Summary: Benton and Cleo are just waking up in the morning when she gets a call from Kynesha. They finally sent her to a halfway house, but she got in a fight with someone and ran away. Benton decides to go pick her up, though Cleo thinks Kynesha is manipulating him. She doesn’t think they’ll ever get rid of her.
Mark and Elizabeth are back from New York, and she’s nervously awaiting the next big challenge in her life, a meeting about her malpractice lawsuit. All she knows is that Patterson’s lawyers want to talk. Benton goes to get Kynesha, who’s being chased by some guys. They break the back window of Benton’s car and yell that Kynesha owes them. She tells Benton they’re some former friends.
Luka/Abby update: They’re definitely dating, but she’s sick of staying in his hotel room. She asks Carter how it went telling Weaver about his relapse. Carter still hasn’t told her; he wants to wait until after his performance evaluation. Dude. Come on. Carter tells Abby she’s nagging him, but she thinks she’s doing her job as his sponsor. He tells her that should be different from acting like his mother. Meanwhile, Luka and Dave meet an ambulance bringing in a bishop named Stewart who may have broken his hip.
Back at Cleo’s, Benton tells Kynesha that she needs to learn how to respect people. According to the workers at the halfway house, Kynesha started the fight. Kynesha says she hates it there and would rather live with Benton. She touches his shoulder, ready to offer sex in exchange for a home. Benton is never going to play that game, especially with a minor, so that gets shut down really fast. Weaver chats with a patient named Pularski who stopped taking his medication. He’s depressed because he hasn’t had sex in 11 years. He also stabbed himself with a pair of medical scissors. Well, we know a certain teenage girl who’s looking to offer her services…
Elizabeth learns from Romano and her lawyer, Price, that Patterson has agreed to a settlement. A piece of equipment Elizabeth used during Patterson’s procedure was recalled, which means she can’t be blamed for any errors. Elizabeth denies that there was anything wrong with the equipment, even though this is her get-out-of-jail-free card.
Dave tries to flirt with Amira at the front desk. It goes poorly. A woman named Ann runs up, asks for a laxative, and throws up. Carter tends to her and learns that she started feeling sick on her flight to Chicago from Texas. She realizes she’s throwing up blood. Luka examines Stewart, who says he has osteoarthritis but isn’t on any medications. He asks about Luka’s accent, commenting that Croatia is a very Catholic country. Luka simply says that he’s not Catholic.
Benton fills Cleo in on the Kynesha situation, admitting that she’s at Cleo’s house. Cleo figures this is going to turn into another three-week stay. Carter and Haleh do a procedure on Ann to see if there are any foreign bodies in her stomach. Carter finds something and uses a grasper to pull it out. Haleh comments that it looks like a claw from an arcade game. Carter’s prize in this case is a condom full of drugs. He guesses that it leaked and caused Ann’s medical problems.
Legaspi comes to the ER to ask why Weaver sent Pularski home without a psych consult. (Apparently his stab wound was superficial.) Weaver didn’t see the point, since he comes in all the time and has never seriously tried to hurt himself. Plus, the psych department keeps refusing to admit him, so why bother consulting with them? Weaver knows he just wanted food and company. Legaspi tells Weaver that they need to keep things professional. Weaver says she has been, and also, she definitely hasn’t been avoiding Legaspi because they kissed, and how could Legaspi even think that?
Carter gets Ann to admit that she came to Chicago from Belize. She was robbed, so she felt her only option to get back to the States was to agree to be a drug mule. She cries and says she just wanted to go home. Luka determines that Stewart falls a lot, which Stewart blames on his arthritis. Luka agrees to give him steroids he’s taken in the past if he also uses a walker. Stewart negotiates down to a cane. He asks Luka what his confirmation name was. It was Mihael, who was, fittingly, the patron saint of the sick.
Weaver gives Carter his performance review, which is excellent. She’s proud of how well he’s done since returning from rehab. Carter starts to tell her what he’s been keeping from her, but they get called away to tend to a family of three who were hit by a car while crossing the street. The father died at the scene, but the mother and their seven-year-old daughter are now in the ER.
Elizabeth takes a moment to admire some flowers Mark sent her at County before she heads to the OR to help with the new patients. She runs into Patterson in an elevator and he asks to talk. She tells him that she feels horrible about how things turned out for him. Patterson knows the recalled equipment is technically to blame, but he can’t bring himself to forgive Elizabeth. He knows he’ll always remember her face, and he wonders if she’ll remember his.
Elizabeth joins Luka, Cleo, and Abby to take care of the daughter, Amy. Luka inserts a chest tube, which leads to some bleeding. Connie pulls Elizabeth next door to help Weaver with the mother, Julie. No one wants to tell Julie that her husband didn’t survive, but when they can’t tell her how he is, she figures it out herself. They need to take her to the OR, but Luka asks them to bring her to Amy’s room for a moment so mother and daughter can see each other. As Julie is finally taken for surgery, Amy starts to decline.
Babcock the anesthesiologist is annoyed that Elizabeth isn’t sure yet what procedure she’s going to perform on Julie. Elizabeth is nervous and wants to pass her off to another surgeon, but everyone else is busy. Back in the ER, Luka struggles to stabilize Amy while Carter asks Legaspi to give Ann a psych consult. Legaspi wants to admit her, but Weaver wants to turn her over to the police. Legaspi asks Weaver what her problem is. Weaver sends Carter away so she can tell Legaspi to never talk to her like that in front of a resident. Legaspi says she wouldn’t have to if Weaver wouldn’t interfere in her case.
Luka decides that Amy can’t be saved, so Cleo declares her dead. Luka doesn’t even get a minute to collect himself before he’s sent to help with another trauma. The patient is a guy named Kevin who’s drunk and combative. He was brought in after crashing his car during a police chase. His crime? Running down a family of three in a crosswalk. Luka has to go from failing to save Amy to trying to save the man who killed her. He gets his revenge by inserting a tube through Kevin’s nose and throat without numbing his pain.
Benton meets Kynesha at Doc Magoo’s with a surprise guest: Adele. She has a foster family ready to take in Kynesha, who’s disappointed that Benton won’t let her stay with him. She blames Cleo for turning her away. Adele tells Kynesha that her only choices right now are foster care or becoming a ward of the state. Kynesha storms out, complaining that Benton doesn’t want her.
Elizabeth struggles to fix Julie’s injuries as she loses more and more blood. Elizabeth orders Shirley to get another surgeon to take over. A police officer arrests Kevin, who shouldn’t have been driving since he lost his license thanks to multiple DUIs. Benton comes down to consult and decides to give Kevin a CT. Luka isn’t sure that’s necessary. Abby asks Carter how his performance review went (meaning “did you tell Weaver you relapsed?”). Luka’s curious about that whole situation, but Abby can’t tell him anything.
Romano joins Elizabeth in the OR, annoyed that she’s having so much trouble with what should be a simple procedure. He orders her to stay and assist him, but she runs off. Mark is at County for radiation and decides to wait for Elizabeth in the lounge when he’s done. Even though he can barely walk on his own, he’s supposed to start back at work next week. Luka tells him not to worry about how things are running in the ER. Mark says he gets now that life’s too short to think about that kind of stuff.
Luka goes to check on Stewart, who’s gone to Kevin’s trauma room to give him last rites. He absolves Kevin of his sins, which I’m sure Luka doesn’t think he deserves. Abby bugs Carter again about talking to Weaver, but Carter doesn’t want to rock the boat when everything is going so well. Abby makes the best decision possible here: She tells him to find another sponsor. She cares about Carter and his recovery, but she can’t help him if he won’t listen to her.
While Cleo tells a devastated Julie that Amy died, Luka finishes up with Stewart, who asks what happened to Kevin. He didn’t survive surgery, so Stewart is glad that he found absolution. Luka, of course, doesn’t think he should have peace when he killed two people. Stewart says that Kevin found God in his last moments and asked for forgiveness. Luka asks if that means anyone can get into Heaven just by saying they’re sorry before they die. Stewart tells him that everyone deserves comfort in their darkest hour. Luka notes that Amy could have used that comfort. Stewart says God was with her, but Luka doubts that.
Carter finally pulls Weaver aside to tell her that he took Vicodin a couple weeks ago. He doesn’t know why he did it. Weaver thanks him for telling her but doesn’t know what the consequences will be yet. Mark and Elizabeth head home without the malpractice lawsuit hanging over their heads. She doesn’t feel like celebrating since she knows the error was really her fault. Mark says all they can do is try to get things right as often as possible.
Cleo is also down after her bad day, telling Benton that she can’t stop thinking about Amy’s brand-new shoes. When she put them on that morning, she had no clue what would happen to her. They get home to find that Cleo’s house has been trashed. Cleo is definitely, 100 percent, completely done with Kynesha.
Weaver tracks down Legaspi at Doc Magoo’s, wanting to clear the air. She respects Legaspi as a colleague and misses her as a friend. Legaspi thinks that in a few weeks, they’ll just be back to being friendly co-workers, like they were before. Weaver confides that she’s not sure that’s what she wants. Legaspi starts to leave, but Weaver asks her to stay.
Benton and Cleo silently clean up her house and he thanks her for putting up with him and being there for him. He acknowledges that he hasn’t been there for her in the same way. He’s never worked at being with someone – he’s never wanted to – but he wants to with her because he loves her. “Love won’t clean up the destruction in my house,” she manages to not reply.
Thoughts: Stewart is played by James Cromwell, who was nominated for an Emmy for the role.
Is everyone ready for the part of the season where we revisit the worst thing that’s ever happened to Luka? IS EVERYONE PUMPED?
“Dr. Corday, you have to stop the bleeding.” Oh, she does? Is that her job, Dr. Babcock? Thanks for clearing that up. I’m sure Elizabeth was unclear about what she was supposed to be doing here.
'90s Flashback 
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