I guess it takes a big trauma to bring out the emotion in Benton, Weaver and Romano. It was strange how they were the ones showing all of the emotion while the normally emotional ones, Mark and Carol, didn't show as much as usual. I also thought it was interesting with the "new comers" Luka, Abbey, Deb, etc were all together across the street at the diner. It was almost as if the writers were showing us that we have to get used to the new characters since a lot of the old ones are gone or leaving.

-- KJ (KristijohnsonSD@aol.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

Actually, I think Mark has never been a terribly expressive person but he has always been kind, caring, and very supportive . . . I felt that he was certainly suffering and grieving but being put-upon by the entire frantic situation had to keep a lid on it and as they always say, "there's no rest . . ." I felt really bad for him. I just wanted him to go home and hold Eliz, protect her from her grating mother . . .

-- Miriam (thmilin@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.

I thought it was wierd and rather callous of Carol to just say, "I just heard" and that's it, about the whole Lucy tragedy. She seemed extremely normal about it or at least, as routine as one can be about death.

-- diG (dgeng@jps.net), February 18, 2000.

I thought so, too, about Carol. I thought it rather odd she didn't even ask Mark if he was ok or something more than her seemingly half-hearted "I just heard." As for Mark, I think he was acting as sort of the "Dad" of the ER. Weaver is the "Mom" and she wasn't holding up as well as we thought she might have been able too. So, Mark had to be strong and go on. He hasn't had time to mourn yet. They all probably will later.

Speaking of later, I hope they have a funeral for Lucy and we see them out of the ER for a while and as friends. I think that would be good.

-- Lily (Lucyszkj@ucrwcu.rwc), February 18, 2000.

I agree. I think it was interesting that we got to see the human side of Weaver, Romano, and Benton more than the others. Especially Weaver and Romano at the end of the show taking special care of Lucy. I think the usual ER hectic pace kept Mark from getting to deal with the situation; someone had to be in charge. There was that moment towards the end when it seemed like he was going to get to give in to the emotion and then another case came in. I was terribly disappointed in Carol's reaction. I expected more feeling from her. I hope next week's episode doesn't totally ignore the events of these last two

-- T. Alvis (talvis@siu.edu), February 18, 2000.

I agree, I definetly hope that there is a funeral for her...if they leave it at just this it would be horrible. I hope Carter makes a big deal out of making sure he goes even though he should be bed- ridden. As Carol was walking in announcing new patients, I actually felt the way Mark must have felt to have to go on after all of this. I would have wanted to run out of there. I think Elizabeth will have problems with this whole thing in the next few weeks, since we saw how upset she was at the end. I hope her and Mark will deal with this. And Kerry too, and hopefully Carter, after seeing his face that Lucy is dead. They said the ER would never be the same, so it better not be!

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.

i was amazed at what a wonderful job laura innes did in tonight's episode. i knew benton would be emotional over carter, but somehow i expected kerry to take it a little more in stride. i love when a charachter can still suprise me after all this time. and speaking of surprised, did everyone notice randi's reaction? we've seen her angry and frustrated, but never anything like this. it was almost as if she was completeley verwhelmed by emotion.

-- chrissie (citron1@pdq.net), February 18, 2000.

Romano's reaction made sense to me... didn't Lucy show up at his home, on Christmas Eve, and beg him to come to the hospital to perform an emergency surgery on a patient? Clearly, the ground work was being laid that Romano had a soft spot for Lucy... plus he probably felt like an ass knowing that the last words she ever heard had more of an air of flippancy than feeling...

-- L (lolabronx@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.