ER 10.13, Get Carter: Tagalongs

March 8, 2022

ER 10.13, Get Carter: Tagalongs

Sam, like me, wants to know when we’ll be done with “The Kem and Carter Show”

Summary: Elizabeth sends Ella off to a play date and birthday party with a friend before going to work. She chats a little with the friend’s father, Dave, who’s taking the kids to an aquarium. That sounds a lot more fun than the difficult-to-pronounce operation Elizabeth will be performing. At County, Kem tags along to work with Carter, wanting to spend the day observing activities at the hospital. Weaver says it’s okay, though she thinks Kem would prefer a shopping spree. Why do people keep suggesting that for her?

Weaver reminds Frank to make sure everyone gathers at 9:00 for a dedication. He jokes to Carter that they’re renaming the hospital after Romano. Kem starts shadowing Sam, who, like Weaver, thinks she should find something more interesting to do. She should go to the aquarium with Ella! Gallant arrives with an ambulance, doing one of his twice-yearly required ridealongs.

Abby goes to ask Frank about some labs and finds him in pain at the admit desk. He thinks he’s having a heart attack. She starts to help him, but it turns out he just has indigestion from his breakfast pierogies. Carter tries to enlist Luka to help with a patient, but Luka (who looks awesome in a suit) isn’t working. Weaver complains that Susan is late for work because she was asleep. She asks Susan to take charge of the ER until the hospital finds a replacement for Romano. Susan appreciates the offer but turns it down because she has something else to deal with in her life: She’s pregnant.

Luka joins Carter after all before going to give a lecture to med students about making medical decisions without tests. Carter suggests that Kem sit in on the lecture. Luka and Sam bicker over whether the patient needs certain tests; she says yes because it’s protocol, he says no because the patient isn’t that injured. Sam ends the argument by telling Luka to save his lectures for the med students. Oh, just kiss already.

Frank gathers everyone for the dedication, where Weaver gives a little speech about how generous Romano was. The hospital is opening a center for LGBT health care and naming it after Romano. Abby and Pratt are amused. As soon as Weaver has uncovered the name plaque, which includes a horrible picture of Romano, she drops her formal, this-is-all-for-show demeanor and sends everyone back to work.

Pratt was supposed to talk to someone in risk management, but he missed the appointment, so Weaver arranged another one. Abby thinks the eyes on Romano’s plaque follow you when you move. Carter thinks his prosthetic arm is going to hunt Weaver down and strangle her. Elizabeth comes down too late for the dedication, which Carter calls “post-mortem payback.” Pratt flirts with a nurse (who, to be fair, started it), then joins Sam to take care of a patient whose friends tied him to a toboggan and sent him down an icy hill. Since the patient might have a spinal injury, Pratt wants to bring Carter in.

Gallant goes out on another ambulance run, but there’s a domestic dispute in the apartment they report to, so the paramedics want to wait for police backup before they go in. Kem questions Frank about patients’ records and how many people leave without getting medical attention. He’s not helpful, so she turns to Weaver instead. Carter saves both of them by sending Kem to Luka’s lecture.

Elizabeth asks Weaver if Romano really left a donation for the hospital to establish an LGBT center. Weaver says it was up to the hospital board to decide what to do with the money, and they chose an underserved community. Mm-hmm. I’m sure Weaver didn’t influence that decision at all. Back at the apartment building, the police arrive and find a couple in the middle of a fight. It’s not clear who the aggressor is.

Luka gives his lecture to a bunch of students who either aren’t interested or don’t know their stuff. Probably both, actually. Pratt works on the human toboggan, Doug, who explains that his injuries and hypothermia came from an initiation for his hockey team. Carter joins Pratt and disagrees with his assessment that Doug might have a spinal-cord injury. He thinks his lack of sensation is from the cold and he doesn’t need an MRI. Pratt overrules him after he leaves, telling Sam to order an MRI.

A risk management rep named Bob finds Pratt and asks him questions about Martin’s case. Pratt takes full responsibility for his mistake, but that’s not the problem – the hospital is going to have to shell out a lot of money because of that mistake. Once Gallant and the other paramedics are done with the feuding couple, Gallant hears a kid crying in a closet. A bullet flies through the door and a cop draws his gun. Gallant gets him to back off as he opens the door and reveals a scared kid with a gun he accidentally fired.

Luka’s lecture turns into a discussion between him and Kem about billing and savings. She thinks hospitals should scare a scanner so the patients don’t have to pay more to make up for the loss of money when fewer scans are performed. Carter asks Sam how Alex is, since the last time he saw the kid, he’d given himself stitches. Carter thinks Alex will become a brain surgeon one day. “Or a grave robber,” Sam replies.

Luka complains to Carter that Kem derailed his lecture. Oh, boo-hoo. She made a reasonable point. Kem is now talking to Neela, who tells her there’s a three-month wait to be seen in a clinic, which is why so many people come to the ER for routine health care. She goes to tend to a couple of kids who have a bad cough, as does their mother, Mrs. Lemonier. Since she has a French accent, Kem talks to her in French and learns that she’s from Haiti. Kem thinks the family has whooping cough.

Carter asks Kem how the lecture was, and she says Luka’s a great teacher. That cracks him up. He sends her to the infectious disease lab as Gallant and the other paramedics bring in the wife from the domestic fight. Neela and Kem chat about Neela’s experiences in America and how much people eat and drink here. Carter tends to the wife from the domestic fight, then checks on the son, Rudy. Gallant says he’s fine physically, but a little shaken (I think Gallant is, too).

Next Carter checks in with Doug and learns that Pratt sent him for an MRI. Sam won’t let him take out his frustration on her. She complains to Abby and Chuny that she’s tired of the doctors thinking the nurses work for them. Chuny says the patients think the same way. Sam complains about Luka, too, and Chuny teases Abby about their past relationship. She also calls Abby the “ER slut.” Oh, really, Chuny? She’s a slut for dating two doctors in five years? Shut up. Also, you dated Mark and slept with Luka, so if Abby’s a slut, what are you? Lester comes up to ask Abby if they’re still on for that night. Sam and Chuny laugh, and Abby tells them they’re studying together. She notes that Chuny has no place to talk. Chuny tells Sam that Luka “gets around.”

Kem talks to an infectious-disease doctor and asks if she can visit the hospital’s AIDS ward. The doctor tells her that 15 years ago, they had a whole floor of AIDS patients. Now they just see a few inpatients in general medicine. Kem isn’t used to a hospital where patients with complications from AIDS are treated and discharged so quickly. The doctor shows her the outpatient clinic, but there are only about a dozen people, and none of them are nearly as sick as Kem’s patients in the Congo.

Back in the ER, Carter confronts Pratt over sending Doug for an MRI. Pratt says he was trying to be thorough. Carter reasonably says that the next time Pratt disagrees with his orders, he should talk to Carter instead of going behind his back. Neela presents another patient, Mr. Morgan, to Carter, who again disagrees with Pratt over an assessment. He thinks Pratt is trying to hand off Mr. Morgan so he doesn’t have to do a procedure on him. He guesses Pratt is nervous because of what happened to Martin. When Carter says he’ll do the procedure himself, Pratt steps up.

Kem finds Carter and tells him the doctor she spoke to in infectious diseases was nice and helpful, but she’s way behind getting the results he’s gotten with his patients. A nurse invites Pratt to hang out with her and some colleagues that night, but he’s not having a great day and just wants to go home after his shift. Chen calls just then from China and gives Pratt some bad news.

Elizabeth comes to the ER looking for a surgical patient and is annoyed to learn that a doctor named Lawson took him for a different procedure without telling her. Neela grabs Pratt to help with Mr. Morgan, who’s getting worse, so Pratt gives the phone to Elizabeth and tells her that Chen’s mother died. Kem takes Carter to see Mrs. Lemonier, who has another child at home with her mother. The grandmother is sick but doesn’t trust American doctors, so she wouldn’t come to the hospital. Kem asks Carter to make a house call. He says no, so she gives him puppy-dog eyes until he asks Gallant to make an ambulance run.

Carter then joins Pratt, Neela, and Sam with Mr. Morgan. Pratt knows what’s wrong – the exact complication he was worried about – so Carter tells him to fix it. Pratt does, then storms out to take care of patients he’s allowed to make decisions about. Well, first he’s going to mope in drug lockup for a little while.

Carter goes looking for both Kem and Pratt, and Frank jokes that they could be together. Yeah, Pratt wishes. It turns out Kem went with Gallant and the paramedics to get Mrs. Lemonier’s mother and baby. (They needed a translator.) It’s a good thing they went because the grandmother is really sick and reported that a number of people in the apartment building are, too. Carter’s annoyed that Kem could have exposed herself to illnesses that could affect the baby. Well, then you probably shouldn’t have brought her to the hospital at all.

Pratt gets pulled in to help Carter as Sam tries to deal with a frequent patient named Louie. Instead of letting her give him a shot, he picks her up. Sam yells for security but Abby quickly defuses the situation by threatening to call Louie’s mother. She even gets him to apologize to Sam. Apparently you just have to give Louie a piece of gum before you give him a shot. Sam’s more amused than annoyed. Abby wants to make sure Sam doesn’t think Luka is a player – he’s a good guy. Sam says she’s not looking for a relationship right now, though she wouldn’t say no to regular sex.

As a man comes in with an injury he thinks came from a bullet (how can you not be sure about that?), Sam tells Gallant that Rudy’s mother will be discharged the next morning, so DCFS will put Rudy with a foster family for the night. Gallant suggests that they just let Rudy stay with his mom. Sam knows that’s not protocol, so Gallant comes up with an excuse to admit him.

He tells Rudy he can stay, and no, he can’t have the gun back. Rudy’s upset that he no longer has a way to protect his mother from his father. His dad likes to turn out the lights so Rudy doesn’t see him hurting his mother. Gallant tries to promise that Rudy’s father won’t come back, but Rudy knows he will, because he always does.

Carter and Pratt are unable to save Mrs. Lemonier’s mother, but Carter assures Pratt that he did everything right with her treatment. The possible gunshot patient was accidentally shot by his wife, who mistook him for an intruder. Carter realizes the bullet traveled up his femoral vein and is now up by his heart. He’ll need surgery to remove it before it gets into one of his lungs.

Carter tracks down Pratt and tells him that he once worked a shift where seven patients died. When Pratt first came to County, he was arrogant and reckless. His confidence has been rattled, but he shouldn’t try to play it safe if that’s not what’s best for his patients. Bad things will happen, but they need to keep doing their jobs. Pratt did what he thought was best for Martin. He needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and keep working.

While Carter is bugging Kem about not eating lunch, Sam takes him to a hall full of patients from the Lemoniers’ building. Kem spread the word to them about whooping cough and invited them to get vaccinated. Elizabeth returns to the ER for another surgical patient, but again, Lawson took him upstairs already. Elizabeth is annoyed that she stayed after her shift for an operation that someone just stole from her.

She goes to the OR to confront Lawson, who not only stole her patient but didn’t present him with all his options before starting a procedure. Once Lawson (who’s British and kind of handsome) is done, he tells Elizabeth she can have the patient back. She’s at a loss for words and doesn’t know how to respond to this guy who’s so charming about taking her cases.

Doug thanks Pratt for treating him – he’s doing much better and isn’t paralyzed. Pratt finds Rudy with his mom, distressed because she’s sedated and won’t wake up. Rudy blames himself for her injuries because he didn’t protect her. Pratt tries to reassure him, saying a few things similar to what Carter said to him. Things happen that we can’t control, so we just do our best.

Carter and Sam administer vaccines while Kem translates their instructions to the French-speaking patients. Carter enlists Luka to help, telling him that Kem enjoyed his lecture. Apparently she was the only one. Weaver comes across the impromptu vaccine clinic and objects to it. Kem gently stands up to her, and when Carter jumps in to help, Weaver tells him Kem’s doing just fine explaining herself. She allows the vaccinations to continue but announces that no one else is allowed to go to Africa. Heh.

Paramedics bring in a patient who needs a procedure Carter worries Pratt might not be comfortable doing. But Pratt’s confident that he can do it since Luka taught him. Carter remarks to Luka that at least someone listened to him. Elizabeth goes to pick up Ella after the birthday party and ends up chatting with Dave while the kids finish the movie they’re watching. He’s nice and funny, and he has wine, so it’s not a bad way to end the day.

Gallant returns from an ambulance run with dinner for Rudy and a flashlight so he doesn’t have to worry about the lights going out again. Luka and Sam wind up on the same El train on the way home, and he apologizes for being kind of a jerk that morning. They’re standing close because the train is crowded, and she gets bold and kisses him.

Carter meets up with Kem at the mini-mart across the street, where she’s bought a ton of junk food. He throws a bunch of it out. Dude! I’m overruling Weaver here – go back to the Congo and learn about not wasting luxuries. Anyway, Kem seems to be the only character who had a good day, and she wants to come back to County tomorrow. Carter says no way, because Weaver threatened to fire him if he brought her back.

Thoughts: Bob is played by Sterling K. Brown.

I like how Sam shuts down anyone trying to drag her into a disagreement with someone else. When Carter’s annoyed that Pratt disobeyed his orders, she says it’s not her job to make residents listen to attendings. Haleh would totally approve of her toughness.

I would love for someone to tell Pratt what Carter was like as a newbie, just so Pratt doesn’t start believing Carter is better than him or anything.

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