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Entertainment Hotline » Blog Archive » ER Recap and Review- Doctor Heal Thyself melts hearts 
Fri, Nov 14
ER Recap and Review- Doctor Heal Thyself melts hearts November 14th, 2008 Review by Kate Blake, Admin The Entertainment Hotline ER is showing in its last season why it has been the show to watch on Thursday nights for the past 15 years. Tonight was a true treat for fans of the long running medical drama. We were treated to a glimpse into the past and at the same time tonight’s episode allowed the viewers to really connect with the new cast member who has joined the show. If you haven’t read all about it- tonight’s episode Doctor Heal Thyself included a special appearance by Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene. The episode opened with the quote from the bible about physcian heal thyself from the book of Luke- then we see Angela Bassett’s character Dr. Cate Banfield at home with her husband- she is lying on a bed in a guest room. The couple has had a lot of tension between them this season and tonight we find out what is between them. Cate leaves her husband mid-conversation to take her morning run. While approaching the lake we see an emergency crew and a man in the water with a stroller- his small grand daughter has fallen into the lake. The race is on to now save the life of this little girl. From the beginning of the case we see that Banfield is distracted. She works the call with Scott Grimes Dr. Archie Morris. As they try to save the little girl whose heart has stopped while in the cold water, she flashes back to a time years earlier when she was happy. We see her and her husband playing touch football with their son , then Cate and Russell are sitting and talking- he wants another baby and she is not sure she is ready. All is well until their boy collapses with a seizure. She tells her husband it is nothing and they take him home. When they get there it isn’t nothing- he throws up blood and they are off to the hospital. As the ER team today works to save a small girl, Banfield works to calm the girl’s mother and keep herself focused but memories flood her. We see her and her husband with thier son in the ER- and the attending physician is none other than Mark Greene. The timing of this episode was during Edwards last season when Mark was undergoing chemo for his brain cancer and he puts off his chemo treatment to work on the Banfield’s son . Fans are treated to more familiar faces as Laura Innes’ Dr. Kerry Weaver pokes her head in at one point to tell Mark to get to his treatment, we also saw Abraham Benrubi’s Jerry the desk clerk who left the show in 2006 in the season 13 premiere when his character died when Sam’s convict ex-husband broke out of the ER and took her hostage shooting his way out with Jerry as one of the victims in his path of destruction. Jerry was a surprise guest appearance- and I am sure we will get more like this as the season progresses. Final ghost was Paul McCrane as Dr. Robert Romano- before he became the one armed man ( after helicopter number one amputated his arm) and then his final run in with a helicopter which killed his character in season 10 in 2003. The glimpse into the past and seeing Mark when he was struggling with his marriage to Elizabeth and his chemo and keeping himself together on the job and still finding it in him to provide the highest level of care in a trauma reminded me of why I love this show and will be so sad to see it go. The script for this epsiode was written by David Zabel who is a senior producer and writer for the series. He has been with the show since 2001 and wrote most of the episodes during Edwards’ last season including his final episode when he died. This explains why Mark felt exactly like the Mark Greene that we remembered. It was a genuine look at a case we just didn’t get to see back then. The storyline that unfolded was that the Banfield’s son had had a couple of seizures which his doctors had diagnosed as being neurological and told Cate to watch out for him but not to worry too much. When he collapsed and ended up in the ER it was apparent more was going on than this. Cate is trying to get in the middle of the diagnosis and Mark tells her to let them do their job- what they uncover literally floors her husband and leaves her in shock. Russell slides to the floor when they pronounce that the boy has acute leukemia and the seizures are a stroke. He then codes and cannot be revived. Russell picks himself up and walks out to call family and make arrangements while Cate sits quietly at her son’s side. She does not cry. The emotional woman who walked in is now a shell. She is hollow in her words and tone of voice. Later Mark sees her outside the hospital and tells her grief is never easy but that she can’t blame herself. The acute leukemia is extremely hard to diagnose and she needs to try to be there for her husband. The team works in the present and manages to save the little girl after figuring out she ate some of grandpa’s blood pressure pills and treating her for poisoning as well as her near drowning. In the break room, Cate is getting ready to leave and Archie walks in and asks her if it was the kid that got to her- had the big case that got away from her been a kid? She tells him it was a boy- her boy in trauma one. Archie is stunned “And your work here now?” She says she never cried. But she didn’t leave her house for two years after he died- until the Tsunami in Asia when she picked up and went to help and came back just this fall to work here at county. Angela Bassett shows her acting range in a performance here that is Emmy worthy, and brought me to tears. “When your parents die you are an orphan, when your spouse dies you are a widow, when your child dies- there is no word for that.” At home she finds her husband in the room where she had been in the morning- their son’s room. Redecorated but still his room. Russell asks her if they have been fooling themselves- they left each other years ago. She sits across the room not looking at him and opens up that she knew he didn’t blame her but she did- and she blamed herself for spending her days wishing she could die and be with their boy in heaven and leave him and all the pain and all of their chances for future happiness. She has been on edge all day- and finally breaks down in her husband’s arms and the pain of loss begins to heal as the credits role. I called my mom when the episode was over and told her to make sure she watched it- I am on Mountain time and she is on Pacific time so she watches two hours after me. She called me later and we talked about how powerful Bassett was and the deep emotional scenes with Courtney B. Vance who plays her husband on the show and is her husband in real life. This was the second time this season ER has had me in tears- the first being the season premiere with the death of Greg Pratt. Last week we saw Archie deal with the grief over the loss of his friend by projecting things onto Greg’s brother Chazz with a less than stellar outcome. ER has been successul for so long because their formula is they don’t use a formula. You can watch week after week or walk in cold and feel and understand what is happening very easily. The quality of the writing has never suffered and other than a few mis-steps here and there in casting, the show has always been a bastion of fine acting. No matter how bad things get- ER likes to show you that things can get better. The ultimate message is hope. I have heard that the series producers have said they are not going to end the season with a disaster but rather a celebration. What I know is I will be tuning in every week and continue to beat the drum telling anyone who will listen that they should tune into ER this season because when it is gone there will be a gaping hole in our TV schedule. I was a huge St. Elsewhere fan back in the day- that was the series in the 80s that launched the careers of Mark Harmon and Denzel Washington amongst others. ER launched George Clooney into superstardom and the series has garnered more emmy nods than any other medical drama. ER will run in re-runs thank god for years to come but there is nothing quite like watching it when it is new and fresh and you don’t know what is happening next. Filed under: ER Article tags: angela bassett anthony edwards, ER Physician Heal Thyself Review and Recap
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