Summary: It’s Carol’s first day back at work since her suicide attempt, though her mother isn’t sure she’s ready for it. Carol claims she is and gathers her things. A woman wakes Benton, who’s sleeping at the hospital, and sings to him. The first person Carol sees when she gets to the hospital is Carter, who remembers meeting her on his first day. She jokes that she thought it was her last. So I guess that’s how she’s going to handle this. She quickly realizes that she’s not as ready to go back to work as she thought she was.
Benton asks Lydia if she knows which doctor his singing alarm clock belongs to. “No, but I can name that tune,” Lydia quips. Mark doesn’t know whose she is either. Doug asks him if he’s seen Carol; this is the third time he’s asked. Carol greets Susan and Jerry, saying she’s there to deliver barbiturates. Someone please get her a psych consult. Jerry tells her that Doug warned them all to be sensitive toward her. Benton brings in the singing woman, and Jerry says the cops found her on the El without an ID. Benton tries to pass her off to another babysitter, but everyone’s busy.
Carol peeks in at Doug, who’s examining a crying toddler, then moves on without speaking to him. Lydia gives her a hug and offers to talk if Carol ever wants to. Jerry tries to apologize for joking around with Carol earlier (even though she was the one joking), and she assures him that she’s not as fragile as Doug seems to think. Haleh is thrilled to see her so she can hand back some responsibilities. Mark already has a patient for Carol and tells her that everyone’s rooting for her to succeed. Carol admits that she may have jumped back in too quickly. Mark thinks, since it’s Monday, things will be slow.
Carter ends up with the singing woman, and we find out later that her name is Mary, so I’m just going to start calling her that now, because it’s faster. She’s stopped singing, but now she’s crying. Carter has no idea how to deal with her. Mark pulls Carol into a trauma as Jerry gets a call about a patient coming in with a heart attack. Mark tells him to give that case to Susan. Benton helps him with his trauma patient, who was shot, but Carol jumps over to Susan’s patient. Doug briefly sees her and says a quick hi.
Susan’s patient, Mr. Flannigan, is feeling better and tells her his cardiologist is Jack Kayson. Carol goes back to the trauma room to get something for the patient but is asked to stay with the trauma. Susan’s still waiting for Kayson to get in touch, and she’s uneasy about treating Mr. Flannigan without a complete medical history, but she has no choice. When Kayson arrives, he disagrees with Susan’s treatment and takes over the case. The other patient is sent to surgery, and Mark praises Carol for her good work. She may doubt that she’s ready to be back, but he assures her that no one else does.
Mark’s next patient, Mrs. Cheung, has facial injuries and doesn’t speak English, so Haleh isn’t sure how she was hurt. Mary’s singing again, and Carter’s still keeping an eye on her. Susan and Div chat about baseball on their way to meet them. Mrs. Cheung’s preteen son, Frank, says she fell down the stairs, which Mark finds interesting, since they live on the first floor of an apartment building. Clearly, there’s something Mrs. Cheung doesn’t want Frank to tell Mark. He sends Frank out of the room while he continues his treatment.
Mary talks to Div about her time singing at a club during the war. Carter’s impressed, saying he wouldn’t have thought to talk to her about music since he knows nothing about it. Susan whispers that Div doesn’t either. Div asks Mary questions to determine her mental status, but she thinks she’s in a jail, not a hospital. She also thinks it’s 1948 and Harry Truman is the president.
Morgenstern runs into Carol and welcomes her back. He makes it clear that her return to work is a big deal, and people should be concerned about whether she was ready, but they all agreed she was. Carter has a list of possible diagnoses for Mary, but Div tells him to think of horses, not zebras, when he hears hooves. The most logical explanation is probably right: Alzheimer’s. They need to find Mary’s family. Benton’s annoyed that Carter has spent so much time with Mary, because I guess he’s not supposed to care about people.
Mark tries to get Frank to tell him what really happened to his mother. If they know the truth, it might help them treat her. Frank won’t respond when Mark questions the story that Mrs. Cheung fell down the stairs. Doug asks Carol to have lunch with him, but she already has plans with her fiancé, Dr. John “Tag” Taglieri. Benton again criticizes Carter for spending too much time with a patient. He takes him up to the roof to meet a patient arriving via helicopter.
Morgenstern tells Mark and Susan that he’s changing the time of a morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference that afternoon so Kayson can attend. He wants Susan to present Flannigan’s case. She admits to Mark that she dreads having to revisit the argument she had with Kayson about treatment options. On the roof, Benton and Carter receive their patient, a 16-year-old girl injured in a jetski accident. No one loses any limbs.
Doug thinks his crying toddler might have meningitis, so he needs to perform a spinal tap. The patient’s father passes out at the thought. Carter tries to pass along information about his patient to some nurses, but he has the details wrong. Mark asks Doug if he’s talked to Carol yet. Doug says Tag interrupted, and Mark says he shouldn’t be surprised; they’ve been together for a while. Did Doug expect Carol to fall back in love with him while she was gone?
Susan has a patient who needs stitches on her arm, but didn’t mention that she has cancer. The patient, Mrs. Packer, resists being admitted for a blood transfusion to treat aplastic anemia. She knows she’s dying, and she doesn’t want to spend what little time she has left in the hospital. Doug performs an uneventful spinal tap, and Carter and Carol both take a moment to admire the sight of him holding a child. Carol is still acting like everything’s fine.
Carter stitches up Mrs. Packer while Mary sadly hums to herself nearby. He courts the wrath of Benton by checking on her and trying to comfort her. He tries Div’s method of connecting with her by talking about music; they agree that Ella Fitzgerald’s talent is unmatched today. Mary sings some Ella but it doesn’t cheer her up.
Mark and Carter’s flirtatious patient is back, this time complaining that her breasts hurt. She says her name is Proserpina. Mark wants to leave early to have dinner with Jen, but he promises Susan he’ll wait until after her M&M. Haleh tells Mark that Frank wants to talk to him. He seems scared.
The liquor store owner who was shot in the previous episode is back with another gunshot wound. Benton wants Carter to come help him, but Carter’s busy making out with “Proserpina.” An x-ray tech catches them but just goes about his business. Mrs. Packer starts to leave, pausing in the hallway when she hears Mary singing. Susan asks her again to stay for treatment, but Mrs. Packer resists again. However, she’s pleased that she got to have such a nice afternoon – she got to hear Mary Cavanaugh sing in person. As Mrs. Packer leaves, she collapses.
Frank confesses to Mark and Haleh that his father hit his mother. He’s on his way to pick them up right now. Mark assures him that he did the right thing, and they’re going to find people to help him and his mother. He tells Haleh to call Social Services and try to find a shelter. Haleh remarks that she’s never seen such an old-looking child.
Morgenstern runs the M&M, which Benton attends along with Susan, Kayson, Mark, and another doctor. Morgenstern determines that Susan’s treatment worked, so Kayson’s wasn’t necessary. Benton, Mark, and the other doctor, Langworthy, all admit that they would have treated the patient with angioplasty, as Kayson wanted.
After the meeting, Susan’s mad that Mark showed up late and then sided with Kayson. He tells her it wasn’t personal. Susan’s annoyed that everyone else in the room was a surgeon, so of course they wanted to operate. Her decision was valid, and Mark should have backed her up.
Carol asks Carter if “Proserpina” (real name: Liz) found him. The x-ray tech overhears and remarks that he used to know someone like her. Her middle name was Penicillin. Carter chuckles, then realizes it might not be that funny. Doug asks Carol to get coffee, and this time she accepts. First she checks on Mrs. Packer, who has finally agreed to a transfusion. She’s had a lot of time to think about dying, and it makes her realize that every day is a gift. She doesn’t know how and when she’ll die, but she knows it’s not today. She already has plans.
Mr. Cheung has arrived, and he isn’t interested in talking to Mark. The social worker tells Mark that Mrs. Cheung and Frank don’t want to go to a shelter, and she denies being abused, so there’s nothing they can do. Mark tries to get Frank to ask Mrs. Cheung again what really happened. He won’t talk, and when the social worker asks, Frank says his father hasn’t hit him or his mother. They have to let the family leave.
Carter and Mary chat some more about music as he takes her to meet up with her granddaughter to go home. The granddaughter apologizes for letting her wander off so far, but Carter isn’t too upset about it. Doug and Carol meet up in the ambulance bay, and he asks to go out with her again, even though he knows she’s with Tag. She guesses that he feels guilty for her suicide attempt. She tells him it had nothing to do with him, though she isn’t specific about it. Doug asks if she really wants to be with Tag. Isn’t he worth another chance? Carol points out that things didn’t work out for a reason.
Mrs. Packer has a christening to go to, so she’s leaving for the night and will return the next day to complete her transfusion. She doesn’t want to miss a minute of her time with her family. She’s not going to give up on life while she still has some time left. Susan summons Carol to help her with Mark, saying he’s hurt, but it’s just a ruse to get her to a surprise welcome-back party. The staff gives her a neck brace she can put on the next time she needs to alert them to a problem. Carol thanks them all for saving her – by doing so, they gave her a gift, and she’s going to remember it every day. But they can’t help remembering what they went through.
Thoughts: Kayson is played by Sam Anderson. Mary is played by the late Rosemary Clooney, who was, of course, George’s aunt.
Drink every time Benton tells Carter to stop spending so much time with his patients. You’ll end the series with liver damage.
Who the heck asks an engaged woman on a date? I mean, I know you’re cute, Doug, but really.
'90s Flashback 
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