I started watching ER during season 3 and I don't get TNT, so I have not seen Love's Labour Lost. I do get ER on the WB channel, but I must have missed it and it won't be on again for awhile, since it is just beginning season 2 right now. I have become very interested since everyone has said how wonderful an episode it is and I was wondering if someone could please describe what is so incredible about it (I have no doubt it is!). I have read the summary, but I would appreciate other feelings on it.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), March 27, 2000

Answers

IMHO, this was the most powerful ER episode ever. It's aired every so often, so keep an eye out as it's definitely a "must-see". I'll try to describe it in a nutshell ... I'm sure others will contribute more details. A young pregnant woman comes into the ER with what Mark diagnoses as a bladder infection. She starts seizing in the parking lot after she is discharged, is admitted back, and is diagnosed with pre-eclampsya (I'm sure I misspelled that! but a dangerous condition for a pregnant woman, which Mark failed to diagnose.) She goes into labor and Mark cannot deliver the baby vaginally, cannot get ANYONE from OB to come down and help him, so does a Caesarian on his own -- by this time the woman is almost gone, but they are trying to save her and the baby. The woman dies, but Mark keeps trying to resuscitate her. He finally admits she's dead, then OB finally comes down and on-call doc yells at him that it looks like he performed the Caesar with a chainsaw and why didn't he call OB? Then Mark, exhausted and drenched with sweat, has to go tell the father, who is rocking his newborn baby in the nursery. When he hears about his wife, the father bends over the baby, weeping. Every so often throughout the epi, there is a clock at the bottom of the screen showing the time, so you can get a sense of how long and how hard Mark worked to save this woman's life. It is heartbreaking and very powerful, as what I got out of it was that sometimes we think doctors are super-human ... and they're not. They're people too. An incredible epi.

-- Cindy (tailchasers51@hotmail.com), March 28, 2000.

Cindy's summary is great...I just want to add a couple of things. At the end, Susan and I think maybe a few other people ask Mark if he's OK, and he says he is. He'd been about to go off shift when Jody O'Brian came back in seizing and he stayed an incredibly long time until the whole thing was over so we know he's exhausted. The final shot in the episode is Mark on the El slumping down in a seat and finally crying. It gives a really powerful insight into Mark's character, that underneath any facade he tries to put up is a really tender, caring, and ultimately human guy. He also has a conversation with Susan before he leaves about whether or not it was reasonable that he missed the pre-eclampsya when Jody first came in. I think she says something to the effect of, "Maybe I would have missed it, too" implying she might have caught it herself but still understands how he missed it...putting Mark's mistake in the context of how doctors see other doctors. An interesting note...Deb Chen is one of the students helping Mark through the whole bloody mess and she, like Mark and all the nurses, is very upset at the end. It will be interesting if there's ever a storyline involving Mark and Jing-Mae that refers back to this episode.

I definately agree, one of the most powerful episodes ever. I know you've read about it now, and it will be interesting to see how you feel about it when you see it, Elaine, but it was absolutely incredible watching it and not knowing what was going to happen. At several points, the baby's life is in the gravest danger, so when Jody ultimately dies it's gut-wrenching.

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), March 28, 2000.

Until the episodes in February, this was my favorite ER epi and still is in the top two. I think the reason it stayed with me for so long was I felt like I knew the couple so well. They were discussing the baby's name, cutting up with Mark. Carter was hanging around like a puppy and the mother-to-be asked if he wanted to "look" too (while she was up in the stirrups). When he said, "may I" she responded that he might as well because everyone else had. The couple was very likeable and I wanted the best for them. ER was new when I first saw this episode, and I didn't expect the mother to die in the end. It was a total shock to me the first time. Another thing I remember about this episode is the city I lived in at that time wasn't going to carry it because they had an SEC basketball game scheduled and NBC wouldn't give them permission to show it later. They received a ton of protests and went back to NBC to plead again and this time they received permission. It aired on the next Sunday night/Monday morning around midnight! So those of us who loved the show there almost missed one of the best episodes ever. I taped it and had to loan it to everyone I knew. That part doesn't really have to do with the show itself, but it's interesting to me that I remember it and associate it with "Love's Labour Lost."

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), March 28, 2000.

It's going to be aired on TNT next Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. EST.

-- Chessie King (chessieking@hotmail.com), March 29, 2000.

Thanks everyone, I hope I don't miss it the next time (like I said, I don't get TNT). I just wanted to point out how different ER is now, it's so much more impersonal. I did see the episode/s following Love's Labour Lost, and I remember at least both Susan and Doug still asking Mark if he's alright after that incident. It was definetly followed up. Everyone was much more concerned with everyone else. Now, despite the fact that Carter has been tragically stabbed, has noticably come back to work in pain (therefore returned too early), and lost his med student, there is not much concern for this doctor everyone has worked with for 6 years. And, despite the fact that there was a loud party going on, and had they been found earlier, Lucy may have been saved and Carter's injuries could have been less, but no one seems to have lasting reprocussions. I know, there are things to be assumed, but HELLO let us see a little compassion. A few seasons ago, this would have been a bigger deal. Why not now?! It just bothers me, hopefully, there will be more of this soon.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), March 29, 2000.

While this epi. is very powerful from a dramatic pt. of view, at the risk of being flamed, I have to say it bugs the heck out of me medically. It is so far-fetched as to be totally unbeleivable. It reads like someone looked at a medical text and threw in every complication and worse case scenario - added to the unreal idea of an induction going on in an ER without an OB present. And it reinforces the idea that birth is a horrible, dangerous event. Just my $.02.

-- Chava (ChavaW68@aol.com), March 29, 2000.

Don't watch this if you're pregnant. I was seven months pregnant when I first saw it and while I know that everything that happens is HIGHLY UNUSUAL and unlikely to happen to me, it still upset me terribly. My husband was on a business trip at the time and I had a hard time going to sleep.

It was, though, an outstanding episode. I just can't watch reruns of it. It's a heartbreaker.

-- Rachel (Rachel_L_Stephens@prodigy.net), March 29, 2000.

Per TVGuide.com, it's on TNT on April 13th (a Thursday, I think).

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), March 30, 2000.

Looking at the last two responses, I can't help but put my 2 cents worth in. The story of Loves Labour Lost is not out of the ordinary because it happened to me. Fortunately after spending one week in the intensive care, I did survive delivery, and my baby, whose heart stopped at delivery, was resussitated. He suffered no adverse affects, but spent a week in the intensive care as well. I was five weeks away from my delivery date and just happened to have a prenatal checkup where the dr's detected severe pre-eclampsia and immediately induced labor. According to my doctor, a few weeks later, a mother came in seizing with the same problem (HELLP Syndrome). It is more common than you might think.

-- catie (cslords@juno.com), March 31, 2000.

Do any of you know if the plot to Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost was original to him? I say that the only plot Shakespeare invented on his own was A Midsummer Night's Dream, but my friend says there were two more, one of which was Love's Labours Lost.

-- Nilsen (andverman@hotmail.com), September 18, 2001.