with their patients. Pratt continues to dazzle with his medical skills but struggles with his teaching role. Luka and Sam argue all day. Abby tells Neela that she needs to find a new living arrangement. After finding out that Ray's roommate backed out on him, Neela decides to share an apartment with Ray. Following another day of Luka's guidance, Neela develops a crush on him. It's Abby's first day back at work since her abduction but it may be too soon for her to return. Lawyer Herb Spivak returns to the ER, trolling for clients and being thrown out numerous times.
Carter treats a 16-year-old girl who is suffering kidney failure after taking a new drug to control her seizures. The girl's urologist, the person who recommended the drug, is a former med student of Carter's. Everyone knows about Neela's crush on Luka; he tries to pass her off to Carter for the day. After Luka tells Neela that he didn't mean to mislead her, she has a brief talk with Sam about the situation. Abby and Jake work together on a number of sex-related cases. Jake wants to date Abby, but she turns him down because he's her med student.
Kovač and Pratt examine a man who was shot after he confronted his boss with a gun. Kovač and Dubenko disagree about possible internal injuries, leading Kovač to try several procedures to test his theory. Ultimately Kovač is proven correct, while the patient refers to the day as the best of his life. Pratt also treats a boy with a suspicious gash but releases him despite Wendall's objections, with tragic results. Jake tries to convince Abby that they should date and changes shifts with Jane so that Abby is no longer his supervisor.
Weaver is spending the day working in the ER when she meets her birth mother, who has disguised herself as a patient to see Kerry. Her mom is a devout Christian, in town with her choir, and does not understand Weaver's lifestyle "choice". She offers her love, but Weaver just wants acceptance. Jake has been spending every night at Abby's apartment. Abby says it's out of convenience, but Neela thinks otherwise. Jake and Abby have trouble hiding their relationship at work, especially from Weaver.
Ellie Shore is a mother of three who has a stroke and cannot speak. While she is treated, we are inside her head, hearing her thoughts. As Carter and Wendall's relationship deepens, an overnight phone call from Kem reveals its limitations, and Wendall walks away. Neela treats three kids with a suspicious father. Morris has applied for Chief Resident. Luka and Carter want Pratt for the job, but Pratt's not interested in it. Dubenko casually pursues Abby with an offer to co-write an article.
Gallant and Neela have been exchanging letters regularly. Gallant struggles with the war he sees every day, while Neela is searching for her life's purpose. Gallant enlists Neela's help in getting a critically burned Iraqi girl lined up for surgery in Chicago and heads for the U.S. with 72 hours leave.
Neela is surprised when she hears that Gallant came to the ER with the young Iraqi burn victim, but they later connect on a personal level. Sam's ex-husband Steve visits, and desk clerk Frank learns that he has been in prison in Colorado. Steve loots Sam and Kovač's apartment, but Kovač blocks him from leaving with Alex. Pratt treats a child whose gun went off in his pocket and learns that he received the gun from his mother, while being attracted to a young woman who runs an anti-violence program.
Lewis, Neela, and Sam are legally blocked from treating a woman dying from the effects of a hunger strike designed to prevent her son from being deported. Pratt struggles to find a way to convince a woman with breast cancer to seek treatment. Abby treats two elderly sisters involved in a mugging. To Weaver's delight, Carter donates $150 million to the hospital's new venture, in exchange for naming rights. Carter calls Kem and asks her opinion on The Joshua Carter Center, named after their stillborn son.
Mr. Rubadoux, whose wife was a patient of Carter's ten years ago, comes into the ER with heart problems, wanting nothing to do with Carter. Anspaugh and Kayson advise Ruby to have surgery, but Abby tries to get him to consider the risks. Finally, Carter apologizes to Ruby for lying to him about his wife. Pratt asks Olivia from Ceasefire out. When he shows up at her office to pick her up, he's ambushed into speaking at an anti-violence meeting. Lewis does her presentation for tenure, and Sam takes a home pregnancy test. Ray tries to stop the Chadwick sisters from leaving without having been seen by social services. Also, Morris may end up with the chief resident job despite a disastrous presentation.
Carter receives early tenure at Susan's expense. Luka finds Sam's pregnancy test, and asks her the result. They argue all day, Lewis suggests if they can't sort it out they may need therapy. Pratt's friend convinces him to attend an old friend's 30th birthday party. Ray thinks a 14-year-old is a drug seeker, but he's really the victim of molestation. Abby meets Jake's extended family at his niece's baptism. Morris is the new chief resident.
After hearing that Kem's mother is sick, Carter flies to Paris to see Kem. While there, Carter offers to move back to Africa to start all over. Birdie and Rebecca are back; Rebecca was strangled by their niece Shelley, so Birdie stabbed Shelley. Neela, Abby and Ray all make rookie mistakes with various patients. While in counseling, Sam reveals that she thinks that she and Kovač should not be together. Abby makes it clear that she and Jake do not have a future together.
Carter's last day at County General is marked by the "surprise" party being thrown for him. Ray takes charge when a balcony collapses at a party that he's attending. With all of the attendings at Carter's party, he talks Abby into taking 4 trauma patients while the hospital is closed to trauma. Pratt briefly visits his dad. Alex doesn't know his dad is in jail and is upset when Sam won't let him visit him, so he steals her credit cards and hitches a ride out of town.
A frantic Sam and Luka report diabetic Alex missing after he runs away to find his father. Acting on information from the police, they follow a lead to Iowa, then eventually head for Colorado. As they travel, they discuss their relationship, Sam tells Luka she doesn't want anymore kids. After finding Alex safe, Sam tells him the truth and takes him to see his father. In the ER, Susan, Pratt, and the nurses evaluate Ray, Neela, and Abby’s first days as R2s, while each of them struggle to manage patients, new interns, and their first attempts at teaching.
Ray attends to a surrogate mother who goes into labor prematurely after being involved in a car accident. A difficult decision must be made as the baby's life hangs in the balance. Pratt gets a visit from his estranged father Charlie. A depressed Kovač copes with another failed relationship when Sam announces she's moving out, but he gets emotional support from Abby, who joins forces with Neela to put a spoiled, rude patient in her place.
Luka has a bad day, while new nurse manager Eve Peyton causes a stir in the ER. Luka and Kerry treat a severely burned, nameless man. Luka’s treatment priorities for a woman in a skating accident and a boy with a head trauma result in a confrontation with Eve and a fight with the boy’s father. Abby helps a woman with the possibility of breast cancer, make a difficult decision and then makes a discovery about Dubenko. Eve changes Sam’s schedule as Sam and Luka have difficulty working together. At day’s end, Luka gets drunk at a bar and Abby gives him a ride home.
In the wake of heavy rains, the ER is flooded with diverse patients, including a baby involved in a suspicious car crash with her mother and a heart-attack victim visited by his sex therapist. Sam confronts Eve about her strict ways. Abby learns the details of Dubenko's condition and tactfully refuses his advances. Kovač protests when nursing home workers drop off Blaire Collins, who has been comatose for six years, for routine care, but later in the day, she unexpectedly regains consciousness.
Kovač bonds with Blaire, who has no memory of the carjacking and rape-murder incident that caused her coma, while her drug therapy becomes an issue. In the wake of Lewis' abrupt departure, new attending physician Victor Clemente arrives to help make the ER more efficient, but the residents are not too fond of him, despite his wide-ranging knowledge. Abby's breast cancer patient convinces her to take a long-delayed exam. Ray begins a sexual relationship with a young woman named Zoe Butler.
There’s monkey business in the ER as Clemente, Abby and Neela treat an infant chimpanzee. Ray discovers Zoe has chlamydia, and is underage. A recovering Dubenko trails the staff via a two-way television hook-up. A boy and his father are injured in a construction accident. Pratt reaches a decision about his relationship with his estranged father and learns the truth about his father's abandonment of him.
A kidnapped girl is used as a "human shield" by her kidnapper, and both are wounded during a shoot-out with police. While Abby treats the girl, she is caught in the middle of a dispute between Clemente and Luka over the girl's care. Neela assists Luka, then Dubenko, with the kidnapper. Later, Luka and Clemente argue over style and practice, leading Luka to put his name in as a candidate for Chief of Emergency Medicine. Abby takes her anger and frustration out on Luka, who responds by kissing her. Gallant’s leave is delayed, to Neela’s dismay, and Ray gets his comeuppance from Zoe’s father.
For Neela, what begins as a routine ride-along turns into a defining day when a commercial jet and a private plane crash over Chicago. As Clemente manages the trauma in the ER, Pratt joins Neela on-scene. Luka and Abby wake up together at Luka’s, but the crash soon takes them back to work, where the tension between Luka and Clemente continues. Sam recalls Haleh when extra nurses are needed, and earns Eve’s approval. As the day ends, Luka and Abby talk, and awkwardly decide to stay just friends while Neela has a welcome, and overdue, visitor.
Back from Iraq, Gallant surprises Neela by impulsively asking her to marry him. Kerry steps in to the Kovac/Clemente battle, encouraging them to get along, which results in a competition to be agreeable. Ray and a somewhat rusty Kerry treat a man with hypothermia, leading Morris to take a stand regarding the best course of action. Luka, Clemente and Sam treat a boy with HIV whose mother refuses to believe HIV causes AIDS. At the day’s end, Neela and Gallant are married, despite Neela’s doubts. At the reception, Luka and Abby celebrate his appointment as Chief of Emergency Medicine and realize they want more than just friendship.
It’s Christmas Eve in the ER, and Kovač arrives for his first day as Chief of Emergency Medicine wearing a Santa hat, with presents for everyone. Kerry, Pratt and Abby treat a girl who is the victim of a random bullet fired by gang members, leading to a vigil outside the ER and a "scared straight" lesson, administered by Pratt, in the consequences of gun violence. Clemente’s former flame arrives, and the fires re-ignite, despite his efforts to resist. When a testy Santa insults a group of blind children, Eve’s extreme response forces Luka to bring in the nursing supervisor, and Eve is fired. Haleh auditions singers for the Christmas party and finds a surprising partner in Morris. At the end of the day, the gang gathers for the annual Christmas party. Luka and Abby exchange gifts, and Abby tells Luka she's pregnant.
Abby and Kovač agonize over what to do about her unexpected pregnancy, with Abby eventually deciding to keep the baby despite her fears that it might be bipolar like her mother and brother. Neela and Kovač help a religious teenager weigh all her pregnancy options, but differ on what course she should take. Clemente's past is starting to catch up with him as police visit to investigate a missing person report on Jodie. Weaver falls on the ice and realizes she needs surgery.
With Luka eager to get home, Clemente AWOL and Kerry temporarily off her feet, Dubenko volunteers to cover the ER briefly, but quickly becomes overwhelmed. Abby’s excitement over her pregnancy means no sleep for Luka, and they head out for a bit of early shopping, and some dressing-room fun. Neela gets surgery as an elective, but is shocked to learn that rather that finishing his training in the US, Michael plans to return to Iraq. Ray helps Zoe escape to live with her sister when she arrives in the ER after a beating by her father, and Pratt fakes a blood test to help Darnell avoid arrest.
Dr. Nate Lennox, a former professor and mentor of Abby's, is brought into the ER in the last stages of ALS disease. In a series of flashbacks at County, the progression of his illness over the last six years is shown. He wants to give up, but Abby is determined to give him the strength to keep fighting.
An unexpected visitor -- Jodie's violent policeman husband Bobby, from whom she has filed for divorce -- puts Clemente in the middle of a domestic dispute that ends in Bobby shooting Jodie and Clemente. Kovač and Abby await important test results regarding their baby. Neela struggles with her surgical elective, and Ray tries to convince a homeless musician to accept help from his family. Jodie survives life-threatening surgery but is comatose, and her out-of-context remarks lead to Clemente being suspected in her shooting.
Carter works in the Sudanese desert, helping treat hundreds of diseased people including a woman raped by a militant group. Back in the ER, the police accuse Clemente of shooting Jodie. Pratt and Neela work to save a 14-year-old involved in a hit-and-run accident, but Pratt is infuriated when he discovers who hit the young teen. Kovač refuses to let Clemente return to work until he is reviewed by the Impaired Physician Committee. Jodie awakens from her coma and tells the police about her shooting, and Bobby threatens Clemente's life.
Weaver must make a difficult choice about having hip replacement surgery when the pain interferes with her work. Ultimately she decides to go forward with it, and asks Abby to take care of Henry if something goes wrong. When Abby discovers that one of her patients has contracted meningococcemia, the E.R. is briefly quarantined. Sam treats a man who collapsed, Richard Elliott, who offers her an intriguing job. Meanwhile, Neela decides to attend a support group for military spouses. Pratt confesses to Kovač that he falsified a blood test; an infuriated Kovač suspends him for five days.
Kovač, with Abby's help, works feverishly to save a young Turkish woman with multiple stab wounds. As the girls' condition worsens, Clemente steps in and decides to try a risky procedure; surprisingly, he and Kovac work together effectively for the first time, but unfortunately the patient goes beyond saving. Sam accepts a part-time job working for Richard Elliott. Neela pulls an all-nighter in preparation for a speech at a surgeon's convention but is disappointed when her speech goes awry, later reflecting on how close she and Ray have become.
A case involving two teens injured in a car accident proves baffling as the doctors try to determine why the girl is unconscious and why her male companion is so hostile toward the police, before Ray discovers he's deaf, and the cops jumped him. Neela copes with a visit from Gallant's bickering parents and Morris gets a tempting job offer from a pharmaceutical company. Olivia learns of Pratt's philandering. Kovač tells Abby that he is going to Darfur to help Carter, but when he realizes Abby is worried, he orders Pratt, who is just returning from suspension, to go. Sam enjoys the perks of working for Elliott. Ray struggles with some unresolved feelings for Neela as she decides to move back to Abby's apartment.
Pratt departs for Africa with attitude to spare but he quickly notices the scope of the horror there. Abby senses something is not what is seems when she treats a 12-year-old and her grandmother, then differs with Luka over the best course of action.Steve arrives at the ER complaining of a stomach pain. Clemente wants to release him but Neela thinks he needs to remain in the ER and is proven correct when Steve displays appendicitis. Morris and Dr. Albright argue about a patient, and Morris is proven correct. Clemente continues to be threaten by Jodie's ex husband.
Pratt gets to work in Darfur, but soon finds his eyes opened to the need all around him. Debbie attempts to persuade Dakarai to seek treatment for his illness. Carter, Pratt and Dakarai find themselves in the middle of the conflict when a man and his pregnant wife arrive at the camp needing treatment, with trouble not far behind. Events force Pratt and Dakarai to make a dangerous journey.
Gallant is killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq. Clemente's behavior spirals out of control along with his paranoia about Bobby, and Kovač is forced to take serious action when Clemente smashes a passing taxi outside the hospital and is diagnosed with PTSD. Dubenko offers Neela a surgical residency, but she and the rest of the staff then learn about Gallant's fate. Pratt readjusts to American medicine while treating a seriously injured family of two sons and their father and learning the cause of their injuries. Morris is offered a job with a major pharmaceutical company.
It’s a seemingly ordinary day with the usual collection of patients. But soon, the day becomes anything but ordinary as two prisoners intent on escape come to the ER for treatment, along with a hidden conspirator. Luka discovers them and is injected with a paralytic and they force Sam to become a tool in their plan. Soon, gunshots ring out, a staff member’s life is in jeopardy. The medical staff rush to the aid of the injured and Abby collapses just outside a trauma room where Luka is tied to a gurney.
The hospital staff copes with the immediate aftermath of the shootout. Weaver finds Abby unconscious and Kovač tied to a gurney. Abby's trauma puts her into pre-term labor, her baby is born two and a half months prematurely. When bleeding continues, Abby undergoes a hysterectomy. Jerry's heart was nicked by a bullet and he has to have surgery, which Dubenko and Neela perform successfully. After a rough chase from local police, Steve and his partners decide to hide out. His partners want to leave Sam and Alex so Steve shoots them. He later rapes Sam and falls asleep, Sam goes to leave with Alex but then goes back, picks up Steve's gun and shoots him.
As their infant son's fate hangs in the balance, Luka and Abby struggle to make the right decisions and keep the faith. Maggie arrives, determined to help. The hospital board meets to fire Luka over the Clemente fiasco; when Weaver confesses that she, not Luka, was responsible, she is demoted to an ER attending. Sam's employer, Eliott, helps her forestall any police investigation of Steve's death. The ER struggles to get back to normal, as old staffers play new roles, and new personnel come on board.
Pratt and Kerry must adjust to new roles. It’s the first day on the job for the medical students and interns, and Neela and Gates have a tough start. A closeted, older gay man with kidney failure comes to the ER. Gates doesn't fill out his chart properly mixing up the medication he's on. Pratt gives him calcium which leads to heart failure due to the wrong medication on the chart. Gates goes against Pratt's orders and saves the patient's life, but he is brain dead, which ultimately makes things worse on all fronts, especially with Pratt.
A grandfather and grandson are injured in a chainsaw accident, Luka takes the grandson upstairs leaving Pratt to handle the ER alone, juggling multiple traumas, teaching duties and a troublesome intern. Neela mentors a new med student, and lends a hand to Pratt in a trauma. Abby goes to a “Mommy and Me” class, but it’s not all fun and games.
Award winning actor/director Forest Whitaker begins a six-episode arc as Curtis Ames, a carpenter who suffers a stroke under Luka’s care and then sues him for malpractice. In the opener, Luka and Ames square off in court as each man’s recollections of Ames’s treatment are recounted via testimony and flashbacks. Meanwhile, Luka worries about the implications of the suit and the possible outcomes. Abby returns to work and must adjust to the dramatic changes in her life. An equipment shortage hampers Pratt, Abby, and Neela’s treatment of a patient, leading them to attempt a risky procedure. Pratt’s early morning trip to the barbershop results in a new awareness of community need.
Luka gets some important news, and at the end of the day, an unexpected visitor. A collision between a motorcycle and a car brings critical patients to the ER. Luka and Ray treat the motorcycle rider, and discover a condition his wife wants kept secret. Abby and Neela work on the driver of the car, but his surgery doesn’t go well and his wife soon has troubles of her own. Pratt has a new lady in his life, and a new roommate, while Gates has a different kind of girl-trouble. The women of the ER take some time for stress relief.
A belligerent young man with the flu presents a challenge to Morris and Sam when he refuses treatment, and later turns out to be more than he seems to be. Luka and Abby’s childcare emergency means balancing baby care with patient care in the ER until a nanny can be found, but the candidates prove less than satisfactory. Luka has an uneasy encounter with Curtis Ames at the hospital, and later Abby and Baby Joe have a "chance" encounter with Ames at the park. Pratt discovers a local church's risky drug exchange program. Neela and Gates square off at an M&M.
Luka and Abby treat a man injured after driving drunk, but differ about what should be done when his wife appears to have been abused. Later, Luka receives an unsettling package and Abby meets an intriguing stranger. A group of street kids come to the ER when they think one has rabies, and find a guardian angel in blue. Pratt disappears from the ER for a community-related reason, and learns a surprising truth about a family member. Kerry’s TV appearance becomes a real emergency.
It’s Thanksgiving in the ER, and everyone prepares for the festivities. Luka and Abby's shared feast is delayed when a medical evacuation flight to transfer an older patient puts Abby in the middle of a bus crash scene where she earns the respect of the flight crew. Luka shares concerns about a worrisome former patient with the police, who have doubts about what he thinks is happening. Pratt turns to Kerry after learning about Chaz, and Gates tries to charm Neela, but Meg adds a sour note.
A teenaged girl is found in front of her school, bleeding and apparently raped. As Luka and Gates treat her, Abby and Neela try figure out the truth about what happened, while Luka must help the girl's mother, a colleague. When the police are no help with Ames, Luka decides to confront the problem. Abby's friend from Ike's returns. Pratt struggles to cope when his brother comes out. There’s a new nurse on the floor, but can he handle the ER? Meanwhile, Ray’s got a secret and Gates pours on the charm, but Neela’s not impressed.
It's Christmas in the ER again. Luka and Abby as Rudolph and his elf, visit pediatrics, while Morris learns the meaning of Christmas when he plays Santa to a special girl. Ames takes action that creates tension between Luka and Abby, leading Luka to make a heartfelt confession. Teller returns, sending Gates and Ray on a mission, while Neela oversees an unusual kidney transplant case. Sam and Ben take a stand when a patient is dumped in an alley by Mercy Hospital. Morris, after getting a visit from one of his children, gets an offer he can't refuse, but somehow, does.
Kerry gets an interesting new job offer in Miami. Budget cuts force Luka to eliminate an attending position: Kerry. As word gets around the ER, emotions run high, and the Kerry fights back. Pressed by the staff, an angry Abby confronts Luka, creating tension between them. Pratt's efforts at community service lead to an unanticipated turn of events when a patient dies from the side effects of medication received at the clinic. Later, he learns the case will be investigated, leading him confess his role to Luka, but to protect Hope. Gates' home life intrudes on the ER, affecting Neela. Morris' missing credit card has Sam concerned about Alex' role in the loss.
Divisions abound in the ER as the aftermath of Luka’s and Pratt’s actions are felt. A patient’s call creates friction between Luka and Abby. A contentious family case leads Gates and Ray differ over treatment of one child, while Luka and Abby clash when she needs help with the other. An unauthorized phone call has serious implications for Pratt. Ben takes things to the next level with Sam, but Sam’s cautious, and Ray wonders if he’s lost his chance with Neela.
Luka tries to extricate Pratt from a legal mess while Abby, confronted by a vengeful Ames, tries to reach him. Later, Luka finds himself in a tense confrontation with Ames, and Abby must act to protect her family. Neela and Gates rush to get Meg to the hospital. Sam’s new home is soon under threat from fire, but will everyone escape unscathed?
Morris becomes the man of the hour in a busy ER while Pratt must defend his actions, and accept the consequences. Luka faces the ER in the aftermath of the Ames incident. Abby and Sam treat a dying comedian who is unable to make his final appearance. Neela gets her big chance to assist on a double kidney transplant. Ray realizes all may not be lost, after all. And who makes a surprising decision at the end of the day?
Luka, Sam and Gates treat a woman who appears to be suffering liver failure, but is that really all there is to it? Luka confronts Gates when he tries to lie on a medical document. Abby treats a couple with injuries resulting from an unusual ceremony, and a fortune-teller with a prediction for her future. But what’s their secret that Luka lets slip? Neela prepares for another kidney transplant, but something seems amiss to her, leading to a confrontation with Dubenko. Ray treats the victim of an unusual fall, and Alex’s troubles continue to intrude on Sam’s work life.
A blizzard moves into Chicago, stranding a family in the snow. Pratt, Abby, Hope and Ray must struggle to save the family, and keep hope alive when they learn one member is still missing. Luka’s got a problem intern in his sights, and he’s not pleased. Later, a gang shooting challenges Luka and Pratt. Meanwhile, Luka and Abby begin making wedding plans, but is their engagement still a secret? Sam makes a difficult choice about Alex, and wonders if she’s failed him. Neela discovers she’s no longer Dubenko’s favorite, and Gates has an unexpected, and unwelcome, visitor.
Luka, Abby, Pratt, Morris and the team treat the victims of collision between a big-rig and family car, including the wife of the truck driver and the son of the car’s driver. Sam celebrates her birthday in the ER and meets photographer who changes her outlook on life. Neela and Ray share some subtle signals, but what’s up? Gates is shadowed by a medical student who notices his errors. Wedding plans continue as Luka and Abby try to decide where to be married, but someone else is handling the bachelor party.
When father-and-son (guest stars Robert and Andy Prosky) come to the ER, Luka must treat the son’s failing heart while he takes on responsibility for the father. Language presents a challenge when Neela and Abby treat a good Samaritan. Meanwhile, Pratt tries to help Chaz make a new career choice, Gates has troubles with his own father, and Sam’s got her hands full with a seminar on handling aggressive patients. And who’s the John Doe Abby’s treating, and hiding from Luka?
In only 12 hours, a pressured Luka must coordinate the emergency closure of the ER, as the team rallies to make provisions for patients. Chaz is admitted to the ER, worrying Pratt, and Ray is challenged by a young patient. Sam renews her friendship with the photographer Diana, while Gates faces new problems on the father front. At day's end, as the lights go out, Luka makes a pivotal decision about his future.
Luka’s carefully arranged formal dinner for the ER staff gives Abby the surprise of a lifetime when she discovers the real reason for the evening. Luka finds himself dealing with Abby’s reaction, but love prevails, and in the end, events come off as planned. As the celebration continues, Pratt plays an important role with a bit of panache, Morris and Hope find themselves with an opportunity they can’t resist, and Neela finds herself the center of all manner of unexpected attention.
Dr. Kevin Moretti, an ICU specialist bent on change, joins the ER team. Change comes elsewhere as Luka and Abby adjust to being husband and wife, Pratt tries to be a new man to his lady friend, Morris and Hope take things to the next level, and Ray goes missing. Later on, Luka gets a troubling phone call.
Luka postpones his honeymoon, leaving Abby, Joe and the ER behind to begin a different journey. Meanwhile, it's Moretti's first day as Chief of Emergency Medicine, and everyone feels the effects of his style, especially Pratt and Morris. Neela learns of Ray's fate, then joins an anti-war rally and finds herself in a dangerous situation. Gates faces a crisis on the home front.
Moretti's first day is challenging as the ER is inundated with casualties from the peace rally - including Neela. Dubenko faces a crisis in surgery. Abby, Pratt and Morris conspire about how to deal with a shared problem. A new intern arrives unexpectedly, and Gates is reassigned.
Moretti begins to make his presence felt, as he implements changes in the way patients are seen. The ER staff differ on how procedure when a patient comes in with a bullet in him needed as evidence. Neela finds herself the object of more attention that she wants, or needs. Abby had passport woes, and struggles with the changes being made. Pratt and Morris find themselves forced to defend their actions, Hope prepares for a new mission, and Gates finds himself labeled the reject in his new assignment.
Two wounded police auxiliary officers present challenges in the ER. Neela settles in with Abby as she recovers, while Pratt and Bettina consider their relationship. Gates tries to get a patient on a drug trial, with Dubenko's help. And Morris is in a funk that not even a pretty woman can help.
It's a bad day for Abby, who's missing the still-absent Luka, when Joe is brought to the ER after a fall and is unable to reach Luka. Elsewhere, the day puts family first as Morris cares for a frightened child and Pratt defends his brother. Neela returns to work, and Moretti returns from a conference. A patient's mother gives the ER staffers makeovers in appreciation. The ER gets a new receptionist.
Moretti decides that Gates is ready to return to the ER; Neela must mentor a young genius intern; Morris has a hard time resisting women while Hope is away.
Morris and Pratt cram for their medical boards when Morretti brings in a new attending physician (Kari Matchett) to help with the load; Sam and Abby work on an attention-hungry patient who comes into the ER with elusive symptoms.
A power outage strikes on an unusually hot day, bringing nursing home patients suffering from hyperthermia to the ER. Abby and Pratt disagree about diagnostic tests for a fussy baby. Morris and Pratt get their board results, and the ER staff celebrates at Ike's. Moretti and Abby's interactions intensify, and Abby finds herself at a dark and frightening crossroads.
Everyone at the ER is happily surprised to see Luka back from Croatia. Great news awaits Neela. Sarah once again needs rescuing by Tony, and patients are causing problems for Morris.
It's time for changes at the ER when Anspaugh makes an unpopular decision. Abby has old demons to fight with, which distance her from friends and family. Even Luka seems to be at a loss to help Abby. Love is in the air when a secret romance blooms between two doctors.
Luka and Abby are hurriedly preparing to travel to Croatia after Luka's father passes away. Luka confronts Abby about the estrangement between them, and she eventually reaches out and asks for his help. A man rushes to the ER when his wife is seriously injured in a car accident, and finds someone very unexpected there with her. Julia holds a service to bless the ER and remember the patients that have been lost through the years.
After being passed over for Chief of the ER, Pratt is looking for a hospital that will appreciate his talents. A former employee of the ER brings her sick son in for tests. Neela's cousin is in town for a visit, and Morris and Harold compete for her affections.
Abby is back from rehab and finds herself the object of scrutiny. She confesses to Pratt that Luka might stay in Croatia longer than planned. Harold seems to have won over Neela's cousin. Multiple victims from a fire fill the ER.
Neela's short visit in Ortho turns into a game of hockey. Bettina wants to take her relationship with Pratt to the next level, but Pratt is not keen on the idea. Gates and Sam disagree over a patient. Julia provides some spiritual guidance in order to ease a prison doctor's bad conscience.
Pratt and a new doctor on the scene disagree on how to teach the interns. Gates treats a young woman with serious heart problems. Abby heads to Croatia, and ponders whether and how to tell Luka about her unfortunate choices. Sam discovers that Julia has moved on in more ways than one.
Neela, worn out after being on shift for over 24 hours, has to make a quick decision regarding an accident victim's torn aorta. Sarah's grandparents are in town, and Hank is rushed to the ER after collapsing during an outing. Gates tries to convey to Sam that his feelings for her are serious.
Kovac is in Chicago looking for hospice-care work. Neela's aorta surgery has caused an infection in her patient. Abby treats a teen who has been beaten up. Brenner continues to cause problems for the ER staff.
There's been a jewelry robbery in town, and Neela finds out that one of her patients might have had something to do with it. Pratt makes an effort to save his relationship with Bettina, and Abby worries about her marriage, sensing that Luka may have given up on it.
Neela's aortic rupture patient is in need of yet another follow up surgery, and they are starting to take a toll on her. Morris talks with a shrink about his experience with the jewelery thieves. Abby needs to make a tough decision when a new opportunity is presented to her.
When a drunk patient is admitted to the ER, his actions endanger everyone at County. Pratt is still pursuing his dreams of becoming Chief of the ER, and Gates is worried about his future with Sam. Luka unexpectedly runs into Dr. Moretti.
Abby awakens after the ambulance explosion and rushes to check on Pratt; Sam and Gates rush to the scene; Morris and Neela struggle to keep up with Pratt's injuries.
Everyone in the ER is trying to cope with the loss of their colleague. The staff feels defensive toward the new Chief and her tough disposition. Gates and the new interns treat a bio terrorist, who has a lethal secret that endangers them all. Neela makes a great effort to get Dubenko back on the surgery staff, and gets help from an unexpected souce.
Neela is upset when she finds out Abby's good news second hand; the new chief, Catherine Banfield, and Abby disagree on how to treat a gunshot wound victim; Abby defends Sam when she goes before a nurses disciplinary board.
Banfield is caught off guard when a man tries to steal her wallet; Dr. Dubenko returns to the surgery team; a family member is suspected of hurting a young gymnast; Sarah gets her tongue pierced.
Sam's time is taken up by her studies for a pharmacology exam, leaving Gates feeling neglected. A school fight results in a stabbing, with Brenner treating the victim and trying to uncover the truth behind the story. Morris has a surprise for Neela. Gates gets locked in a stairwell with a quiet young boy on Halloween night.
Dr. Banfield is irritated when Morris takes Chaz under his wing and teaches him risky medical procedures; Neela is unhappy when Dr. Banfield undermines her authority with an intern.
Dr. Banfield takes a run to clear her head but finds herself trying to rescue a three-year-old girl from drowning in a nearby lake. Gates tries to pull some strings in the ER to help his homeless war hero. Banfield is reminded of her own experience at County with Dr. Greene caring for her son as she tries to save the young three-year-old girl from certain death. Meanwhile, the interns continue to struggle to keep up in the ER.
Sam gets frustrated with Gates when he gets obsessed with finding a homeless war hero. Neela is upset at her intern after he gets the entire surgery department into a lawsuit. A husband and wife come into the ER after someone tried to burn down their home. Brenner loses his cool with a patient and it gets physical.
Banfield and Morris go to the coffee shop at 3 a.m. and are served by 20-year-old Debbie who is six-months pregnant. The doctors treat someone with a heart problem and Alex. Chaz must look for a missing 7-year-old boy who saw his sister die.
Doctors take care of 24-year-old Gloria Ortiz who is 8 months pregnant. The woman fell during an immigration raid at a tie factory and started getting contractions. Coburn discovers that the baby has a mass in the neck and head area… maybe cancer? Immigration agents come to the hospital to take Gloria into custody. Banfield has Morris do paperwork instead of seeing patients. Frank plans to dress up as Santa for the Christmas party. Neela has no intentions on going to said party claiming that last year turned out bad since Morris pinched her butt and Frank almost threw up on her. Sam pushes Dubenko to extubate Alex today instead of tomorrow. Neela is at the center of a malpractice suit.
Alex is set to be released from the hospital. Doctors treat African-American brothers Curtis Bennet, 17, who has abdominal pain and 10-year-old Quincy Bennet who has a knee injury. Both were injured during a drug deal that went terribly wrong. There's still some residual tension between Gates and Sam. A female patient in police custody doesn't want to be examed by Morris. A 13-year-old patient named Anastasia messes with Neela's love life.
Neela has a recurring dream; Gates tries to save a patient who jumped out of a window while sleeping; Neela is surprised to see Dr. Corday.
Morris tries to help a girl who was hit while riding her bike; Gates can't get over his feelings for Sam; Neela is flustered when Dr. Brenner returns from Australia.
Morris and Gates treat an older man who was assaulted on the street; Sam gets a surprise visit from her sister; Dr. Morgenstern visits County General when he discovers an old mentor is ill.
A mother is severely injured by a car accident in the ambulance bay; an insurance company frustrates Morris; Neela tells Brenner about her offer in North Carolina.
It’s Valentine’s Day in the ER and Neela seems to be under the spell of Dr. Brenner. Gates treats a bizarre mushroom hunter that comes in on his wedding day with breathing problems. Banfield refuses to give up on having a baby but is having trouble convincing her husband of her plan. Neela gives a little girl great news about her mother’s heart transplant surgery but is disappointed when a critical mistake is made. Meanwhile, Dr. Carter makes a surprise return to the ER.
After getting frustrated with In Vitro Fertilization Dr. Banfield and her husband decide to try an adoption agency to fulfill their dreams of having a family. Dr. Carter quickly tries to jump back into working at County but struggles with all the new procedures and technology. Sam is shocked when her mom comes into the ER in an altered state of mind
A camera crew interviews the staff at County General for a documentary on emergency medicine. Morris’ cop girlfriend gets injured on the job and is rushed into the ER with gunshot wounds. Neela wonders why her relationship with Brenner lacks so much communication. Sam struggles to make amends with her mother.
Neela and Sam are shocked when they arrive back to the airport with transplant organs only to find that their plane has left them. Dr. Carter gets a surprise visit from an old friend while waiting for his kidney transplant. Dr. Banfield bonds with an abandoned baby boy that is left at the ER.
It's Neela's last day and everyone in the ER seems to have forgotten that she is leaving. Neela proves she is ready to be an attending when she and Dr. Dubenko argue about the treatment of two surgical cases. Meanwhile, Brenner has an epiphany about his troubled past.
Many of the ER doctors and nurses help out at Camp Del Corazon, a camp for kids who have had open heart surgery. Working along side the camp counselor, Morris and Brenner make a huge impact on several kids at the camp. Meanwhile, Dr. Banfield and her husband feel their adoption dreams slipping away when a young mother comes back for the child she abandoned in the ER.
The cast and crew reflect on 15 years in the ER. From the pilot to the finale the stories from Country General have impacted audiences all around the world. Now, the most recognized drama bids farewell.
Gates works on a young teen brought in with alcohol poisoning after playing a deadly drinking game with friends. Dr. Carter opens a new medical facility for the underprivileged in Chicago and some old friends from County General all come to show their support. It’s Sam’s birthday and Alex and Gates surprise her with a special gift. Meanwhile, Carter works with an intern to save a mother in labor with twins.
The reunion episode will feature cast members Gloria Reuben (Jeanie Boulet), George Clooney (Doug Ross), Noah Wyle (John Carter), Laura Innes (Kerry Weaver), Anthony Edwards (Mark Greene), Julianna Margulies (Carol Hathaway), Goran Visnjic (Luka Kovac), Paul McCrane (Robert Romano), Ming-Na Wen (Jing-Mei Chen), Laura Cerón (Chuny Marquez), Yvette Freeman (Haleh Adams), Conni Marie Brazelton (Connie Oligario), Ellen Crawford (Lydia Wright) and CCH Pounder (Angela Hicks). This special episode of Stars in the House will be held in benefit of the Waterkeeper Alliance — the fastest growing global nonprofit focused solely on clean water. Waterkeeper Alliance ensures that the world’s Waterkeeper groups are as connected to each other as they are to their local waters, organizing the fight for clean water into a coordinated global movement.
