TV Review: ER Episode 12.14

Thursday, February 09, 2006

From NBC: Dr. Clemente (John Leguizamo) and his girlfriend Jodie seem to be living the highlife together, when they are suddenly interrupted by Jodie's husband Bobby (Shea Whigham). When Jodie threatens divorce, Bobby takes matters into his own hands. Abby (Maura Tierney) and Dr. Kovac (Goran Visnjic) anxiously await the test results determining the health of their unborn baby. Meanwhile, when Dr. Pratt is put on the auction block for a bachelor charity event, everyone is surprised when a man wins the bid. Laura Innes, Parminder Nagra, Linda Cardellini, Shane West and Scott Grimes also star.

My Rating: 2 out of 4

This episode of ER titled the Quintessence of Dust returns us to the set story lines of this season's ER after a departure from that last week, in order to highlight a man important to a few of the ER staff with Lou Gehrig's disease. This week is certainly high drama, and we also see the return of Dr. Clemente. He had been missing the last few episodes, and I was actually beginning to wonder if he was ever going to return.

He does though, and we see him living in seclusion with his girlfriend Jodie. They go out shopping, and when they return they find her husband waiting for them. After a few tense moments, she tells her husband she wants a divorce. He leaves, and they think he handled it well. However, moments later he returns and he shoots Jodie. Clemente speeds her to the ER, and she looks in pretty bad shape. He has also been shot, and rumors begin flying through the ER that he shot Jodie.

The majority of the episode follows her treatment. Dubenko and Neela perform surgery, but Clemente is there at every turn suggesting treatments for Jodie. Once she is out of surgery and somewhat stable, Weaver comes to tell him that the cops want to see him. They found a stash of illegal drugs at his apartment, but no gun. However, they think he is the one responsible for her shooting. They aren't the only ones. Everyone at the ER thinks he did it. We know he didn't though, but the only one on the series that knows for sure he is innocent is lying half dead in ICU.

As for the rest of the ER staff, Luka and Abby patiently await the results of her amniocentesis to see if their baby is healthy. Once the results come back clear, it is now safe for them to tell people about the baby. She needs to tell her mother, and Luka must tell Sam before she finds out through the hospital grapevine. They just broke up weeks before he and Abby got together. Everyone on staff know about her and Luka, but no one knows she is pregnant. Morris guesses when he sees her eating her third ice cream bar, but other than that no one knows. Sam handled the news of Abby's pregnancy as best as can be expected. It did happen a bit quick, but it wasn't exactly planned either.

Pratt also has a small plot line of his own this episode. He is chosen for a charity bachelor auction, and he is a bit shocked when the highest bidder is a man. This ends up making him the butt of some jokes among the male staff, but in the end a very nice looking woman shows up as his date. Her friend had purchased Pratt for the evening. I wonder how Pratt's girlfriend will take him dating another woman, even if it is for charity.

In other romantic news, it looks like Morris might be in love with the surgical resident everyone in the ER loves to hate. Jessica Albright certainly is causing everyone a lot of trouble, and if Neela isn't careful she is the one that could suffer the most from Albright if the ER staff continues to piss her off. As for Ray, his main case of the day is a homeless man that is beaten up and brought into the ER. Ray finds out he is blues legend his father used to listen to. He goes above and beyond to try to reunite the man with his daughter, but he is unsuccessful. The ER staff also receives a postcard from John Carter on this episode, and it looks like when ER returns following the Olympics, we will have the return of Carter to County General, if the last thirty seconds of tonight's episode is any indication.

All in all, this was a good episode for ER, but not a great one. It was good to see Clemente back, but I truly think John Leguizamo has been wasted on ER this season. Eve didn't last long either, and by the point she left I was actually starting to warm up to her just a little bit. This series is still one of the better ones on television, but it is not the same ER it was years ago. Yes, things change, but not all change is a good change. The series is now off for a few weeks to allow for NBC's coverage of the Olympics.