Recap / ERS 1 E 09 ER Confidential

Season 1, Episode 09:

ER Confidential

It's all I ever wanted to be.

Susan wakes up in bed early one morning to find Cvetic absent. Upon entering the living room in her apartment, she finds him reciting signs of his own depression into a recorder. She asks him what's wrong, but he dodges her questions and insists that he's alright.

Elsewhere in the city, Doug is getting ready his day alongside Linda Farrell, a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. They discuss an upcoming trip both will be taking to Nassau for some private time with each other, but Linda ruins the romantic mood by pointing out that she wanted to pay for the trip because he doesn't make enough as a pediatric doctor.

At County, the staff are celebrating Thanksgiving — a potluck is being held for the staff, while Bob comically puts up Halloween decorations and sunflowers in the lobby. Mark and Doug meet up briefly to discuss their respective plans for the weekend, while Susan (still concerned over Cvetic's behavior) asks to talk with Mark about the matter later in the day. Lydia and Carol diagnose a patient with renal failure, while Carter asks if he's still invited to dinner with Mrs. Benton and the rest of his family. Benton tells him her invite wasn't serious, and asks why he isn't spending Thanksgiving with his own family. Carter comments that they're in Switzerland visiting his sister, and that they won't be with him.

The duo meet Ms. Carlton, a patient who suffered a head injury in a traffic accident. While diagnosing her, Carter is surprised to discover that she is Transgender, but before the conversation can continue further, Benton's attention is distracted by the arrival of three trauma patients from another traffic accident, forcing him to help the EMTs. He asks Carter to sew up Ms. Carlton's head wounds before leaving.

As the patients from the second crash arrive, the doctors split into two teams — Benton, Mark and Carol aid a patient named Andy who has a broken femur and other injuries, while Doug, Langworthy and a pair of EMTs try to save a second victim, who ultimately perishes due to a serious head wound. Andy is shown to have internal injuries, and Mark and Benton rush him into surgery — but not before he admits to Carol that he was driving the vehicle that caused the accident, and that the second victim, Larry, died because of him.

In the nearby examination room, Carter sutures Ms. Carlton's head wound. While she tells him that people are "disgusted" by her and don't know what to say, he refuses to speak, clearly confused by the subject matter. Outside, Officer Al Grabatsky brings in a patient with a head wound, and tells Lydia and Doug that the man was an animal rights-activist who tried to steal a turkey from a slaughterhouse, but got attacked by it in the process. He also tells Lydia that the activist broke the bird's neck in response, and that he brought the turkey along so that the staff could cook it for their potluck. Seeing this, Tag notes that he can cook it and takes it to the staff kitchen. On the roof, Mark also talks to Susan, who admits that Cvetic is in a deep state of depression and that she doesn't know what to do.

Andy and Larry's parents arrive at the ER, where Carol is forced to admit that Larry died due to his injuries. Larry's mother breaks down in response, while Andy's mother visits him in surgery, where he's just had his spleen removed. Andy lies that Larry, not him, was driving the vehicle that caused the accident. Carol hears this from behind a nearby curtain and becomes concerned that he's lying to protect himself — particularly when he shoots her an Aside Glance. Carol discusses the matter with Lydia afterwards, and admits that she isn't sure she wants to get involved in the matter, even though Andy is guilty of manslaughter due to his actions. Soon after, Carol finds Larry's mother, who breaks down in the hallway and accuses her son of being "stupid", prompting Carol to have a crisis of conscience. She goes to Andy and tells him that he owes it to himself to tell the truth to the cops, but he throws it back at her, asking her if she's ever killed anyone before. She admits that she hasn't and claims there are things that would hurt people that she hasn't told them...

Mark and Doug are discussing the latter's imminent trip to Nassau in the hospital lobby, with the latter claiming he feels like a "kept man" due to Linda paying for the trip, his meals and his clothing. Their attention is diverted when a woman suffering from chest pains is wheeled in. Mark and Benton diagnose her condition as being a problem with the lining of the heart filling with fluid, though the woman goes unconscious. When Dr. Kayson is unable to get to the hospital, Benton and Sarah handle the procedure to drain the fluid from the heart themselves. Despite some tense moments, Sarah coaches Benton through the procedure and he is able to drain the fluid.

Carter goes looking for Ms. Carlton to discharge her, but discovers she's gone missing. Soon after, though, Jerry runs through the lobby yelling that there's a jumper on the roof, prompting Carter to realize what's happened. He rushes to the roof and finds Ms. Carlton standing at the edge, crying in despair. Despite his attempt to talk her down, she bursts out laughing after hearing him say the hospital can help her, and says she can't pass for a woman anymore. Cvetic arrives and also attempts to talk her down, but she leaps off the roof to her death. Carter recoils in terror, while Cvetic turns around and walks off with a blank look on his face.

The staff potluck dinner is held later in the day, with the doctors digging into the Thanksgiving turkey Officer Al brought and Mark wishing Doug luck on his trip that evening with Linda. Carol also asks to speak with Tag outside, and tells him on the street that she slept with Doug a month before she tried to kill herself, and kissed Doug a month ago. Tag calls her out for stringing him along while still harboring feels for her ex, and leaves while she tries in vain to apologize...

Benton also thanks Langworthy for backing him on the heart drainage procedure before finding Carter in the lobby, who's still broken up over Ms. Carlton's death. He tells him that it was not his fault, and that he was just as guilty of not recognizing that she had underlying issues that he ignored. He tells Carter to grab his things and join him for the Benton family dinner, reasoning that their mother invited him and he doesn't want to disappoint her.

On the other side of the city, Susan is making Thanksgiving dinner with Chloe and her boyfriend, and can't reach Cvetic. She looks out the window in concern... and elsewhere in the city, Cvetic is standing in traffic, daring vehicles to hit him. He has a breakdown and stands, crying in the rain...

Tropes:

• All Women Are Lustful: Invoked by Linda, who Mark (who has only seen her a couple of times) even remarks about her as "horny". Even The Casanova, Doug, is thoroughly confused with her forwardness.
• As You Know: In order to calm a patient with serious injuries, Carol explains to him what Mark and Benton are doing to assess his injuries (filling his abdomen with fluid and seeing if blood comes out).
• Big Eater: Jerry, who grabs Doug's pot pie (brought in for the staff potluck gathering) and begins to devour it as soon as he sees it.
• Brick Joke: Tag deplucking the Thanksgiving turkey (complete with comical flying feathers everywhere) several scenes after he helpfully tells the cops the staff can use it for their potluck dinner. The joke comes back when the activist steals a piece of the turkey and attempts to snarf it down in secret.
• Comically Missing the Point: Bob is seen putting up Halloween decorations three weeks after the fact, prompting Doug to point out the mistake to her. When she helpfully comments that she's "putting them up", Doug realizes she doesn't understand and tells her to "carry on" before walking off.
• Continuity Nod: Benton asks for Dr. Kayson to be paged from the Cardiology Unit, only to be told that he's off-site and not able to arrive in time, forcing Benton and Langworthy to handle a procedure themselves.
• Contrived Coincidence: Tag happens to be walking by when Al Grabatsky brings in the turkey that attacked the activist, and mentions that he can clean and cook it himself, having plucked similar turkeys as a child. He also is shown to be aware of what breed of turkey it is, and knows how to cook it accordingly.
• Despair Event Horizon: Having had her concerns ignored and marginalized by the staff, Ms. Carlton jumps off the roof of County, despite Carter's attempts to coax her down.
• Destination Defenestration: Ms. Carlton throws herself off the roof in despair, with Carter hearing the impact from below.
• Driven to Suicide: Realizing she can't pass for a female anymore, and after receiving passive disregard from Carter and other members of the staff, Ms. Carlton jumps off the roof of the hospital.
• Dull Surprise: When Ms. Carlton jumps off the roof, Dr. Cvetic (who was sent to negotiate with her to back away from the roof, and is currently undergoing Sanity Slippage himself) turns and walks away with a blank stare on his face.
• False Reassurance: Cvetic tells Susan that he's fine after he displays signs of depression and Sanity Slippage... but he soon goes off the deep end and flees her dinner party in a panic by the end of the episode.
• Hammerspace: Discussed by Doug and Linda.
  Doug: I'm amazed at how much stuff women can put in their overnight bags.
  Linda: Just the bare essentials.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Doug describes seeing "an awful lot of gray matter" while working on a patient who suffered a fatal head wound in a traffic collision.
  • The camera doesn't catch Ms. Carlton's Destination Defenestration, with Carter reacting in shock and the impact being heard below.
• Henpecked Husband: Despite not being married, Doug and Linda's relationship is full of this behavior, complete with Necktie Leash. She browbeats him in private, picks out his wardrobe for him and makes disparaging remarks about his salary.
  Doug: She's paid for my dinner, my clothes... I'm beginning to feel like a kept man.
• Hypocrite: Doug is shown getting frustrated and angered over Tag and Carol's public affection for each other... while he's in a relationship with a woman who is shown to be displaying similar sentiments to Tag (deciding what their partner will be doing).
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Linda puts down Doug for not making enough as a pediatric doctor compared to her... even when she's promising to fly him to Nassau so he can spend several days with her.
  • The circumstances that drive Ms. Carlton's Despair Event Horizon are kickstarted by Carter refusing to talk to her (either due to confusion or fear) about her history, which prompts her to jump off the roof in despair. Even the nurses display this, with Connie referring to Ms. Carlton as a "she-male".
• It's All My Fault: Andy, one of the patients wheeled in after the second traffic accident, confides to Carol that his friend Larry's death is all his fault, as he was the one driving the vehicle that instigated the accident.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being the resident Dr. Jerk, Tag hits the nail on the head when he calls out Carol for kissing Doug:
  Taglieri: Just because you tried to kill yourself, I'm supposed to sit back and smile while you screw your old boyfriend? What more do you want from me, Carol?
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • The animal-rights activist wheeled in with a head wound attempted to kidnap a turkey from a slaughterhouse, but got attacked by it in the process, forcing him to break the turkey's neck.
  • Mr. Luck, the Motor Mouth patient who repeatedly refuses to get dialysis and repeatedly disparages Susan, ends up stuck on a bed, being given an enema by Susan, and forced to sit in the open with his gown hanging open for all to see.
• Lethal Chef: Chloe undercooks the turkey made for the dinner with her boyfriend and Susan. The latter points out that the turkey is still "swimming in bacteria", and throws it back in the oven for another four hours.
• Mood Whiplash: The scene cuts from Carter reeling in horror after seeing Ms. Carlton jump off the roof of County... to the staff potluck party, where Malik is wheeling in the cooked turkey while explaining that it's "party time"...
• Motor Mouth: Mr. Luck, a patient in need of dialysis, never shuts up. The one time he stops talking (when Susan sees him lying on a bed), the framing makes it look as though he's died... though he sits uprights and starts ranting again, prompting Susan to sigh in exasperation.
• Off with His Head!: One of the attending officers wheeling in the patients from the second traffic accident tells Carol that a fourth victim was decapitated and left at the scene.
• Pet the Dog: After initially dismissing Carter's attempt to join his family for Thanksgiving, Benton invites him along at the end of the episode.
• The Reveal: Having initially refused to explain why she attempted an overdose, Carol reveals to Tag that she slept with Doug approximately a month before her suicide attempt, alongside revealing to him that she kissed Doug two weeks earlier. The revelation doesn't sit well with him.
• Sanity Slippage: Due to a combination of pressure at the job, Ms. Carlton's suicide and his own depression, Cvetic finally goes off the deep end and is last seen standing in traffic, daring cars to hit him.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Doug gets angered after seeing Tag and Carol being affectionate in person, with him ripping up documents in frustration.
• Thanksgiving Episode: The staff and patients celebrate Thanksgiving, with several holiday-themed cases involving patients.
• Trans Relationship Troubles: Ms. Carlton relates an anecdote to Carter about a date where the other person refused to call her after she revealed her gender.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Despite being set up as a Ship Tease for Benton, and winning the Starzl Fellowship, Langworthy disappears from the series completely after this episode and isn't seen again.
  • Cvetic also disappears completely after this episode, with only a pair of mentions later in the season.
  • The episode ends without answering whether Andy (the driver of the vehicle that killed his friend and one other victim) told the cops the truth that he was driving, or whether he continued to lie and say that Larry was the culprit.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Tag calls out Carol for admitting that she kissed Doug.

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