Ideas on Carter...we'll just have to impatiently wait

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The name of the show was Be Patient...do you think the writers were refering to viewers? J/k, but what did it refer to? The storyline that makes the most sense is Carter...he was so frustrated to recover.

So I have many thoughts on this show...as much as I'd like the whole thing to be focused on Carter and Lucy's memory, it is not realistic to ER, and more will come up about Carter...the affects of Mark's attack lasted way through the next season. First, they made it very difficult to decifer between Carter's physical pain and emotional pain.

i.e. Talking to Deb, he asked about the funeral but didn't want to talk about it...then he winced...I couldn't tell whether he was in pain or ready to start crying.

i.e. he looked very uncomfortable talking to Lucy's mom (I really liked her!)...once again, physical or emotional pain? Though every time she mentioned how much Lucy talked about him :) he could barely talk. She asked him if she could ask him a question and he just whispered "yes".

and...telling Benton about how he lied about the pain...was this what bothered him the most about talking to her...I really wish he would have gone on then to tell Benton about how he fell and saw Lucy lying there in pain and how he couldn't help her. That will have to haunt him.

SInce Carter would most likely not be depressed about his own situation, (in fact, he seems very optimistic about his own recovery, even last week with Benton, before discovering about Lucy) I am sure this will be about Lucy. Soon he will be walking around, and I am hoping he will make a visit to her grave, though I have realized she most likely was not buried around there, but at her hometown. But maybe ER will oversee this for dramatic affect.

So overall, I enjoyed VERY much Benton's continued concern for Carter...esp. even talking to Cleo about it and skipping the club just to go talk about it. I was VERY disappointed with everyone else's response to Lucy's death...Carol never cared, Elizabeth and Mark are fine, Deb and Malucchi are the only ones even to mention them, and Deb is the last one I cared about caring. I thought Carrie would go nutz with new rules and disciplining over how this could happen and how they need to make it so it never happens again. But everyone was fine. Was she not a main character??? I'm sure Carter's return to work will bring things up again at least. Unfortunately, we have at least a few weeks to wait.

Sorry so long, I tend to go on and on about things.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

When I saw the title of the show I felt like the writers were talking to the audience about being "patient". I think they want to give Carter time to start reacting to all that has happened.. I think he is feeling tremendous guilt for sending Lucy back in with Sobriki. I was very distracted by the tediousness of the relationship chatter with Eliz. and her mom. I guess they can't have a heart-pounding episode every week. I thought the "service" for Lucy was brushed over ( they could have shown some people coming in after the service), I was touched by Malucci's sensitivity to Lucy's mom..I didn't realize Benton and Cleo were an item but it was nice hearing him talk about Carter and his past. I was very surprised there wasn't some sort of fall out from a doctor/student/intern being killed in the ER.. no new rules mentioned.. no one talked about being jumpy or edgy or even saddened that a fellow worker was gone. I guess we just have to be patient. maybe they will show Carter in some therapy sessions. He's bound to be having nightmares. Who knows when new episodes will start? June? September? May?

-- gail (gailbur@gateway.net), February 25, 2000.

It is a good idea to maybe have Carter going to visit Lucy's grave. It does seem like he will probably be the one to be affected the most by Lucy's death, since he seemed to have worked with her more closely than anyone else did. They even had that little incident where they were making out in the exam room, and we know that there was chemistry between them once. I wonder if he will suffer from post- traumatic stress like Mark did.

I also think "Be Patient" could have had reference to Abby and Kerry and how Kerry was in a hurry to discharge that man, but Abby wanted to wait and do more tests. ALso how Luka got in a hurry with that little girl, and Mark told him the ambulance arrived 2 minutes after he left.

-- melanie (msintn@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000.


While I'm new to the site I just want to say that I completely agree with your appraisal of this episode. I would have prefered more scences with Carter, I'm hoping that the writers draw this story line out. While I realize that several people did not enjoy this episode as much because of the lack of attention paid to Lucy's death, I think it will be good in the long run because the people closest to her can be shown greiving and dealing with her death in their own way. I just hope that the writers don't drop the ball because there are great storyline possibilities here. Sorry to be so long-winded :)

-- Emma (webbef@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000.

I think once Carter starts back to work and into his normal routine we will start seeing more guilt and the effects of what happened. Right now while he is cooped up in his hospital room it probably isn't 100% real yet. So I think we will see a LOT more from him. I also think that having him back in the ER will bring out some emotions in the others too. I really enjoyed Benton/Carter last night. I too thought there would be some administrative repercussions to the events that took place last week -- maybe in future epis?

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), February 25, 2000.

I think "Be patient" also referred to the fact that Carter now has to be a patient instead of a doctor, and face the pain and difficulty of recovering from a medical trauma.

-- Chessie King (barrelofcrows@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000.


I agree with the thought of Carter "being the patient." Also, Malucci was trying to get Carol to be patient with the cervical cancer/overdose attempt girl- he said he could help her by "bagging" her, but Carol wanted to intobate (apologies if I misspelled that). Anyways, he convinced Carol to be patient, and the bagging worked.

-- sarah (sarahleary@cfl.rr.com), February 25, 2000.

This is probably off the topic somewhat, but does anyone know when the next new episode will take place?

-- Jen (jenrafoul@aol.com), February 26, 2000.

New episodes will be on March 23

-- Abigail (abbyqueen@aol.com), February 27, 2000.

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