After recently watching the TNT rerun of "The Storm" where Lucy and Carter were making out in the exam room and reading the commentary on it here, I just had some observations. I thought it was kind of odd that, at that time, Carter stopped the whole thing with Lucy because he said there were rules and he could get in trouble. But lately this season, we've seen him bending the rules all over the place! There was the episode where he and Deb lied about the lesbian girl being pregnant, he falsified the chart for the diabetic boy, and also the lady with Parkinson's disease. He did something where she could get admitted to the hospital so her daughter could get a break from taking care of her. And when Deb asked him about it, he was like "Well, Deb sometimes you just have to bend the rules!"

Does anyone else think that seems out of character for him? I guess we could argue that there were other reasons why he stopped himself from having more of a relationship with Lucy, but do you think the writers are using this season's events to lead into his problems with pain killers that we've heard are coming in future episodes? I mean, maybe he will think it's okay to "bend the rules" and prescribe medicine for himself because he's a doctor and knows what he's doing. Any thoughts?

-- Melanie (msintn@hotmail.com), March 18, 2000

Answers

I think Carter is willing to "bend the rules" when a patient's well being is at stake. However, with he and Lucy, this wasn't the case. Carter wasn't willing to risk getting in trouble for something that wouldn't affect anyone's health or welfare.

-- Carin (cdenisehaze@usa.net), March 18, 2000.

I don't like Carter's "rule bending" either. It doesn't seem in character to me although I will admit he is the doctor who advocates for his patients the most. I have a question about Carter's convalesence (sp?). Is Benton still his doctor during this healing time? And if so, how much does he normally get involved with his patients at this stage? Is it possible that he could screw up Carter's pain medication possibly by being overly optimistic about recovery time. Carter would probably not want to disappoint Benton by not healing in the time allotted by his friend.

-- maryann (map5860@aol.com), March 18, 2000.

I agree with Cairn! I think the rule bending Carter does is truely in character, as and advocate for whatever is best for his patient. His concern for the patient, and their quality of life is what changed Carter's specialty from surgery,with the "cut and pass" involvement, to emergency medicine. He has never played fast and loose with the medical or ethical treatment of patients.

-- Deb (KHege@AOL.com), March 18, 2000.

I agree that it is in character for Carter, he isn't dramatic about going against the rules, he just does it subtly. Just like it was in character for Doug to bend the rules, although for him it was always more drastic measures. In last year's Christmas episode, he recoded (or whatever) a brain dead patient so that he could use his rare blood type for another needy patient even though Lucy warned him it was against the mother's wishes and DNR request. Despite that she was shocked and against his actions, I think Lucy admired Carter's persistence in desperately trying to help a needy patient.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), March 20, 2000.