I think that Carol will say good-bye on the next-to-last eppy but on the last eppy, Doug - who is in town to help Carol & the girls move will go see Mark in an effort to comfort him after his Dad's suicide. He'll be returning the kindness Mark showed when they went out to claim Doug's father's body so long ago.

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), April 25, 2000

Answers

I would love to see Doug & Carol and their daughters together as a family. Anyhow, I believe Doug should and WOULD return not only to claim his family, but to assist and be there for Mark in the same way Mark was for Doug. It would be nice if we got another Mark/Carol/Doug moment before she goes -- it would be bittersweet and a great way to pay tribute to these past six years. Also it would help the viewers and the character of Mark to mov

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 25, 2000.

ARGH!! Microsoft IE always cuts off the last bit of my posts!! Anyhow, that last part read:

"...Also it would help the viewers and the character of Mark to move on."

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 25, 2000.

I totally agree that another Doug/Carol/Mark scene would be great! Bittersweet, but giving closure as well. Boy, I'm still kind of trying to come to grips with the revelation that Doug has been seeing the girls & Carol all along though. . . It would've been nice to have some more scenes with Mark & Carol where they discussed this. Boy, who is Mark going to turn to now that Carol's almost gone? He doesn't seem to have many other close friends, and things seem rather uncertain with him & Elizabeth right now. Maybe this should've been a different thread. . .BTW, I'm looking forward to the season finale, and seeing guest star Stewart Finnlay-McLennan (the injured, but hardy, rugby player)-- he's a very good actor IMHO, and I'm sure he'll bring much to his role. Just my .02!

-- Michelle (michw_316@yahoo.com), April 25, 2000.

Ok, stay with me here. A while ago, I saw NO reason for Doug to come back. My reasons?:

1) The show has moved on 2) The writers are too lazy to develop the new characters and having Doug back would just give them an excuse to not do any more development.

Ok, but I've been thinking ( yeah, yeah, I do think sometimes). If Doug came back, we could see how things have changed. How will Doug react to the newer characters. Personally I'd love a scene between him and Dr. Dave. The Mark And Doub thing would be amazing.

So, now I'd like Doug back BUT years of following the X Files has left me cynical and doubtful of tv networks. ( Come on, if the only network you'd really any conversation with for years was the FOX network - you'd be cautious of all networks forever.) As much as I'd love to see Doug back for a ep of two. I don't see it happening.

-- KITCAT (kitcat_1013@yahoo.co.uk), April 26, 2000.

I would also like to see how Doug would react to the new characters but I think if he comes back it will only be in passing - he won't be focussed on, for the writers would then have to develop and bring back a character who has gone. I'd also like to see how he has changed.

I do not think that Doug will necessarily come back if Mark's father dies because he's left his old life behind, and moved on. Carol and his children are the only thing he's kept from his old life - you'd think otherwise he'd at least try to keep in touch with all his closest friends. He'd possibly even feel a little guilty about simply cutting off his friends, and worry what they'd think of him for not coming back when he heard of Carol's pregnancy. IT would be nice to see Doug come back as it would justify Carol leaving to be with him - she's still not sure if she can trust him but if he came back to her to take her with him it would be a sure sign that he regrets leaving her, wants to share his life with her and wannts to be a father to his children.

-- Juliet (Vizzn@AOL..com), April 26, 2000.

It would be interesting if Doug did come back but we were given some reason to be suspect of a "happily ever after"...we don't know what he's been up to in Seattle. Maybe old bad habits have resurfaced. Maybe we'll get to see him looking longingly after one of the new med students or something...

I know everyone wants --needs-- a happily ever after, but after the fairy tale way Jeannie left, I'd be up for something a little more realistic, something suggesting that there was a reason why Doug went to Seattle in the first place. I'm still not convinced that there was anything simple in the character Doug's decision to leave (to differentiate from Clooney) and I want a conclusion to this that at least alludes to the complexity of the situation.

Forgive my high standards...

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), April 26, 2000.

Nancy said exactly what I've been thinking...I don't know what Doug's been up to in Seattle and do know that he's never been one to be alone for long...and a year is a long, long time for someone who cannot be alone. I also have a problem with Carol possibly dropping her entire life (isn't Chicago her home town? I'm assuming since her mother lives there) and career and riding off into the sunset with "Mr. Right." Don't get me wrong...I like the Doug character, but find this a bit unrealistic in the year 2000. Maybe it's just a little too close to home...a few years ago a boyfriend (in the entertainment biz who moves around a lot) told me I could go anywhere with him that he moved...I stifled a laugh since I was the one with two college degrees and a stable life, why would I have wanted to become a nomad? I just can't see Carol going that route either. And Doug is a nomad. He said at one point that he'd been at County longer than he'd been anywhere else ever.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 26, 2000.

Has anyone not wondered about Doug having moved on and started a relationship with a new floozy in Seattle? It would be nice to see the little Ross Family all wrapped up together and tied with a bow, but more & more I'm thinking it might not happen. Let's hope. By the way, I think Carol & Luka are great together.

-- Emma (redwing8420@aol.com), April 26, 2000.

Yes, obviously Doug has moved on. He is only calling Carol, visiting the girls, etc. because he's ready to get married to some floozy.

I hope you enjoy Carol and Luka together. Should last, oh, at least 15-20 minutes ;^D

-- Phyl (erfan@flash.net), April 26, 2000.

Jeez Phyl, overreact much? I read in another thread someone stated how "obvious" it was that Doug & Carol love each other. Oh really. It is? You sure wouldn't know by the erratic, unpredictable and obscure writing this season. I think most of us think it would be nice, no, the right thing, to tie the Ross package up together, it's just not clear that's what will happen. (A little aside;it's not as if Doug's character has never been known to hook up with another woman with short notice.) The writers have given viewers scarcely one tidbit of an idea what Doug's been up to in Seattle, until the other night's episode with that door-in-the-face shock that he's "seen the girls". So, indeed, who knows? And it must seem to Luka, who has spent some considerable amount of time with Carol & the girls, that Doug hasn't been around. That's, so far, what the writers have given us, the viewers, to go on. I hope Doug gets the girl(s), but we don't know.

-- Elizabeth (chica3r@aol.com), April 26, 2000.

Gee, Elizabeth, snipe much? Or did you miss my winky-face?

-- Phyl (erfan@flash.net), April 26, 2000.

I doubt Doug's hooked up with some floozy. Beside the fact that he's worked hard to reform himself, running around with some twenty-year-old is *SURE* the way to get Carol to move to Seattle. :

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 26, 2000.

I think it quite possible that Doug might have started a non-serious relationship which he could always end quickly just in case Carol agreed to come to Seattle with him. I don't think Carol should run after him - why should she give up everything for an uncertain relationship when he's not prepared to give up a few months in Seattle for his children? If anything, he should come back to her - he should come begging!

Despite this though, I still think Carol's in love with him. She can't simply stop loving him just because he's not good for her. It doesn't work that way. So while I hope Carol doesn't run after Doug, I think it likely she probably will.

-- juliet (Vizzn@AOL.com), April 27, 2000.

If you love someone, if you want to make a life with them, if you want to make babies with them, how do you up and leave? After the beloved makes it clear they want to stay put? How can we not think that there was more to Doug moving several thousand miles away had everything to do with his career? It's not like he moved to Skokie. He saw his girls --looked at them, held them, smelled them-- and got back on the plane to Seattle? There has to be more to him, I tells ya...and it in no way negates the fact that he ever loved Carol or that she ever loved him. Real love is a hell of a lot more complicated than that...I'm not saying that Doug is necessarily involved with a floozy...But if he's SuperBeau, not flawed in any way, how can we explain the past year? All I want is some reference to the true complexity of the situation.

-- nancy (ntc72@mailcity.com), April 27, 2000.

Judging from all of your answers, I gather no one thinks Doug might have actually grown-up during the past year and all of these behind the scenes visits and telephone conversations and letters may have been him and Carol working on the relationship?

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), April 27, 2000.

I really do think Doug has grown-up. He doesn't want to do anything Carol says not to, fearing that those actions would REALLY end any shot at a "happily ever after" with her. When he left their intention seemed to, after some time had passed, work on rebuilding their relationship. I believe that sometime after the babies were born, this has begun. Perhaps they got to talking when she phoned him to tell him about the birth? After all, Carol had six weeks off, and I'm sure for part of that time Doug was there. We know that he was persistent in calling her, even though she failed to return his phone calls.

He's involved enough for Carol to give those girls his last name (something I don't feel she'd do if she didn't expect Doug to be a father to them), and it sounds as though he visits on a semi-regular or frequent basis. Obviously it's not enough for Carol to feel satisfied that her daughters have a father (something neither she nor Doug had growing up), but something fairly important must be going on when he visits, for her to now be seemingly torn about whether or not to uproot her life and move to Seattle (something she couldn't do a year ago). JMHO.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 27, 2000.

I think for me the thing is that everytime I've seen Doug take two steps forward, he takes at least 1 1/2 back later. There has been some growth but not as much as you'd hope. Of course we know George Clooney was leaving the show when Doug moved away, but had the writers wanted him to appear more grown up and committed to his relationship with Carol, he would have taken a job with a private practice and stayed in the area...instead he ran away...again. I don't think I've seen enough growth in the character to make me think, Oh, yes, Carol, go with him.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 27, 2000.

people, give it UP. george clooney is NOT going to come back to ER for this season finale. there is about as much chance for doug ross to show up as there is for susan lewis to drop by for a visit.

-- dawn (qstnevrythng@hotmail.com), April 28, 2000.