Recap / ERS 1 E 20 Full Moon Saturday Night

Season 1, Episode 20:

Full Moon, Saturday Night

Ever seen a 'full moon, Saturday night'?

There's a full moon over Chicago, and the crazies have come out.

At County, Susan walks into one of the trauma rooms and finds Mark, still contemplating the disastrous treatment for Jodi O'Brien alone in the dark. When she tells him that he has patients waiting, he responds that he's not sure if he wants to do anything. She tells him to take his shift off, and that she can cover in his stead. He thanks her before heading out, pausing to tell Doug that he's not on call at the moment.

The mood is lively at the front desk, as Jerry and Carol arrive to find Bob trying to reorganize patient files, Doug getting off a call with Diane, and Benton and Jeanie deciding to go for dinner after their shift is over to talk about his mother. Carter tells Susan that he's almost finished his shift, prompting her to tell him to stick around, as it's a "full moon, saturday night", and the hospital will see a lot of strange patients over the course of the next few hours.

Right on cue, a drugged-up patient strapped to a gurney (and with his hands bandaged up) manages to stand up while still restrained, and smashes through one of the windows in the exam room while screaming. As the shocked staffers watch, the patient stalks out of the room, smashing and knocking over objects as he goes, and walks down the hallway yelling for a woman named "Rita" who cheated on him. He threatens to kill the unseen individual before walking out through the ambulance bay doors, prompting Susan to repeat her comment to Carter, who is amused by the situation.

Carter finds Chen sneaking a peek through his personal workbook, prompting him to ask her what she thinks she's doing. She simply responds that she's just trying to find out whether his marks are high enough to get honors in their internship program. Elsewhere, Carol pretends not to notice when Susan points out that Doug isn't available because he's going to dinner with Diane. Their attention is diverted when a victim is brought in after being involved in a car accident, prompting Susan and Carter to take carriage of the patient. The victim, David, is suffering from major lacerations to his chest, and Carter manages to impress Susan by correctly diagnosing and treating David's immediate wounds. Deb manages to butt in, explaining that she wanted to stay on-call as well if Carter is, and both are tasked with suturing David's wounds.

Across the street, Mark is eating a bagel at a popular hangout for the staff, Doc Magoo's, when an individual carrying a bike enters and sits beside him. The man tries to engage in small talk with Mark, but the latter tells him he doesn't want any company and goes to sit by himself. Soon after, the same man arrives at County — just as Susan is called away to diagnose the driver who brought in the car crash victim. When Susan attempts to get him to leave one of the trauma rooms, the man identifies himself as "Dr. Swift" — the new Chief of the unit, taking over from Morgenstern. Susan enlists his help to diagnose the patient, who she realizes needs an aortic dissection. As the patient is wheeled over to surgery, Dr. Swift briefly grills her on her procedure, but is impressed by her responses.

In the lobby, Carol is tasked with treating a patient with lice when Tag arrives and gives her a bridal magazine noting the errors that can ruin a wedding. As they discuss which band to hire for the wedding reception, Benton appears and says he paged Tag, revealing that the latter is intent on discharging Mae despite her condition not being completely stabilized. When Benton takes him to task over this, Tag points out that with his mother's current health problems, she'll need specialized facility care for the rest of her life and the hospital can't do anymore to help. Benton pledges to keep her at her own home, despite Tag's insistence that it's a very bad idea. Afterwards, Benton discovers that Mae has been restrained to her bed, having repeatedly attempted to leave the hospital despite Jeanie's insistence that she stay where she is. Benton unties her and promises that it will never happen again, and then tells Jeanie (who reveals she had the restraints added) not to bother his family again. However, he finds his mother out of bed and lying on the ground soon after, realizing that Jeanie was right about the course of action...

The ER faces an influx of patients as midnight looms, including a woman who questions Carter about his birth sign and time of birth and a group of jocks who arrive at the hospital having been stripped of their clothes (forcing them to wear sheets). The staff also get a fright when a cherry bomb goes off in one of the lobby's trashbins, prompting paper to fly in every direction. Carol's attention is diverted when a disaster protocol is called in — a nightclub fire, with 15-20 patients set to arrive in the ER. Carol immediately sets about paging all of the doctors, even those off-shift, to come back and help.

Doug is at Diane's house when his pager goes off, prompting him to get up. It's revealed that they were in bed together, and when he tells her he has to head back to County, she gifts him a spare key so he can come back whenever he wants. Elsewhere, Benton wakes up with a start in Mae's room and gets the page to come downstairs, while at a nearby arcade in Chicago, Mark has taken to playing Killer Instinct in an attempt to distract him from Jodi's case — and causing him to miss Carol's page.

At County, Doug arrives to find... no victims and the ER staff assembled, with Swift pressing a stopwatch. When Doug reacts in confusion, Swift tells him that he was running an emergency drill to see how long it would take the staff to arrive at County, and that he routinely conducts those drills to keep employees on their toes. Elsewhere, Carter and Chen attempt to treat a patient with an infected finger, but she mistakenly lights an alcoholic substance Carter is spritzing on the man's hand, causing it to burst into flames. While the patient reels in shock, she begs Carter not to tell anyone what happened.

Susan finally reaches Mark when he calls in from a payphone and tells him to get back to County. When he arrives, he finds Swift finishing up a meeting with the rest of the staff and chides Mark for having another staffer cover for him. Afterwards, Mark and Doug head back home on public transit, where Doug attempts to get Mark to open up about what happened with Jodi's case. Mark is still beside himself with guilt, and tells Doug he doesn't want any help before exiting the subway car at his stop and sitting alone in the station...

Carter is roused in the middle of the night after trying to get some sleep as two patients are wheeled in — a man shot by his neighbor while attempting to break into the latter's house in a daze, and a baby left alone in the cold who's suffering from hypothermia. With the help of Carter, Tag and Swift, Susan is able to help stabilize both patients. Afterwards, Swift congratulates her on a job well done.

As day breaks, Doug arrives back at Diane's and gives her a kiss, while Jen (having been informed by Doug that Mark was still at the subway station) finds him still sitting alone. She attempts to lift his spirits regarding Jodi's case, and tells him that he's "only human" before they agree to go have breakfast together...

Benton also arrives at Jeanie's house after his shift and meets her husband, Al Boulet, who greets him warmly. When Jeanie is called, Benton apologizes for his behavior the night before, realizing that he can't take care of his mother alone. He asks her to find a suitable care home for her before leaving. Back at County, Carter is also leaving for the day, letting Chen know as he leaves that he had a very exciting shift. Susan also finds Swift working on a pipe in one of the bathrooms, revealing that he is handy with tools. As they talk, Swift reveals that he's thinking of making some changes to the chain of command, and even prompts her to apply for the Chief Resident role — until she tells him that she's only a second-year resident, and is thus ineligible.

At the front desk, Carter helps lighten the mood by calling in a radio request for Susan, "Twist and Shout", and together with Carol, they dance around in glee as the rest of the patients look on.

Tropes:

• Affectionate Nickname: Swift self-identifies that his nickname is "Willy" for the benefit of the assembled staff.
• All Women Are Lustful: Diane, Carol, the patient Carter is treating who turns out to be pregnant...
• Benevolent Boss: Dr. Swift, who apparently makes a habit of keeping his true intentions secret to keep his own staff members on his toes. Unlike Morgenstern, however, he shows much more flexibility regarding absences, noting that he did call a disaster protocol in the middle of the night to see who would show up first so he could get a sense of the ER unit.
• Breather Episode: After the high-stakes nature of the previous episode, this installment is much lighter in tone, focusing on an ER shift where the doctors have to deal with wild or confused patients in a more lighthearted way.
• Brutal Honesty: Tag all-but-yells at Benton that his mother's condition is tenuous enough that she'll require specialized care for the rest of his life, despite the latter's attempts to ignore the point.
• Cannot Spit It Out: When Benton discovers that Jeanie ordered Mae restrained in her bed, she either can't (or doesn't) explain why she did so — because the latter was constantly getting out of bed and refused help from other people. As a result, Benton functionally fires her, and then gets a dose of immediate karma when the now-unrestrained Mae gets out of bed, falls, and nearly breaks her hip again. For his part, Benton later tells her he was wrong, though this doesn't explain why she didn't just tell him in the first place.
• Character Development: After nearly a season of refusing to admit he can take care of Mae alone, Benton finally realizes he'll need to send her to a nursing home, and asks Jeanie for help.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The random "bike guy" (played by Michael Ironside) who attempts to chat up Mark at Doc Magoo's is revealed to be County's new ER Chief, Dr. William (Willy) Swift.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Several of the patients display this quality, befitting the "full moon" bringing out the crazy patients.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Defied; unlike "Blizzard", where the plot was generally lighthearted up until the disaster protocol was called in, the same call in this episode turns out to be a Bait-and-Switch caused by Dr. Swift, who wanted to see how long it would take for the ER staff to respond.
• Continuity Nod: Mark is shown hanging out at Doc Magoo's, the same hangout the staff attended in "Luck Of The Draw", while on his break off-shift.
• Contrived Coincidence: Carter just happens to get some extremely pertinent advice from a pregnant patient (who's implied to be a Cloudcuckoolander) regarding his own frame of mind and what he needs to get past the negative attitudes of some people (e.g. Deb) who are trying to bring him down, at the point when he needs it the most. The setting (the "full moon" causing wild patients to come out) is used to excuse this contrivance.
• Da Chief: Dr. William (Willy) Swift, played by Michael Ironside (channelling a bit of Richter in his introductory scene), who takes over from Morgenstern as the interim Chief of the ER Unit at County.
• Dance Party Ending: The episode ends with Carter, Susan and Carol doing an impromptu dance to "Twist and Shout" when it starts playing on the radio.
• Dare to Be Badass: Implied, as Deb is suggested as wanting to take on more high-risk procedures in an attempt to prove herself.
• Didn't Think This Through: Benton rails at Jeanie for having his mother restrained to a hospital bed, functionally fires her, unties the restraints, falls asleep and is paged before going off to a meeting... causing Mae to fall out of bed and nearly break her hip again. For his part, he tells Jeanie afterwards that he was wrong and that he still needs her help.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The episode takes place over the course of a single 12-hour (nighttime) shift, during which several characters make key decisions regarding their current circumstances.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • The crazed patient strapped to the gurney who escapes is spoken about by Doug (in a dismissive way) less than a minute before he rises and begins trashing the exam room he's in.
  • The "bike guy" who shows up to Doc Magoo's and tries to chat up Mark is revealed to be County's new ER Chief, Dr. William Swift two scenes later. The fact that he's played by Michael Ironside is a direct note that the character is much more important than he originally seems to be.
• Foreshadowing:
  • It's implied that Chen is resorting to more and more frantic behavior (including sneaking looks through Carter's notebook and trying to force her way into medical examinations) in order to keep up with Carter...
  • When Haleh asks Carol if she's going to give up work at County after marrying Tag, she comments that she can't imagine life without it, even hesitating when asked. This is followed up a few seconds later when Tag arrives and gives her a stack of bridal magazines, with the top issue promoting a column that lists the "12 Common Errors That Can Ruin Your Wedding"...
• Go-Getter Girl: Deb, who is so gung-ho about keeping pace with Carter (and beating him) that she nearly sets a patient's hand on fire during a procedure.
• Gory Discretion Shot: While we don't get to see Carter and Susan performing a heart massage on the patient with the shotgun wound who's bleeding out, we are treated to the sight of bloodied heart paddles being repeatedly inserted and removed from the patient's chest.
• Heroic BSoD: Mark goes into one following the events of the previous episode (coupled with Jen's announcement that she wants a separation), forcing Susan to step up and run the ER unit in his stead. Notably, when Susan first sees him, he's contemplating life in an exam room alone, and refuses to see any patients. This continues all the way to the end of the episode, where Jen finds him after he's spent hours sitting alone in the cold at a subway station.
• Honest Advisor, Jen Greene, of all people, is the one to comfort her husband and tell him it's not his fault for what happened with Jodi O'Brien's case, after spending nearly the entire season being either aloof or completely-dismissive of him.
• Insecure Love Interest: Implied with Carol, who still seems to be harboring feelings for Doug (despite her insistence otherwise), and seems more conflicted than ever regarding her upcoming marriage to Tag...
• It's All About Me: Much like past episodes, Benton pledges to handle his mother's care himself, even when it's pointed out to him that her frail condition makes it nearly-impossible to keep treating her at home — and that she will require specialized facility care for the rest of her life.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tag rightly points out (after revealing County will have to discharge Mae due to her Medicare benefits running out, and being completely dismissive of Benton) that she'll need specialized care for the rest of her life, and expecting a single resident to keep watch over her at all hours of the day is an impossibility.
• Just One More Level!: In-universe, Greene uses his shift off to spend several hours at an arcade playing Killer Instinct to take his mind off the O'Brien case, with the effect that he likely would have stayed out several hours more had he not been called in by Swift for an overnight staff meeting.
• Ladykiller in Love: It's implied that Doug has truly fallen for Diane, as he rushes out (twice, in fact) to get back to her place to spend more time with her.
• More than Meets the Eye: Bob, who reveals herself to have an extremely-thorough knowledge of medical procedures during Dr. Swift's all-hands meeting. When he asks her who she is, she responds that she is the desk clerk, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
• Not Helping Your Case: Susan attempts to excuse Swift's requests to see Mark (who's off-shift) by lying that he has "the flu". When Mark finally arrives more than an hour after Swift conducted his all-hands meeting in the middle of the night, Swift — who'd previously encountered him at Doc Magoo's — asks him how he's dealing with his flu. Mark, who went off-shift to take his mind off work, is left shocked by the response.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After abruptly canning Jeanie as his mother's caretaker, Benton goes back to apologize to her at the end of the episode, realizing that he can't take care of his mother alone.
  • Possibly as a way of attempting to make amends after asking for a separation two episodes earlier, Jen comforts Mark in his grief and they decide to go for breakfast together.
• Relationship Upgrade: Having made plans to meet in the previous episode, it's now established that Doug and Diane have begun dating.
• Ship Tease:
  • Despite being married to someone, it's implied that Jeanie is interested in pursuing a relationship with Peter, as she invites him out to dinner under the pretense that she wants to talk about Mae's past. The appearance of her husband, Al, in one of the final scenes does little to dissuade these feelings.
  • Carol attempts to ignore Susan's comments about Doug going for dinner with Diane, but her body language suggests otherwise...
• Shout-Out:
  • The NBC promos and official description for the episode describe the hospital as being faced with a "Night of the living, dead."
  • Tag recognizes Dr. Swift as his "bowling buddy from Ohio State". This is a reference to Rick Rossovich (Tag) and Michael Ironside (Swift) having co-starred together in Top Gun (alongside Anthony Edwards) a decade earlier.
• Tempting Fate:
  • It's implied that Deb is getting more and more frantic to make a good impression at County (to the extent that it may cause her to make mistakes), as she steals looks at Carter's private notes, vies with him on who gets to conduct more procedures, and blatantly ditches him when she sees a better opportunity.
  • Benton's care for his mother qualifies, given that he yells at or ignores everyone (including Jeanie and Tag) who try to warn him that not moving her into an LTC home would be a very bad idea. This backfires on him when Mae manages to get out of bed and collapses on the floor after he'd essentially fired Jeanie as her caregiver (due to the latter restraining her).
• This Is Not a Drill: Subverted; the nightclub fire disaster protocol turns out to be a fake drill ordered by Dr. Swift to see how the staff would respond.
• Trash the Set: The crazed patient that's high on PCP smashes up one of the trauma rooms — while still strapped to a gurney, no less.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: The seeds of this are planted in this episode, with Carol pretending not to notice that Doug has a date while being visibly unenthusiastic about planning her wedding to Tag. This is a noticeable reversal of the first half of the season where it was he pining away for her.
• Urine Trouble: Louie, a patient (possibly drunk) who ends up roaming around the ER (and the neighboring streets) while still in his wheelchair and sporting a catheter.
  Carol: Six pints! Time to change your bag.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The crazed patient on PCP strapped to the gurney rushes out of the hospital when still tied up... and never appears again, even at the end of the episode when the staff are checking their charts.
• Working with the Ex: Averted; Doug goes off-duty just before Tag arrives, shows back up when Swift calls everyone in for the middle-of-the-night meeting, and goes back home before Tag shows back up to help Susan and Carter with the gunshot victim.

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