Characters / ER

This character sheet is for the long-running Medical Drama ER.

Warning! Major spoilers ahead.

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Introduced in Season 1

Mark Greene

Mark Greene

Played By: Anthony Edwards

• Ambiguously Jewish:
  • One of his parents was Jewish and he knows a bit of Yiddish and some Jewish prayer. Other than that, he doesn't display any Jewish mannerisms and Anthony Edwards himself is not Jewish.
  • He actually describes himself as "the son of a lapsed Catholic and an agnostic Jew."
• Back for the Finale: While he doesn't appear in the final episode, a flashback episode midway through the last season showing Catherine's first encounter with County General reveals that he treated her son (sadly, the son was already terminally ill). The event clearly takes place shortly before his death in Season 8, which adds a further bit of melancholy.
• Beta Couple: Mark and Elizabeth's relationship has aspects of this—they don't get together until after Doug leaves and the writers clearly needed a couple to replace Doug and Carol. While it is at the forefront (mainly because Mark was the de facto main character), their relationship is relatively problem free and problems only really arise when Elizabeth gives birth and Rachel comes to live with them.
• Betty and Veronica: In the first three seasons, he's the Archie for Susan's Betty and Jen's Veronica: Susan's a competent doctor and one of Mark's best friends, while Jen's his high school sweetheart-turned-wife who ends their marriage by cheating on him and leaving him for the other man.
• Bittersweet Ending: Despite dying of cancer, in the very least he got to spend his last moments with his family and in an island paradise, reconciling with Rachel in the process. His doctor also advises him that he spent the extra year when the cancer seemed to be cured very well, getting married and seeing another child being born.
• Book Ends: When his father died Mark spent his last days repairing their relationship. When he was dying he pulled Rachel out of school so that he could spend his last moments with her and try to repair their relationship.
• Butt-Monkey: Eight seasons, and something crappy happened to him in every one of them.
• The Casanova: Amazingly, despite never having slept with anyone other than his wife, Mark manages to pick it up after his divorce and Susan's leaving. Unfortunately he's not so good at the finer aspects of being a player, scheduling three dates on the same night that all the participants find out about (Nina, the psych Attending, eventually agrees to go out with him).
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: His position of authority puts him in difficult standing with his friends, and often times had to make tough choices involving them. Unlike Kerry, though, he rarely, if ever, outright stabbed anyone in the back.
• Commonality Connection: He describes his beating to Mobalage, getting him to open up about his own torture and saving him from deportation.
• Deadpan Snarker: Develops quite a sense of humour when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
• Fair-Weather Friend: He had a bad habit of wimping out on supporting anyone who needed it—Susan, Doug, etc.
• Generation Xerox: His eldest daughter Rachel follows his footsteps and applies to medical school in the Grand Finale.
• Good Is Not Soft: When alone in an elevator with a dying serial killer who threatened to kill Mark and his family, he opts not to save him and looks into his eyes during the killer's final moments.
• The Hero: The show's lead character in the first eight seasons.
• The Hero Dies: He dies of cancer in Season 8.
• Heroic BSoD: He suffers these repeatedly—after mishandling a childbirth, resulting in the mother's death, after his wife leaves him for another man, after Susan leaves him before they can even have a relationship, after being beaten up (losing Susan made him feel bad, being beaten up made him feel worse), a small one after his father dies and after learning that his brain tumor has returned and is now inoperable.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Doug. Their friendship is complicated by Mark's role as an authority figure and his boss.
• His Own Worst Enemy:
• Hollywood Atheist: Averted. In one deleted scene from "On the Beach", Mark says outright that he doesn't believe in God. But it doesn't really affect his characterization otherwise.
• Hypocrite:
  • Frequently chastised Doug for getting too personally involved with cases and bending/breaking the rules to help his patients when he himself often did the same thing. In particular, it's heavily implied that he euthanized a patient in a Season 1 episode, but several years later, he reads Doug the riot act for possibly doing the same thing.
  • Blasted Kerry for not wanting to report her Alzheimer's stricken mentor. A year later, when he himself suffered cognitive impairment following brain surgery and chemotherapy, blasted Kerry for reporting him.
  • Chastised Susan for not being more assertive when he was the definition of spineless.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In a deleted scene from "On the Beach", Mark tells Elizabeth he has absolutely no problem with the idea of her getting re-married again, saying that she deserves to be happy and that Ella deserves a father. Elizabeth is very resistant to the idea and tells Mark he should stop talking this way.
• I Was Quite a Looker: The now-balding Mark tells Rachel that he used to have hair down to his shoulders. Anyone who's seen Anthony Edwards in Fast Times at Ridgemont High can vouch for this.
• The Leader: Of the levelheaded variety. Established in the first episode when he's told that he "Sets the tone." Pretty much everyone looks to him to get them through a crisis.
• Magnetic Hero: Is very respected by his colleagues. Even lone wolf Benton sometimes goes to Mark for advice. Works posthumously too—in the final season, Catherine agrees to give Carter work in the ER whilst he's in Chicago because she learned that Mark was one of his teachers (Mark treated her son).
• Meaningful Name: Green is the color of medicine.
• Nerds Are Virgins: Geeky, bespectacled Mark has only ever had sex with his wife.
• Official Couple: With Elizabeth.
• Opposites Attract: Mark and Elizabeth show shades of this. While they get along very well their personalities are quite different. Mark is rather soft and more patient, more willing to understand people and to give them second chances. Elizabeth is a lot tougher and a lot harsher. Their respective personality differences become apparent when Ella overdoses on Rachel's ecstasy, Elizabeth wants Mark to call the police and wants Rachel out of the house (and tells her as much), whereas Mark (probably because Rachel is his daughter) just wants to work things out and to try and help his daughter. Elizabeth is also more career-oriented, taking up Romano's offer of the Associate Chief of Surgery position despite suspecting ulterior motives, whereas Mark is content just to run the ER.
• Parental Neglect: Claims that, as a teenager, he started acting out in frustration because his father was never around. Mark starts to fear, even before his tumour recurs, that Rachel's acting out is because he made the same mistakes.
• Parental Substitute: For Carter. Mark gives Carter the nurturing encouragement that he doesn't get from Benton, and they fill a need in each other's lives, as Mark doesn't get to see his daughter very often and Carter's parents are often on vacation somewhere.
• Pet the Dog: Despite Malucci's sometimes incompetence and many people's contempt for him, Mark seems to rather like him and stands up for him when Kerry fires him. Perhaps it's because he reminds Mark of Doug.
• Posthumous Character: "On the Beach" is somewhat non-linear, in that it aired after "The Letter", in which the ER staff are notified that he has died, and yet it takes place immediately after "Orion in the Sky" (Mark's last day), during "Brothers and Sisters" (Elizabeth goes to Hawaii to be with Mark) and between "The Letter" (Mark's death obviously happened before the episode, but Mark's funeral happened afterwards). Meanwhile, the final season episode that featured his "return" was actually a flashback to his last days at the hospital.
• Precision F-Strike: In quite a shocking moment for TV at the time, he gives an uncensored "Shit!" after suddenly losing his balance upon getting out of bed, indicating just how much his days are numbered.
• Pronoun Trouble: After he undergoes surgery to remove his brain tumor, he starts mixing up "he" and "she" in mid-tirade. It gets to the point where Kerry orders competency testing.
• The Reliable One: Can be pretty much counted on to do whatever it takes to save his patients.
• Team Dad: To many, but especially to Carter.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Starting in Season 3 after Susan leaves, beginning with him violating Jeanie's privacy by snooping into her files to find out her HIV status. It kicks into high gear after he's beaten up—he becomes cynical and unpleasant and while arguably he deals with some patients the way they should be dealt with, most of the time he just comes off as a total jerk. Thankfully, he gets better after that season.
  • After his first tumor, Mark begins to suffer personality changes. While not as bad as when he got beaten up, Susan reprimands him at one point for being so harsh with patients and tells him that he isn't quite the kind and caring Mark she used to know.
• Undying Loyalty: To his friends, loved ones and patients, but especially to Doug, best demonstrated in Hell and High Water:
  Reporter: "Do you question Doctor Ross' decision to fly the child here?"
  Greene: "Not for a second."
• Unexpected Virgin: He admits to Doug that he nervous about his first date since his divorce because his ex-wife is the only woman he's ever slept with.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Susan, leading to an averted Race for Your Love scenario in Season 3. A deleted scene from Season 8's "Orion in the Sky" (Mark's last day at County General) has Mark and Susan talking about what happened at Union Station five years later. Susan obliquely asks Mark if she hadn't moved away, they'd be together. Mark then mentions his grandfather and how he used to say that everything happens for a reason, then he says it was just one of those things that sounded even stupider as he got older.
• Vigilante Execution: He not only refused to help the man who threatened to kill him and his family, he taunted him as he died by holding up the shock paddles in front him. He never suffered any legal ramifications for doing so.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Anspaugh, at one point, promises to offer Mark a tenured position at the hospital within three years if he agrees to stay on staff and not join a NASA program. This means that Mark could get tenure as early as 2002. Mark died in 2002.

Doug Ross

Douglas "Doug" Ross

Played By: George Clooney

• Abusive Parents: A Berserk Button for him, no doubt because his father was one of these. This is probably why he became a pediatrician in the first place.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: He delivers two to Carol at different points—first when he races to her and Tag's engagement party in "The Gift", then again at the end of "The Storm, Part 2".
• Bittersweet Ending: Doug decides to go full Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! to help a desperate mother perform a Mercy Kill on a dying, suffering boy to spare him from the agony of his disease, and it finally backfires on him monumentally, nearly being arrested and charged with murder, but managing not to be with the testimony of a colleague. Even so, his career at County and in Chicago is destroyed, his reputation damaged, friendships ruined, and he despises County's leadership in the form of Kerry and Romano. He decides to move away to Seattle to take another job and start over. Though he pleads for Carol to leave with him, she wants to stay in Chicago together, and they instead sadly go their separate ways. He parts with his best friend Mark Greene on peaceful terms, reconciling before his departure. Soon after he leaves, Carol is revealed to be pregnant, but the two remain mostly apart even during their daughters births, in contact from afar, with Doug visiting only once off screen. Eventually Carol has an epiphany and decides to reunite with Doug for good in Seattle near the end of the sixth season and they live happily ever after with their daughters, together as a family. Though they inexplicably don't attend Mark's funeral, they remain in touch with at least Nurse Haleh and Jeanie Boulet of those they knew at County.
• Breakout Character: The most popular character of both the original main cast and subsequent main cast. To the point where, after Doug's departure from the show, he had many Suspiciously Similar Substitute characters popping up in the main cast with various traits taken from him — most notably Luka, Malucci, Pratt, Ray, Gates, and Brenner.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes this to the son of a woman he dates in Season 1 after he inevitably cheats on her and ruins the relationship.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His first appearance has him coming into work drunk and talking about his sexual conquests, setting the viewer up for further instances of Doug breaking the rules and ignoring hospital procedure. During Season 2, the Chief Attending of the pediatric ward gets into arguments with both Morgenstern and Mark about renewing his fellowship, with Mark arguing in Doug's favour by saying that he's a good doctor. Doug, from then on, manages to keep his job through pure, unquestionable excellence, despite Mark and Kerry's frustration with him.
• The Bus Came Back: Twice. First for an uncredited cameo in Season 6, the second time in the final season.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Inverted. He tries to blame his abusive father for his horrible adulthood, but his father informs him that "You're 34 years old. How you live your life is your decision."
• The Casanova: At the start of the show and for a time, until gradually growing out of it later on.
• Character Development: Doug's life is a steady downward spiral into hedonism and depression all the way to the point where one of his flings overdoses and dies, at which point he finally decides to start cleaning up his act as best he can, managing to succeed and improve as a person over time and get back together with Carol. Unfortunately he is unable to undergo development for his 'cowboy' approach to medicine, selfishly getting many others including his best friend in trouble in the process for trying to do what he believes is right for a patient, and soon leading to his downfall.
• Chick Magnet: The original Tall, Dark, and Handsome brooding womanizer of the show.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Neither he nor Carol appear at Mark's funeral—without any explanation as to why—even though they were best friends. He and Carol also didn't appear at his wedding to Elizabeth a season earlier, although that can be explained away, since a storm grounded all of Mark and Elizabeth's out-of-state guests, including Mark's eldest daughter Rachel.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: His greatest strength and weakness, and ultimately his downfall at County.
• Disappeared Dad: Had one; may have been one to his twice-mentioned son.
• Freudian Excuse: His experiences with his abusive father explains much of his behavior, bad and good.
• Friend to All Children: Consistently.
• Functional Addict: While he clearly has a drinking problem—he shows up drunk at the hospital in the Pilot and Mark's reaction indicates that this isn't the first time this has happened—it never seems to affect his work or cause any other mishaps for him. Even when he gets his act together, he never declares himself to be an alcoholic, and given that he seems less inclined to drink when things are going well for him, he may just be very inclined to Drowning My Sorrows.
• Happily Married: To Carol, as of their appearance in the final season.
• Headbutting Heroes: He's dedicated to the welfare of his patients, consequences be damned, which might be admirable...if he ever recognized that those consequences sometimes land on people other than him. This is especially prevalent in his and the just as passionate and dedicated Peter's interactions together. Even Mark eventually reaches a point where he just can't deal with Doug's thoughtlessness anymore.
• Heel Realization: After one of his random one-night-stands dies of an overdose and it really begins to sink in just how much he's screwed up his life.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Mark and Doug are best friends, and seem to spend a lot of time together. As Doug is such a "cowboy" (as some of the other doctors put it), Mark's position of authority often complicates their friendship. However, Mark, more often than not, is perfectly willing to advocate for Doug, and during Season 2 he campaigns to keep Doug at the hospital despite the fact that the Pediatric Chief Attending wants him gone, stating that Doug's a good doctor. Also when Doug is ready to throw away his career at an award ceremony after saving a drowning boy's life by telling the hospital board exactly what he thinks of them and their trophy after all the crap they put him through before then, with them now sucking up to him for being a hero, he only changes his mind after Mark gives a touching speech about what he thinks of Doug when presenting him for the award.
• Hollywood Atheist: Claims to be Pagan, but demonstrates contempt for religion (specifically Christianity). He crosses himself in one episode which suggests he may have grown up Catholic, only to lose his faith later on.
• Ladykiller in Love: He's established as the hospital stud in the Pilot. In that same episode, it's also poignantly obvious that he's desperately in love with Carol. Fifteen years later, nothing has changed.
• The Lancer: He has this role opposite Mark's The Hero role in the first five seasons.
• Lovable Traitor: Occasionally. His loyalty to children above everything and everyone else is both his greatest strength and greatest weakness, and he will do anything, including lie to and double-cross friends, to protect them. It almost gets him fired, until his rescue of a drowning child in "Hell and High Water" forces the hospital to reconsider.
• Mr. Fanservice: Very popular among both female characters and female viewers.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever it was that led to him and Weaver despising one another before County when they worked together at another hospital. Neither Doug or her ever elaborate on what happened between them.
• Official Couple: With Carol.
• One True Love: Carol. In "Fathers and Sons", he tells Mark that his relationship with Carol was the only one that felt "right." In "Blizzard", even his then-girlfriend Linda notes this.
• Put on a Bus: Midway through Season 5.
• Really Gets Around: Until Season 3, where he tries and succeeds in changing his ways.
• Redemption in the Rain: He receives one in "Hell and High Water", when he emerges from a flooded area with the kid he's been trying to save, after the previous few episodes having shown him going down a slippery slope.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Deconstructed. This was his motto but became his downfall when actions ended up jeopardizing the careers of himself and others.
• Sex God: Dialogue from former girlfriends make it quite clear he's this.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Noted often by the female staff and a number of women patients.
• The Unseen: He's mentioned in Season 6 as having come to Chicago to visit his baby daughters and to ask Carol again to move to Seattle with him. The viewer doesn't see his visit or his and Carol's exchange.

Susan Lewis

Susan Lewis

Played By: Sherry Stringfield

• The Bus Came Back: Returned as a regular in Season 8 and stayed until the Season 12 premiere. She also came Back for the Finale.
• Bittersweet Ending: Departs Chicago a second time abruptly after being screwed over for the last time by being denied tenure, though has a newly formed family, finds a better job, and is still on good terms with everyone back at County.
• Character Signature Song: "Blackbird" by The Beatles. In Season 2 this trope is very much played for drama as the song becomes symbolic of the bond between her and her niece Little Suzy.
• Chastity Couple: With Carter. Susan mentions in "Secrets and Lies" that they had yet to have sex, and she breaks up with him after realizing that he was obsessed with Abby and didn't feel that way about her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially after her return.
  Susan: You're late.
  Luka: Blame my alarm clock.
  Susan: Oh, yeah? What's her name?
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Frequently suffers this in her career and family life, despite a lifetime of being capable at each and all she accomplishes. Especially when she gains more of a leadership role at the hospital as an Attending. It ends up being the final straw that leads to her second departure from County.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Was the latter to her drug-addicted older sister, who is little more than an albatross around Susan's neck every time she appears.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Dark blonde rather, but the trope still applies.
• Heroic BSoD: In the first season, she struggles with confidence issues after being blamed for a patient's death. In the second, she had to see a therapist after she was forced to give her niece (who she was raising as her own daughter) back to her irresponsible sister.
• Nephewism: She became a surrogate/foster mother to her niece after her sister abandoned her and was this close to adopting her when she returned.
• Noodle Incident: After her return. It seems like the viewer missed a few things, including her engagement to a real-life cowboy.
• Parental Neglect: Her mother is rather aloof and self-absorbed and it's implied that Susan and her sister pretty much had to take care of themselves growing up, leading to the latter's problems. Her father initially doesn't seem to be much better, although he eventually steps up and offers to take care of little Susie at night whilst Susan goes to work.
• Put on a Bus: Midway through Season 3 and after the Season 12 premiere. The former was a big dramatic send-off; the latter, she just stopped appearing and her absence was explained in some throwaway dialogue several episodes later.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Implied to be the case for her sudden second departure with her newly formed family, after suffering a Passed-Over Promotion by losing out on tenure in favor of Carter, despite all her experience, talent and hard work, it meaning nothing next to Carter's wealth. She seeks a job elsewhere more likely to promote her.
• The Unfavorite: Was also inexplicably this to her drug-addicted older sister, despite being a doctor and responsible and hard working. To their credit, as cited above, after her sister abandons the baby, their parents realize their mistake and pitch in to help.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension:
  • With Mark. According to Carol, Susan absolutely wanted Mark to come to Maui with her, but was afraid that he would be freaked out by the invitation. When he gets sick Susan takes care of him, which makes Carter (who didn't know Mark was sick again) rather jealous.
  • Some with Carter, when she left the first time. When she comes back, they get together but the relationship more-or-less fizzles before it can develop because of Carter's obsession with Abby.

John Carter

John Truman Carter III

Played By: Noah Wyle

• Abusive Parents: Of the severely emotionally neglectful type, to the point where not even him being nearly stabbed to death could make them cut short their vacation plans to be by his side. However, their Freudian Excuse of their grief for his younger brother makes them slightly more sympathetic than most examples of this trope. And his father does come around more later on, supporting Carter when he loses his own son.
• Audience Surrogate: Started out as this, being the only rookie among the more experienced staff.
• Author Avatar: Of Michael Crichton, who based the Pilot on his time as a medical student.
• Beard of Sorrow: He had one at the beginning of Season 5 after Anna Del Amico took off between seasons to get back together with her ex boyfriend, leaving County, before shaving it off later on after getting it stuck on a glue covered patient. He had another after his stint in rehab, before shaving it off on the plane back to Chicago. Grows yet another one after returning from Africa and later losing his newborn son.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Popped up now and again when he would reach his threshold during the first six seasons when he was more of a Nice Guy. This includes shouting at Anspaugh when he wouldn't get off Carter's back while he was trying to help an elderly couple in the ER, with Anspaugh backing down and leaving despite being his boss, as well as refusing to give a murderer, rapist and mutilator of elderly women fresh blood after he was shot by the cops and brought in, opting for an autotransfusion despite the risk, and ignoring Anna's misgivings on the matter.
• Breakout Character: Was generally quite a popular character throughout the show. Helped largely by his relative affability, his natural development, and overall longevity. Noah Wyle received more Emmy nominations than any member of the cast outside of Julianna Margulies.
• The Bus Came Back: In Season 12 for four episodes. He also came Back for the Finale.
• Butt-Monkey: He suffers through a lot of pain and humiliation. Some of it is Played for Laughs, but there are also a fair number of darker moments that take a toll on him.
• The Casanova: He's pretty much able to get any girl he wants, although he rarely seems to use this ability, instead going for the "maybe we should be friends first" approach.
• Character Development: As prominent an example as the show could give. He starts out the first few seasons as a Tagalong Kid, learning how to function in the hospital setting under Benton's tutelage while also figuring out what role he wants to play as a doctor (eventually switching from surgery to emergency medicine). He then grows comfortable at County, gradually settling into the role of The Lancer for Mark after Doug left. When both Mark and Benton left at the end of Season 8, it is explicitly noted that he's become The Hero, a role that he carries throughout the remainder of his time on the show. By the time he is ready to leave, it is clear that the rest of the staff thinks of him as the Big Good, something made more apparent when he returns in the final season and a delighted Morris explains to his medical students and interns that Carter's "a legend."
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: A facet and a flaw of his. An early example being in Season 4's "Exodus," where after a Benzine leak contaminates the ER and Carter has to step up to lead the department, he spends most of it running to and from emergencies, even putting his own life at risk to save a suffocating patient.
• Chick Magnet: How many girlfriends did he have during the entire show, again?
• Did Not Get the Girl: Despite their tension he and Anna Del Amico do not get together, with her leaving County between seasons to get back together with her ex boyfriend, leaving Carter embittered.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When some of the hospital staff stage an intervention against Carter he challenges them to name one instance of him endangering patients' lives. Jing-Mei mentions how he sent a patient into anaphylactic shock by giving her a drug she told him she was allergic to. Carter then retorts that she almost killed a man by leaving a guide wire in his chest. Firstly, said incident took place practically six years ago, when Jing-Mei was a medical student. Secondly, that incident was no indicator that Jing-Mei was starting to fall apart.
• Entitled to Have You: Dips into this with his relationship with Abby, getting closer to her and trying to move in on her while she is in a relationship with Luka, eventually culminating in him whining at her that she's not with him despite the fact that they were in relationship with other people at the time.
• Friend to All Children: Easily forms a rapport with child patients.
• Generation Xerox: Much like his parents, the death of a child results in a fragile marriage whose status at the series' end is uncertain.
• Happily Married: Subverted with Kem. Both Season 12 and the final season establish that he and Kem have gotten married since he left the show at the end of Season 11. However, Kem is nowhere to be seen when Carter returns for a four-episode arc in Season 12, he tells Benton that their marriage is complicated in "Old Times", and they're clearly estranged in the series finale. Despite this, there's some indication that they still love each other—he calls Kem to tell her about his kidney transplant after the operation, and she comes to the opening of the Joshua Carter Center, named after their stillborn son, and praises the clinic.
• Heroic BSoD: Carter goes through a lot of trauma on the show, like most main cast members. The fact that he was the longest-running character meant that they were even more frequent, especially as it resulted in him seeing friends and family die around him. They include:
  • The death of his transgender patient Rena Carlton in Season 1. Carter is uncomfortable treating her and doesn't respond to her efforts in reaching out to him. However, once he discovers that she's going to jump off the roof of the hospital, he tries to be receptive and attentive towards her. She jumps anyways. Carter breaks down in tears as he sees her corpse off-screen, and he's catatonic for the rest of the episode.
  • The death of his friend Dennis Gant in Season 3, which is heavily implied to be a case of Driven to Suicide due to Benton's rigid treatment of him. Carter spends much of the following episode going over how much more supportive he could have been when it was clear that Gant was struggling.
  • The murder of Lucy Knight in Season 6. The ER had admitted a schizophrenic patient that Lucy had expressed concern over, only for Carter to brush her off. The patient then ended up stabbing them both, with Carter eventually surviving while Lucy succumbed to complications in surgery. The aftermath provides enough trauma to send Carter over the edge and into drug addiction. He was never quite the same Carter again after this incident, darkening a fair bit.
  • The death of his grandmother Millicent/"Gamma" in Season 9. As he was dating Abby at the time, the issue becomes exacerbated when Abby prioritizes taking care of her bipolar brother Eric, who shows up uninvited to the funeral and falls into the open grave. This leads to Carter feeling alone in his time of grief and partially results in his decision to join Luka in the Congo.
  • The stillborn birth of his son Joshua in Season 10 crushes Carter immensely—he is shown breaking down in his father's arms immediately afterward—and casts a huge shadow on his relationship with Kem. Even by the time of the series finale five years later, where it's established that he and Kem have gotten married in the intervening years, it's left ambiguous as to whether or not their marriage can fully recover.
• Hypocrite: Lectures Lucy about taking amphetamines for ADHD, as it's typically a pediatric illness and she's in her early 20s. She irritatedly tells him that he's not her physician and that it isn't any of his business. A year later, when Mark asks him what pain medication he's on, he gives a similar answer.
  • Chastises Abby for Falling Off The Wagon and not doing anything to fix her addiction, yet the previous season he had a very lackadasical attitude towards his own recovery process.
• Last-Name Basis: 15 years and you could probably count on one hand the number of times he was called by his first name, rather than his last. It's given a Lampshade Hanging in an early Season 1 episode, when he and Susan share a conversation and she admits that calling him "John" doesn't feel right, probably because Carter is a cooler name. Notably, Kerry, Lucy and Jing-Mei are the only regular characters who ever called him "John", even if only on occasion.
• Likes Older Women: A good portion of his love interests were slightly (5-6 years) older than him, with Abby Keaton maxing it out at 16 years his senior. Jing-Mei—who herself was several years older than him and who he enjoyed a mild flirtation with—makes note of this and accuses him of "liking" Kerry; Carter counters that he simply doesn't dislike her the way everyone else does. He does have a flirtation with Lucy (approximately 5 years his junior) but is quickly able to cut it off before it can go anywhere more than a kiss when he notes how unprofessional it would be. Averted with his final main love interest, Kem, who is roughly the same age as him.
• Naïve Newcomer: He started out as this, being a third-year medical student as opposed to the more experienced staff.
• Nice Guy: Started out this way, and was it for the most part in the first six seasons. After his near fatal stabbing, drug addiction and recovery, on top of the guilt for being partially responsible for Lucy's death and the other tragedies he endures in the series, he gradually loses a good deal of this quality over time.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: It took him forever to become an Attending, and only was made Chief Resident after Jing-Mei was fired. It was even implied that once his residency was over, Kerry had no intention of hiring him, and only did so because of a shortage of Attendings. And this is after being forced to repeat his first year of residency due to switching specialties and then being told he is repeating his third year thanks to his drug issues.
• Non-Idle Rich: Aside from going to medical school rather than joining the family business and living off their fortune, Carter transfers to Emergency Medicine just to spend more time getting to know his patients. When Kerry says they might not have space in the budget for him, he nonchalantly says he doesn't need a salary, which surprises her. Throughout the entire series, particularly in the finale, he is repeatedly shown to use the family money for charitable interests.
• Nosy Neighbor: He displays this midway through the series. In "Responsible Parties", when Lucy has a prescription refill—for Ritalin, which isn't revealed right away—ready to be picked up, he continually pesters her about what medication she's on, even after she tells him point-blank to stop being nosy. In "Great Expectations", after Malucci explains that a patient Carter is treating has Jamaican Vomiting Sickness, he continually questions Malucci on where he learned about the illness, eventually deducing that he had gone to a university in Grenada after flunking out in an American school previously.
• The Not-Love Interest:
  • To Jing-Mei. Despite having a mutual attraction and occasional flirtation, it never goes beyond a close friendship.
  • Also to Maggie Doyle. They hit it off and he's clearly attracted to her...but she's gay.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Frequently on the receiving of this early on, especially from Benton, and later does this to Lucy, inadvertently leading to her death when he does it with her concerns over her schizophrenic patient.
• Only One Name: Played With. Some people did refer to him as "John", such as Kerry, Lucy and Jing-Mei, but everyone else calls him "Carter". Jerry Lampshaded this once:
  Jerry: He's just...Carter.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 11.
• Rape as Backstory: During a sequence where several others are discussing when they lost their virginity, he claims he was 11 and that his partner was a 25 year old maid. No one, including him, seemed to regard this as child molestation and it's practically a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment—never mentioned before, shows no signs of affecting him, and was never mentioned again.
• Really Gets Around: Out of all the male leads on the show, despite being less of a womanizer in personality than some other male leads, Carter had the most girlfriends/love interests.
• Secretly Wealthy: Everyone was stunned when he was revealed to be from a wealthy family, although there were subtle hints beforehand, such as Carter's tailored lab coat in the Pilot and Benton's mother claiming that Carter's family might have once owned Benton's family when Carter admits to having relatives in Tennessee.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 5 and how he treated Lucy Knight, in the wake of his Unresolved Sexual Tension with Anna Del Amico, who chose to get back together with her ex boyfriend and leave County between seasons. He mellows out again gradually and treats her better later, though is often critical of her and prone to Not Now, Kiddo, which is eventually fatal for Lucy and almost fatal for him in Season 6 when he doesn't heed Lucy's observations about a schizophrenic patient. After his stabbing, drug addiction and rehab, though he does recover from his addiction he takes further levels over time, and is never quite the same old Carter again, often quite petty, jealous and rude towards Luka and some others, more insecure, argumentative, sarcastic and short with people. Though he does mellow out some more gradually by the time of the final season.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With several people, but most obviously with Anna.
• You Are in Command Now: When Mark leaves County General for good in "Orion in the Sky", he instructs Carter to "set the tone", just as Morgenstern had told him in the Pilot. Lampshaded by Kerry afterwards, in a nice conjunction with Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  Kerry: Mark's gone. That means you've been here longer than any other doctor. People will look at you to step in and fill the void.
  Carter: (Beat) Big void.
  Kerry: Yes, it is.

Peter Benton

Peter Benton

Played By: Eriq La Salle

• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: He's relentless in his abuse of Dennis Gant because he claims Gant, as a black man, has to work twice as hard to prove he's just as good as his white counterparts. Benton is also uncomfortable with dating Elizabeth because she's white (largely because he's concerned about what his family might think) and resents Cleo's attempts to prove herself by being enraged at what she sees as prejudice, claiming that as a half-white woman she knows nothing about real prejudice.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Carter, although he acts more like an Aloof Big Brother than the caring, nurturing kind.
• Break the Haughty: Season 3 is a long one for him. He starts the season more confident and arrogant than ever, being put at the head of a surgical team, starts a relationship with Carla, and scores a highly sought after pediatric surgery fellowship. However, due to his poor interpersonal skills, his inability to form a rapport with kids and his growing arrogance and overconfidence nearly costing an infant her life, he loses his surgical fellowship. Then one intern from his team dies, possibly due to suicide with the implication it was partially because of Benton's relentless bullying. Finally, he finds his girlfriend's pregnant with his child, who is born premature and deaf. Needless to say, Benton is far less arrogant after the season...
• The Bus Came Back: Departs in the eighth season and returns in the final one.
• Byronic Hero: A deeply flawed, troubled and arrogant man who nonetheless is one of the best at what he does and cares deeply about his patients, friends and loved ones.
• Daddy DNA Test: Twice. The first time Carla claims Benton may not be Reese's father. He goes as far as swabbing both him and Reese before telling himself and Carla that it's not important. The second time Roger challenges Benton's paternity (something Carla couldn't have done, as she put Benton's name on the birth certificate) and forces him to take a test. As it turns out, Benton isn't Reese's biological father.
• Dr. Jerk: He's über-driven, and incredibly unforgiving of anyone he felt didn't have the same level of drive that he did.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Is gruff and abrasive, but adores his mother. His complete denial of how ill and frail she's becoming is in stark contrast to his skills as a physician and the scene where he breaks down over her death is one of the saddest of Season 1.
• Extreme Doormat: Falls into this trope a lot, which is a surprise given his personality. Many of the biggest problems in his life result from his need to please or protect others who are taking advantage of him.
• Family Versus Career: Leaves County and emergency medicine for what looks like a rather dull clinic job so that he can have better work hours and get custody of his son.
• Happily Married: To Cleo.
• Headbutting Heroes: He's a very talented surgeon, but his abrasive personality and arrogance make him hard to work with. Notably, the entire surgical service and the ER staff practically refuse to work with him after he unnecessarily back-stabbed Doug (himself revered at this point for saving a drowning child in "Hell and High Water") over a missed diagnosis.
• Heroic BSoD: He has many. When his mother dies, when he nearly kills a baby in surgery, when Gant commits suicide, when his son is born prematurely with severe complications, and when he fails to save his nephew after he was shot.
• Honor Before Reason: Benton discovers Abby Keaton and Carter's relationship when he goes to her office to ask for a recommendation for a pediatric rotation. When she asks if he's threatening to tell TPTB about what he saw {Carter is an intern and she's an Attending, so it's forbidden), his response?
  "Dr. Keaton...if your recommendation is based on anything but my skills as a doctor, I don't want it."
• Hypocrite:
  • When Carter transferred to Emergency Medicine. Benton told Carter that he should have come and talked to him instead of going straight to Anspaugh, even though when Carter actually came to Benton for advice on how to deal with Dale Edson (he falsified a chart, which is illegal) months earlier, Benton simply blew him off.
  • He rats out Doug to a patient's family for missing a hard-to-see bone cancer diagnosis, then blames Jeanie when he misses a simple appendix and sends a patient home, nearly killing her.
  • He also makes his son's stepfather, Roger McGrath, out to be a jerk for seeking full custody of the boy, even though he's being just as rigid and stubborn throughout the whole custody battle. Plus, Roger tries to call a reasonable truce, offering Benton full custody as long as he gets to visit, which Benton rejects, only for the judge to make a near-identical decision anyways.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his brusque demeanor and often questionable bedside manner, he's very compassionate and wants the best for his patients.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In the Pilot, Carter starts to feel sick after seeing a patient with a severe knife wound. To add insult to injury, Benton says he didn't need Carter's help anyway. Fortunately Mark overhears this and goes to comfort Carter, telling him that Benton used to get sick all the time in med school.
  • In Season 3, Benton just wouldn't give Dennis Gant a break (a fair amount of Benton's behavior was attributable to frustration at his fellowship in pediatric surgery going down the toilet). Gant eventually killed himself.
• Lack of Empathy: While a compassionate and caring doctor, he lacks a bedside manner, is brusque with dealing with patients and often doesn't seem to consider the feelings of others. Notably, Carter is put off by how indifferent he looks in the wake of Dennis Gant's suicide.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: He's originally presented as Reese's father, but when Carla wants to take Reese with her and Roger to Germany she suddenly claims that there was someone else. Benton eventually finds out that he isn't Reese's biological father, but he decides that he doesn't care and will be there for Reese no matter what. The fact that Reese acknowledges Benton as his father is the deciding factor in Benton's custody case against Roger.
• Never My Fault: Has a complete inability to admit that he could have been wrong about anything, ever.
• Official Couple: With Cleo.
• Papa Wolf: Most prominently to his son Reese, but also to Carter, his protege. He'd do anything for his son, quitting County so that he could spend more time with him, and when Carter was stabbed another patient almost died because Benton absolutely refused to leave Carter's side.
• Put on a Bus: Leaves after Season 8.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Comes up often with his personality and certain other people's. With Doug Ross, Romano, Luka Kovac and Dave Malucci especially.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gave these out on occasion, but was on the receiving end of a truly epic one from Dr. Abby Keaton in Season 3.
  Keaton: What's at issue here is that you ignored my specific instructions.
  Benton: I didn't ignore anything! I followed standard operative procedure. Look, I've done it at least a dozen times in other patients.
  Keaton: This is not "another patient"! This is an infant! Outside, now.
  (They step out of the NICU and into the hall)
  Keaton: You don't know anything about pediatric surgery!
  Benton: Look, I thought it was necessary—
  Keaton: Are you unwilling to learn from your mistakes?
  Benton: It doesn't say in the text not to stitch a liver!
  Keaton: It isn't in the text! You didn't know what the hell you were doing! The second you realized you screwed up you should have called me. Why did I find three stitches in there?!
  Benton: Because I tried to—
  Keaton: Because you arrogantly and blindly think that you have all the answers! If that baby dies, it'll be my responsibility, but it'll be your fault!
• Token Minority Couple: Him and Cleo—the sole reason she was even created was to give him an African-American love interest.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: By the time Benton returns to the show in the final season, he seems far more relaxed than he generally was during his time as a cast member. His banter with Carter and Elizabeth, in particular, is quite amicable. Spending all of those years maintaining happy relationships with both Cleo and Reese probably helped.
• Tough Love: He's pretty merciless to those under his tutelage, especially Gant, but it's because he wants to make them into good doctors. Especially in Gant's case, as he knows that racism will make others automatically assume that he's less intelligent/qualified than his white counterparts. Unfortunately, he goes too far and Gant ends up killing himself.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Deconstructed with him and Elizabeth. Aside from his uneasiness with their racial difference, in all likelihood the relationship would have failed anyway, as her vivacious, fun-loving personality was a stark contrast to his dour, aloof one.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Abby Keaton gives this to him good and proper after he nearly kills an infant during surgery, blasting him for disregarding her instructions and not calling for help the minute he realized he was in over his head.
  • Angela Hicks also calls him out after he nearly kills a patient by missing a simple appendix and trying to shift the blame on Jeanie. This was after he ratted out Doug to a patient's family for missing a hard-to-see bone cancer diagnosis.
  • Roger McGrath calls him out for trying to cut him out of Reese's life, when he's been in the boy's life almost as long as Benton has.
• Where da White Women At?: Averted. Despite their mutual attraction, he's very reluctant to date Elizabeth because she's white and even after they do get together, his persistent discomfort, as well as his chronic self-absorption, causes the relationship to fizzle very quickly.

Carol Hathaway

Carol Hathaway

Played By: Julianna Margulies

• Ascended Extra: She was supposed to have been killed off in the Pilot—note that she's credited as a guest star, unlike the other original cast members—thanks to a suicide attempt, only to be revived thanks to positive test audience reaction. The result is that she was the show's heroine for the first six seasons and is the main cast's sole Emmy winner; Julianna Margulies even Lampshaded this in her acceptance speech, cracking that "I was dead this time last year, now look at me."
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Throughout Seasons 5 and 6, after Doug leaves Chicago in shame.
• Breakout Character: Despite originally being envisioned as a one-off character who would die in the Pilot, Carol immediately resonated with audiences and became one of the show's most popular characters. By the time of Susan's departure, she became the female lead of the show, and her coupling with Doug was easily the show's most high-profile romantic pairing. Additionally, Julianna Margulies was the only main cast member in the history of the show to win an Emmy Award for her performance, and also received more nominations than any other performer (for all six years she was regularly on the show). Similar to Doug, after Carol's departure from the show, she had a few Suspiciously Similar Substitute characters appearing in the main cast with various traits taken from her — most notably Abby, Neela, and Sam.
• The Bus Came Back: In the final season.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doesn't appear at Mark's funeral—with zero explanation as to why—despite she and Doug being among his closest friends.
• Driven to Suicide: In the Pilot, she attempted suicide by OD'ing after her break-up with Doug. She recovered and moved forward with her life, and she and Doug reconciled a few years later.
• Emotionless Girl: She spent the year after Doug's departure acting very distant and detached—there is a visible change in her demeanor as she leaves the hospital, races through the airport, and reunites with him in Seattle.
• Happily Married: To Doug, as of their final appearance in the last season.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one after accidentally killing a patient (she gave him the wrong blood). Her refusal to let the incident be covered up or used as an excuse to punish the other nurses (who were all having a sick day in protest at the time) nearly costs her her job. She has another after Doug leaves.
• Honor Before Reason: Not only does she refuse to let her fatal error be covered up or used to punish the other nurses, she insists on taking full responsibility—even though she could have easily and legitimately blamed the others—and on being reprimanded despite knowing that it could cost her her job and possibly even her nursing license.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: When she and Doug are a happy couple, they struggle to conceive. When he resigns in disgrace and leaves Chicago, they conceive twins.
• Official Couple: With Doug.
• One True Love: Doug. It's implied, but not explicitly stated, that Carol tried to kill herself in the Pilot because of Doug's adulterous behaviour (she broke up with him over his many affairs, but then slept with him a month before she tried to kill herself). When he leaves for Seattle, she tells Mark that she can't remember a time she didn't love him. When she leaves Chicago to reunite with him, this is what she says to Luka about him:
  "I've been in love with him since I was 23 years old. He's...he's everything to me. He's my life. I feel complete when I'm with him and I feel empty when we're apart. He's the father of my children...and he's my soulmate."
• Put on a Bus: After Season 6.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Notable for being the only major character, in either the main or recurring cast, to have this.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed in Season 6. She unknowingly takes a rehab room that Lucy intended to give to her patient in favor of a drug-addicted pregnant woman who ends up flaking anyways. When Lucy tries to undermine her for this by pointing out that she's merely a nurse, Carol snaps back and reminds her that she's a med student and therefore lower on the hierarchy compared to her, a nurse manager. She ends up being this to Luka as well, despite his kindness towards her and her daughters, when she uses their brief relationship to get him to resuscitate a woman with a DNR so that she can say goodbye to her family, which gets him in trouble with Kerry. She also inadvertently leads him on throughout the season before she decides to reunite with Doug, leaving him devastated.

Jeanie Boulet

Jeanie Boulet

Played By: Gloria Reuben

• Ascended Extra: She spent a year as a recurring character in Season 1 before being added to the main cast in Season 2.
• The Bus Came Back: In Season 14.
• Butt-Monkey: She has a tendency to get sprayed with patients' vomit, blood, or, one time, a hose while a large, naked, stinky homeless guy was getting a shower. Mostly Played for Laughs with a little Humble Pie.
• Claustrophobia: As seen when Kerry uses her as a test subject to test the efficacy of exercise in restoring broken circadian rhythms.
• The Ditherer: Initially, she was hesitant to stand up for herself to the doctors. When this tendency is noted on her performance review, she confronts Carol (who had written said review), and Carol manages to make her understand that she has to stick up for herself.
  Carol: It's like this conversation. I tell you I need you to be more assertive, and you want to stand here and talk about it.
• Family Versus Career: She quits when she realizes that she wants to spend as much time as possible with her new husband and the baby that they've just become foster parents to.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one after finding out she's HIV-positive.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Has this relationship with many of the nurses, particularly Carol. Jeanie dismisses unappealing patient care tasks as "a nurse's job" ^note  But she's right. The task Carol was asking of her—bathing a patient—was a nurse's job and Carol had no business asking her, as she would know that. while also being desperate for approval by the nurses.
• M.D. Envy: She runs into trouble when trying to give orders to the nurses, being a physician's assistant (PA) and having less medical education than a nurse.
• Morality Pet: To Kerry. For a while, she was the only person who brought out Kerry's softer side.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 1 before being added to the main cast from Seasons 2-6.
• Put on a Bus: Partway through Season 6.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Her husband cheats on her with many women, to the point where he contracts HIV in the process, which he passed to Jeanie. Her affair with Benton is therefore very understandable.
• Working with the Ex: She and Benton have to work together after Jeanie is assigned to the ER when she becomes a PA.

Jing-Mei Chen

Jing-Mei Debra "Deb" Chen

Played By: Ming-Na Wen

• Ascended Extra: She was a recurring character in Season 1. After being absent for five years, she became a regular.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns as a regular halfway through Season 6.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Is understandably pissy about Pratt flirting with Neela right in front of her in the Season 10 premiere, but she unfairly takes it out on Neela, who was completely unaware of their relationship.
• Downer Ending: Her final couple seasons are a series of worsening tragedies. Her mother is killed in a car accident, her relationship with Pratt dissolves and her career at County finally collapses because she's unable to take care of her sick father and be a doctor at the same time. In the end she decides to perform a Mercy Kill on her ailing father at his insistence with Pratt's help and leaves Chicago, never to return or be mentioned by the rest of the staff again.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: When she reveals her pregnancy to Kerry, she implies that she deliberately hemmed and hawed about what to do until it was too late to terminate.
• Family Versus Career:
  • Having quit her job in anger after realizing that Kerry screwed her over, she tearfully tells Carter, "Whatever sacrifice you make for this place, make sure it's worth it," indicating that the reason she gave up her son for adoption was to focus on her career and that she now regrets it.
  • She also quits for good to euthanize her dying father and bury him in his native China.
• Heroic BSoD: Has at least two. One after the infamous guide wire incident. Another for simultaneously giving up her son for adoption (she knew she could've easily taken care of him but was too concerned with what her overly traditional family might think) and for losing a patient and being back-stabbed by Kerry.
• It Runs in the Family: Her parents are doctors as well.
• The Not-Love Interest: To Carter. Despite a slight attraction and flirtation, their relationship never goes beyond a very good friendship.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: She left a guide wire in a man's chest when she was a third-year medical student in Season 1. This incident is brought up twice later on. In the Season 6 finale, Carter brings the incident up in an attempted "Not So Different" Remark regarding his own mistakes due to his addiction spiraling out of control. In Season 8, Kerry and Romano use the incident as pretense to demote her from her position as Chief Resident following her and Malucci's accidental killing of a patient.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: When she first appeared she went by her western name, Debra "Deb" Chen. When she returned as Jing-Mei, Carter insists on always calling her "Deb". Lewis also calls her Deb, as she's the only other major character who remembers her from S1.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 1 before returning as a main cast member from Seasons 6-11.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 1. Then midway through Season 11, leaving Chicago to bury her father in his native China. Unlike most examples here, she doesn't return.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • She actually resigns altogether following her demotion and Kerry's backstabbing.
  • There's a sadder version several years later when she can no longer keep up with the demands of her job and caring for her ill father, especially when Susan tells her that she can no longer make allowances for her.

Jerry Markovic

Jerry Markovic

Played By: Abraham Benrubi

• Commuting on a Bus: Appeared regularly up until Season 4, disappeared for a bit in the middle of Season 4 (it was later explained that he was moved to nights due to accidentally blowing up the ambulance bay), then left at the end of Season 5 for unknown reasons. Returned again during Season 8, left again during Season 13, and returned partway through the final season. His Seasons 13-15 absence was Lampshaded as him "slinging beers in Alaska," which is a reference to Benrubi's character on Men in Trees.
• Gentle Giant: Was used as a bouncer of sorts on occasion, but never really got violent with anyone. In "The Human Shield", he even reminds Sam that he abhors violence.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: He seemed to get hit with this a couple of times in Season 12. First, when Neela and Gallant were getting married, he suddenly morphed into a Universal Life Church minister^note To be fair with this one, all that is required is filling out a form on their website. The "church" has literally hundreds of thousands of "ministers". Later on, when they needed an ASL interpreter and Ray's own skills with the language are limited, guess who happens to be the only other member of staff with any ASL skills? None of these had been brought up prior to when they were needed, and in the case of the ASL, he had never been shown signing to anyone on staff, let alone teaching Benton or Ray. It's possible that he learned ASL after Benton's departure, but it's never made explicitly clear.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Half of his presence is about some comedic situations, either build on him being a Straight Man to some loony or build on his Gentle Giant status. Also, nobody ever seems to take him serious.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Eventually becomes this with Frank, although they'd never admit it.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Had a fear of dead people early on in the series. Also afraid of thunderstorms, although the latter seems to be justified.

Lydia Wright

Lydia Wright-Grabarsky

Played By: Ellen Crawford

• Awesome by Analysis: She has the ability to very accurately diagnose a patient's blood alcohol level simply from smelling their breath.
• Back for the Finale: After leaving the cast in Season 10, she returns in the Grand Finale to wake up Archie in the same way she woke up Mark in the Pilot, giving her character a nice Bookend.
• Happily Married: To police officer Alfred Grabarsky as of Season 3.
• Put on a Bus: Departs the cast in Season 10 after getting fired.

Nurse Shirley

Shirley

Played By: Dinah Lenney

• The Faceless: In most of her appearances, as she's a surgical nurse mostly shown during operations. Shown unmasked on very rare occasions.
• Good is Not Nice: Tends to be brusque when she's onscreen, partly because her scenes often have higher stakes for hte patients.
• No Full Name Given: Her surname is never revealed.
• Remember the New Guy?: She first appears about halfway through Season 1, but isn't introduced so much as she's dropped into the action with the other characters all knowing her.

David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern

Played By: William H. Macy

• Broken Pedestal: People become disillusioned with Morgenstern when he tries to put the blame on Benton over his own botched surgery. He catches on this and quits, feeling ashamed of himself. Eventually, over time, his reputation recovers, as people recall him nostalgically.
• Catchphrase: "You set the tone," which later gets picked up by other characters.
• Desk Jockey: Zig-Zagged. During his presence in the series, he's mostly tied with administration, but still operates whenever they need a surgeon.
• Mentor Archetype: He is a veteran of County and often plays Team Dad to various characters, while taking extra care of students.

Jack Kayson

Jack Kayson

Played By: Sam Anderson

Janet Coburn

Janet Coburn

Played By: Amy Aquino

• Dr. Jerk: As the main OB/GYN at County, she could be very impatient with doctors who didn't know what they were doing in regards to childbirth. With patients, she was far more caring and compassionate.

Angela Hicks

Angela Hicks

Played By: C.C.H. Pounder

• Mentor Archetype: She was one of the more experienced surgeons and would guide and advise Benton and Carter.

William Swift

William "Wild Willy" Swift

Played By: Michael Ironside

Haleh Adams

Haleh Adams

Played By: Yvette Freeman

Malik McGrath

Malik McGrath

Played By: Deezer D

Chuny Marquez

Chuny Marquez

Played By: Laura Ceron

Conni Oligario

Conni Oligario

Played By: Conni Marie Brazelton

Lily Jarvik

Lily Jarvik

Played By: Lily Mariye

Wendy Goldman

Wendy Goldman

Played By: Vanessa Marquez

John Taglieri

John Taglieri

Played By: Rick Rossovich

• Anguished Declaration of Love: He makes this to Carol on their wedding day and bluntly asks her if she feels the same way, forcing her to admit that she doesn't.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Despite being a good boyfriend to Carol, especially being there for her after her suicide attempt, he leaves her at the altar after gently, but firmly getting her to admit that she doesn't love him the way he loves her.
• Disposable Fiancé: Of the Bland Perfection type. An all-around generic Nice Guy who rather than being dumped by the girl, dumps the girl himself after finally having to admit to the disparity in their feelings.

Diane Leeds

Diane Leeds

Played By: Lisa Zane

• Foreshadowing: Doug starts flirting with her as soon as they meet, as is his way, only for her to immediately shut him down, as a friend of hers was one of his exes and she's fully aware of his womanizing, cheating reputation. And sure enough, their relationship ends the same way.
• Grow Old with Me: Doug outright says he wants to do this with her.
• Kids Play Matchmaker: Doug and her son Jake meet while playing basketball and hit it off. By the next episode, he turns up in the ER, claiming to feel sick, but he's actually faking in the hopes of the two of them getting together.
• Replacement Goldfish: Given that her son Jake is roughly the age his unseen son is, it's easy to think that she and him are this for the family Doug could have had with him and the child's mother. They also start dating soon after Doug resigns himself to the fact that Carol has moved on, so she could easily be a substitute for her alone.
• Romantic False Lead: She and Doug begin dating halfway through Season 1 and it goes so well that it looks she might very well become a Second Love to him—he outright tells her that he loves her, the only other woman aside from Carol who he ever says this to. At the beginning of her last episode, she indicates that she wants him to move in with her and her son. . .only for him to cheat on her and her to angrily break up with him.
• Second Love: She's arguably this to Doug, as she's the only other woman besides Carol who we ever see him in a significant relationship with and declare his love for. The key differences being that Doug is ultimately reunited with his First Love, who he never stopped loving in the first place.

Jake Leeds

Jake Leeds

• Broken Pedestal: Doug, who he adored, becomes this to him after he sheepishly confesses, "I did something with another woman that I shouldn't have done and so your mom doesn't want me to come around anymore."
• Kids Play Matchmaker: He fakes being sick in an effort to fix his mother up with Doug. She mentions that it isn't the first time he's done this.
• Replacement Goldfish: He's roughly the age Doug's unknown son is, so he's probably this to him.

David Cvetic

David "Div" Cvetic

Played By: John Terry

Timmy Rawlins

Timmy Rawlins

Played By: Glenn Plummer

Bogdana "Bob" Livetsky Romansky

Bogdana "Bob" Livetsky Romansky

Played By: Malgorzata Gebel

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: She might as well claim being Ruritanian than Polish, given her surname.
• Put on a Bus: She completely disappears after the opening of season 2 without a trace or single mention.
• Worthless Foreign Degree: She is a Polish vascular surgeon, but due to lacking funds to attend the Board exam (not to mention language barrier), best she can hope for is being a desk clerk. She does, however, train for said exam and saving cash, so the implication being she leaves County after finally passing it and getting her degree validated.

Jennifer Greene

Jennifer "Jenn" Greene

Played By: Christine Harnos

• Hypocrite: Was cheating on Mark with her coworker the entire time she was complaining about his friendship with Susan and was equally guilty of everything else she complained to him about—not supporting her career, being unwilling to make compromises or sacrifices to save their marriage.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Having delayed her legal education and career to support Mark's, it's understandable that she feels that it's his turn to do the same for her. She's also made out to be a bitch for urging Mark to take a private practice job that he's clearly not interested in, but it's equally understandable that after years of struggling, she'd want him to take a job with better hours and better pay.

Rachel Greene

Rachel Greene

Played By: Yvonne Zima (Seasons 1-6); Hallee Hirsh (Season 8; Season 10; Season 15)

• Bratty Teenage Daughter: She was like this in most of her appearances even before becoming a teenager. It's really not until her final few appearances that she's matured.

Jackie Robbins

Jackie Robbins

Played By: Khandi Alexander

Walt Robbins

Walt Robbins

Played By: Ving Rhames

Chloe Lewis

Chloe Lewis

Played By: Kathleen Wilhoite

• All Take and No Give: Chloe is spectacularly self absorbed, constantly demanding everything from her sister Susan but offering little in return.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Susan's responsible. Oddly in this type of dynamic, Chloe is the older sister.
• Hate Sink: There is very little to like about Chloe.
• It's All About Me: Chloe seems practically incapable of thinking of others, including her own daughter. She seems to get better in season 2, but relapses by season 8.
• Ungrateful Bastard: When Chloe relapses in season 8, forcing Susan to spend days searching for her to ensure both her and her niece Susie are alright, all Chloe can do once Susan confronts her is to complain that Susan never did anything for her. This is after Susan helped raised Susie for almost a year after Chloe abandoned her, and packed up her entire life to move to Phoenix, AZ in order to be closer to her niece.

Cookie Lewis

Cookie Lewis

Played By: Valerie Perrine

Al Boulet

Al Boulet

Played By: Wolfgang Bodison (Season 1); Michael Beach (Seasons 2-4)

Dwight Zadro

Dwight Zadro

Played By: Montae Russell

Doris Pickman

Doris Pickman

Played By: Emily Wagner

Al Grabarsky

Al Grabarsky

Played By: Mike Genovese

Introduced in Season 2

Kerry Weaver

Kerry Weaver

Played By: Laura Innes

• Academic Alpha Bitch: A doctor equivalent. She's beautiful and brilliant, but has an ego the size of a small country and will do whatever she thinks is necessary to advance her own achievements and position in the hospital's hierarchy. She sarcastically refers to herself as an Alpha Bitch in one episode.
• Advertised Extra: After she was made Chief of Staff in Season 10.
• Ambition Is Evil: The show tended to present her as this from the beginning even when she equally tried to help others with their careers (pressing Susan to present research, making suggestions to Mark and covering for him with Anspaugh, etc). She appeared to expect everyone else to be as driven as she was; they saw her as heartless because she cared about advancement.
• Arch-Enemy: Although she made many enemies over the years, with various characters able to hold the title at different seasons, she and Doug Ross were this the longest, during most of his time on the show, and even before County when they worked at another hospital together.
• Ascended Extra: Spent a year as a recurring character in Season 2 before being advanced to the main cast in Season 3. Later Demoted to Extra in Seasons 10-13.
• Bad Boss: Downplayed earlier on. This becomes more noticeable as the series goes on, with her handling of residents and situations, and being more concerned with looking out for herself than her responsibilities as Chief.
• Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: More fair than she is expected to be, at times, though mostly earlier on.
• Benevolent Boss: In the earlier seasons while serving as ER Chief, she could be quite nice and helpful to her subordinates who were in need. Prime examples being in dealing with Jeanie's HIV status and Carol's pregnancy. Unfortunately, she grew out of it.
• Badass Bureaucrat: While serving as ER Chief, anyways. It's repeatedly shown that without her there to keep things on track, the ER will quickly fall apart.
• Broken Bird: Despite her tough exterior there have been numerous instances where she has demonstrated herself to be really fragile underneath.
• Broken Pedestal: Frequently became this to the few people who liked and trusted her. In particular, Jing-Mei, who she mentored on her way to becoming Chief Resident before screwing her over to avoid taking any blame for a patient's death.
• The Bus Came Back: Twice in the final season.
• Cane Fu: Has no qualms about wielding her crutch as a weapon, if necessary.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Her modus operandi was basically to pretend to be someone's friend/ally before screwing them over in order to save herself. This was so prevalent that one of her victims outright said "I knew she was capable of this, I just didn't think she'd do it to me."
• Crippling Overspecialization: What is ultimately her downfall. She spent so much time gunning for the Chief spot and managing the bureaucracy of the hospital, that when she screwed up and was demoted back down to the ER her medical skills had become rusty, and come the next budget cuts, she wasn't considered worth the price of keeping around any longer.
• Cunning Linguist: Knows Spanish, Swahili, and ASL.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kerry's wit is desert-dry and devastating, and often outright funny.
• Fair-Weather Friend: She repeatedly proved herself to be this the moment she realized that supporting someone would be detrimental to her—she screwed over Mark to become ER Chief, she ditched her girlfriend Kim when the latter was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and she allowed Jing-Mei, her protegé, to take the sole blame for a patient's death so that she herself would incur no punishment.
• Fiery Redhead: Whatever her numerous flaws, no one could call her a wimp or a pushover.
• Friend to All Children: Consistently interacted very well with kids, despite her inability to get along with anyone else.
• Gayngst: During her relationship with Kim, where she was so terrified of anyone finding out that she would barely even speak to her while at work, and at the beginning of her relationship with Sandy, where she ran and hid to avoid being seen while out on a date. She worked this pretty hard during her coming out storyline. Already a fiercely private person, she became so terrified of anyone finding out about her lesbian relationship with psychiatrist Kim Legaspi that she would barely even speak to the woman when they were at work, and when Kim was accused of sexual harassment, pretty much ditched her in order to keep their relationship secret. She did a similar thing with her next girlfriend, running and hiding to avoid being seen by her coworkers while out on a date, but the woman shows up at the hospital and forcibly kisses her in front of everyone, outing her, and putting an end to her timidity.
• Genius Cripple: She is a superb emergency physician who uses a cane thanks to congenital hip dysplasia and has an IQ of 145. She is also, by far, the most academically gifted of the ER doctors, and if anyone can be counted on to know their stuff, it's her.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: From the moment she joins the staff until she leaves, she's in a position of authority—Chief Resident in Season 2, ER Attending in Seasons 3-5 and 13, ER Chief in Seasons 6-9, and finally Chief of Staff in Seasons 10-13. And nearly everyone hates her the entire time because of her power-hungry and controlling ways.
• Handicapped Badass: Kerry walks with the aid of a crutch for the majority of the series, but is in no way impeded in helping her fellow doctors in emergency situations. In one episode, she assists in the arrest of a schizophrenic patient who had killed med student Lucy Knight and seriously injured Dr. John Carter by tripping him with her crutch. A few episodes after this, she uses the crutch to beat her way through a crowd of brawling High School footballers to help Malucci, who had been knocked unconscious in the chaos. Later, in Season 8, she leaps into a crashed ambulance, surrounded by fallen power lines, in a pouring thunderstorm, to deliver an injured pregnant woman's baby via an emergency C-section. Also, she's everybody's boss for a significant chunk of the series.
• Headbutting Heroes: She's an excellent doctor and a superb administrator, but practically everyone in the ER has a contentious relationship with her because of her focus on unpopular administrative policies as well as a talent for patronizing and otherwise annoying the staff.
• Heel Realization: After Mark dies and she realizes that she made his life miserable by always trying to make everything into a competition when, "the man just wanted to do his job and go home." Sadly, she forgets this due to Aesop Amnesia.
• Heroic BSoD: One of the most epic in the series. She was allowed to scrub in and observe while Corday and Anspaugh operated on Sandy, and thus has a front row seat to everything going wrong. When blood actually begins backing up into Sandy's endotracheal tube, she quietly tells the surgeons "You can stop. She's gone." She's later shown staring blankly into space while sitting at Sandy's bedside, breaking down completely after asking Elizabeth how she had coped with Mark's death. Her reaction is so heartbreaking that, for all the friction between the two, Elizabeth embraces and tries to comfort her.
• Hypocrite: Countless instances of her criticizing people for doing things she had done or would do herself. She also made sure anyone who screwed up was punished as severely as possible while acting like her own mistakes were no big deal. A few standout examples:
  • Made Doug's life hell and tried to sabotage Doug's career advancement because he was such a cowboy, and yet almost as soon as he leaves she tries to circumvent a standing DNR order (because she thought the woman was her biological mother). Then months later hounds Mark for doing the same thing, having the gall to insinuate that Mark isn't being objective because of the recent death of his mother, even though in this case, the patient had explicitly rescinded her DNR, telling Mark that she didn't want to die just yet. And a few months after that, she blasts Carol and Luka for doing almost the same thing she did—doing an end-run around a DNR order so that a dying woman could have a few more minutes with her family.
  • In "A Hole in the Heart", Kerry rants to Dr. Anspaugh about how Doug has violated every hospital policy regarding patient care to detox a baby from methadone and wants him fired. Immediately after that, Kerry asks Dr. Anspaugh to violate hospital policy to name her Chief of Emergency Medicine without conducting a formal hiring process.
  • Pulls out all the stops to make sure Jing-Mei and Malucci are severely punished for their part in a patient's death—firing the latter and suspending the former, yet is just as vigilant in making sure that she herself incurs no punishment, even though as their supervisor, she bore the ultimate responsibility.
  • Pleads with her ex-lover Kim to fight Romano's efforts at firing her (because she's a lesbian)—while she herself continues to keep her mouth shut. Kim herself chides her for her hypocrisy.
  • Hemmed and hawed about reporting her Alzheimer's stricken mentor, but instantly reported Mark for his aphasia after his brain tumor surgery.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: After a patient dies in part to his actions, Malucci is fired by Kerry for irresponsibility when he sleeps with a paramedic in her ambulance while on duty. Although Kerry, as Malucci's supervisor, should have kept a closer eye on him, and had left her pager at Doc Magoo's, leaving Malucci and Jing-Mei unable to reach her, Malucci's behavior is indeed unbefitting of that of a doctor.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Her constant strive to be promoted at work as well as her general tendency to overachieve and over-do things is probably a reaction to her congenital hip dysplasia and her mistaken belief that her birth mother gave her up because of it. As a result, Kerry constantly tries to prove that she's not inferior by trying to be better at her job than everyone else.
• Inspector Javert: There were times when she was downright fanatical in her insistence that people adhere to rules and policy, not believing in making the slightest of allowances for any reason.
• It's All About Me:
  • Has a bad habit of this whenever things get tough. When her girlfriend Kim Legaspi is investigated for sexually harassing/assaulting a patient, the woman comes to her, clearly looking for some compassion and support. Kerry's only reaction is to ask if she's told anyone about their relationship, which she wants to keep secret, fearing that their homophobic supervisor Romano will find some contrived reason to fire her. Kerry promptly spends the rest of the episode doing everything she can think of to make sure that the relationship remains a secret, to the point where she refuses to even look at Kim, much less say a single word in her defense, lest it make anyone suspect that they're involved. When Kim—now hurt, angry, and fed-up—dumps her, Kerry still doesn't get it, accusing Kim of not considering her feelings in the whole mess.
  • When she, Jing-Mei, and Malucci are under investigation for the death of a patient, she makes it abundantly clear to the hospital TPTB that she's looking out for herself, ensuring that the latter two take all the blame.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • One of her defining traits, especially when it comes to the ER budget. She might be an ass, but it's not her fault that the hospital doesn't have the money for more vital equipment.
    "Mark, just because something's my idea doesn't make it a bad idea."
  • She once overheard a medical student trying to find the drug "Obecalp" in the big book of drugs, as a doctor prescribed it to a patient. Quickly realizing, and informing the student, that it is "Placebo" backwards, she stops the student and goes to rip the doctor a new one for this foolish behavior. Not only is he misleading the patients whose son might need real help by this, if something does happen then the doctor has opened the hospital up to major litigation.
  • She's also rightfully pissed off at her girlfriend Sandy when the woman outs her in front of ER staff by planting a Forceful Kiss on her. It's not Sandy's place to decide that Kerry should be out of the closet.
  • Whenever she's in disagreement with anyone in the early seasons, she's almost always right, just so annoying in her delivery that everyone resents her anyway. Even the ridiculous idea about changing the way cases were up on the board - she was completely correct that it was a breach of patient privacy.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Her double-dealing almost always puts her at the head of the pack, until toward the end of the show she finally made the mistake that cost her her career: her newest hire Victor Clemente, though a genuinely talented doctor, was also an extremely violent paranoid schizophrenic. She's out the door midway through Season 13. It's still really sad.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Fired for having what were considered by the hospital board to be subpar medical skills that made her not worth keeping around, similar to what she did to Malucci when she blasted him in front of the staff as a mediocre doctor and scapegoated and fired him for a patient's death that was her responsibility. She was also fired by Luka, the very man she hired as an Attending in the first place, and who she had initially tried to put in the firing line to cover her ass again over the Victor Clemente situation and evade responsibility again. And in a bit of meta karma, both men were Suspiciously Similar Substitute characters for her original nemesis Doug Ross, whom she had long been trying to undermine and get rid of even before they worked together at County.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Of the "chapstick" variety. Short-haired and abrasive, but very pretty and when she's not at work, she's rather feminine.
• Lovable Traitor: She will knife anyone in the back in the name of "hospital policy" and yet we still feel sorry for her when she doesn't get what she wants.
• Morality Pet: Jeanie Boulet, John Carter, and Abby Lockhart, whom she does have genuine, warm relationships with. Also, her love for Sandy and their son Henry.
• Mysterious Past: She was on the show for eleven years and it took ten of those years to find out why she needed a crutch to walk. We never learned much else about her otherwise, other than that she was adopted, spent time in Africa as a child, and previously worked with Doug at another hospital (though even this fails to explain why there was always so much animosity between them, and all that was ever referenced was they didn't get along).
  Mark: Doug, you did part of your residency with Kerry Weaver, didn't you?
  Doug: Our paths crossed.
  Mark: What's she like?
  Doug: Ever see Cuckoo's Nest?
• Never My Fault: She never once acknowledges that the reason everyone disliked her was because of the way she treated people, as well as dumping the blame for a patient's death onto Jing-Mei and Malucci, the two doctors who treated him, conveniently ignoring the fact that as their supervisor, she should have been there to correct their errors instead of off-site handling personal business. When Jing-Mei confronts her about this, she has the nerve to take it even further, implying that she was completely justified in what she did because of Jing-Mei's mistakes.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: She proves this repeatedly as she angles her way into positions of authority while engaging in Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, Bait-and-Switch Tyrant and Never My Fault. She started out as Chief Resident in the ER, eventually started running the ER, even though Mark had more seniority and had more respect, eventually becoming Chief of Staff of the entire hospital. Though this leaves her with few allies, the loathing of many, and ultimately her arrogance and ambition for the top spot proves her undoing, but ironically it is only her diverging from this ruthless belief that brings her down. When she makes a mistake hiring Victor Clemente, she finally decides to do the right thing and confess to it instead of throwing Luka under the bus to protect herself as she initially intended to and had done to others over the years, and is demoted for it back down to the ER. Because she spent so much time as Chief and a bureaucrat and not honing her medical skills daily, she becomes considered not worth the financial cost of keeping around and is fired for it by Luka in hospital budget cuts.
• No Bisexuals: Kerry spent the first five seasons of her run on the show as a confirmed heterosexual, having been previously married and depicted with two different male paramours (the African guy and Dr. Ellis in seasons 2 and 4 respectively). Then along came Kim Legaspi, and Kerry went from confused to closeted to Token Lesbian in ten episodes.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: From the moment she joined the staff, she almost immediately set about making everyone miserable with her strict insistence on abiding by rules and policy. As time went on, it soon became clear that what she really enjoyed was lording her authority over others as well as presenting herself to her superiors as the perfect doctor, especially as her hypocrisy was frequently displayed—whereas she would severely reprimand/punish those who broke the rules, she never had any problem doing so herself.
• The Peter Principle: With each promotion, she proved herself unworthy of them, at least to the audience. Thanks to her Never My Fault tendencies, and the fact that she was such a Rules Lawyer when it came to subordinates that she was more than willing to find and highlight their mistakes over her own, she was rarely ever called out for this, and just kept moving up. Finally it came back to bite her in Season 13, and she lost her job.
• Pet the Dog: Could be genuinely compassionate with her patients and coworkers when necessary.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 2 before being added to the main cast from Seasons 3-13.
• Put on a Bus: Midway through Season 13.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Nagging, officious, hypocritical, hypercritical, control freak, etc.
• Second Episode Introduction: More like a Second Season Introduction. She's the show's second-longest running character after Carter, but she didn't join the show until the Season 2 premiere.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality:
  • Will often do something to prove to one of the the characters that she is genuinely a kind person underneath. For example, she demonstrates to Doug that she's actually very caring when it comes to children, she keeps Jeanie's HIV status a secret and then actively campaigns to keep her on staff when it's revealed, she lets Carter live in her basement and actually somewhat takes on the role of surrogate mother to him. However, she then follows up by doing something cold or horrible to them, making sure no one ever gets close to her.
  • Whatever her many flaws, her passionate dedication to her patients is always visible — she will unhesitatingly put herself at risk to help them, even in incredibly dangerous situations.
• Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: Twice. Unlike most examples, however, this wasn't just a ratings grab, but rather part of a larger arc involving Kerry coming to terms with her sexuality. Both of the women she kissed appeared again.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She's 5'4", and the higher the position she held, the more tyrannical she became.
• Too Happy to Live: She and her wife Sandy are blissfully happy, having just had a baby boy named Henry and comfortably settled into their domestic routine... when Sandy is fatally injured in a fire.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The show impressively manages to avoid the Flanderization it didn't with Romano while showing her realistically become an even worse person over the years.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In S 4 E 15 "Exodus," after Kerry is sidelined by being exposed to Benzine, John Carter rises to the occasion and leads the ER in feats above and beyond the call of duty, managing to save practically every patient and staff member save for a single, aging patient who was likely not to survive anyway. Rather than praise Carter for stepping up to the plate, Kerry is more interested in stealing focus and downplaying his efforts, instead presenting the task as a "team" effort from administration- i.e. herself, who spent most of it passed out, incoherent, or recovering. She never even bothers to thank or congratulate John for his efforts, perfectly in line with the It's All About Me post made earlier.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Her and her girlfriends, Kim Legaspi and Sandy Lopez, upon her coming out of the closest. Aside from their carefree, fun-loving personalities clashing with her prim and proper one, they were also comfortable and open with their sexuality while Kerry acted downright terrified to even be seen with them in public, at one point literally hiding to avoid running into two of her coworkers while out on a date.
• Villainous Breakdown: Downplayed. She initially doesn't take the revocation of her Karma Houdini Warranty well.

Harper Tracy

Harper Tracy

Played By: Christine Elise

Dale Edson

Dale Edson

Played By: Matthew Glave

Randi Fronczak

Miranda "Randi" Fronczak

Played By: Kristin Minter

E-Ray Bozman

E-Ray Bozman

Played By: Charles Noland

Ray Shepard

Ray "Shep" Shepard

Played By: Ron Eldard

• Heroic BSoD: After his partner Raul is killed, frequently lashing out to the point of violence and even injuring a bystander at an accident scene.
• Romantic False Lead: To Carol in Season 2. He tells her he loves her and reveals how serious he is by declaring "Our kids are not going to be raised here.", but it never goes any further than that before she breaks up with him because he won't admit to needing help in dealing with Raul's death.

Raul Melendez

Raul Melendez

Played By: Carlos Gomez

• Twofer Token Minority: He's Hispanic and gay.

Pamela Olbes

Pamela Olbes

Played By: Lyn Alicia Henderson

Harry Lewis

Harry Lewis

Played By: Paul Dooley

Ray Ross

Ray Ross

Played By: James Farentino

• Abusive Parents: He was this to Doug, though the extent and specifics aren't clear, aside from ultimately abandoning him and his mother when he was 12.
• Jerkass Has a Point: After Doug tells him off, describing his crappy life, then caps it off by disgustedly declaring, "I'm you", Ray calmly gives an Armor-Piercing Response:
  "You're 34 years old. How you live your life is your decision."

Sarah Ross

Sarah Ross

Played By: Piper Laurie

Introduced in Season 3

Anna Del Amico

Anna Del Amico

Played By: Maria Bello

• Ascended Extra: Appeared in the last three episodes of Season 3 before becoming a main cast member in Season 4.
• Hates Rich People: Comes across as this after her bitter complaints about the difficulties of making ends meet caused Carter to lie and pretend to be a fellow "struggling student" so that she would like him better. When the truth finally comes out, they're both angry - he feels that he was right to lie because she would never have given him a fair chance if she'd known, and she feels mocked and gaslighted by someone who isn't just well off but extremely rich deliberately lying to her to win her confidence. For her this just reaffirms how callous "the rich" are about the feelings of "the little people".
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Had a sanctimonious attitude towards rich people, probably stemming from insecurities about growing up poor.
• Jerkass: Downplayed. She had a number of unsympathetic qualities and moments in her brief time on the show, including a serious chip on her shoulder against Carter for the 'crime' of being wealthy and not flaunting it, how she treated Doug, including how upset she got over something as mild as how he addressed her. She also took a stand for medical ethics vs Carter, who didn't want to waste perfectly good blood on a rapist and mutilator of elderly women and a murderer when he was finally caught and brought in, an emotional issue where many viewers were likely to take Carter's side, ethics be damned. And later on, after all the tension with Carter, she takes off to be with her drug addicted ex-boyfriend again.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 3 before being added to the main cast the following season.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 4. Unlike most examples here, she doesn't return.
• Red Herring: As a pediatrician, there was speculation that she'd been brought on to be a new girlfriend for Doug—indeed, she initially seems very attracted to him. Only for Doug to reconcile with Carol as had been hinted at for weeks and Anna to be a love interest for Carter instead.
• Straw Feminist:
  • She tended to react to everything Doug said as though it was an attack or an advance, even though he was either just being friendly (asking her if she wanted something to eat after they'd both been on the streets looking for a runaway) or just offering his years of experience (offering to do a testicular exam on a patient because he might be uncomfortable with a woman doctor). Kerry seems to agree with her claim that Doug is threatened by women, but of course Kerry had been brow-beating and annoying him about publishing his thesis for his fellowship and just couldn't see that Doug (or anyone else for that matter) simply didn't want her help.
  • Nor it did occur to Kerry that Doug's problem was simply with her, given her abrasive personality and their constant clashes and nothing to do with her gender.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Basically rips Doug's head off when he calls her by her first name rather than "Dr. Del Amico" in front of a patient. Keeps doing it even though he apologizes and assures her that he meant nothing improper, "I call Mark (a male doctor) by his first name all the time." And this after when they first met she insisted Doug call her Anna after he refers to her as "Dr. Del Amico".
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Carter.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Lasted only a season and a bit and never returned.

Donald Anspaugh

Donald Anspaugh

Played By: John Aylward

Abby Keaton

Abby Keaton

Played By: Glenne Headly

Maggie Doyle

Maggie Doyle

Played By: Jorja Fox

Dennis Gant

Dennis Gant

Played By: Omar Epps

Greg Fischer

Greg Fischer

Played By: Harry Lennix

Nina Pomerantz

Nina Pomerantz

Played By: Jami Gertz

Adele Newman

Adele Newman

Played By: Erica Gimpel

Carla Reece

Carla Reece

Played By: Lisa Nicole Carson

Reese Benton

Reese Benton

Played By: Matthew Watkins

Charlie Chiemingo

Charlene "Charlie" Chiemingo

Played By: Kirsten Dunst

Introduced in Season 4

Elizabeth Corday

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Corday

Played By: Alex Kingston

• Bittersweet Ending: Elizabeth decides to perform a technically illegal surgery at Carter's request to transfer the organ of an HIV infected man to another infected man in dire need of it, saving his life, and is reamed out for it and betrayed by Kerry, who gives little support to her and informs her there is no possibility of future tenure or promotion for her at County. Simultaneously, she is being gradually phased out and replaced by Dubenko, who Kerry also brought in, ignoring Corday's misgivings about him. In the end she sadly admits to Carter that she has been fooling herself since coming back to County after Mark's death, that she had no more place at County, and she leaves Chicago with Ella to return to England for a time. Though later on they return to America and she becomes Chief of Trauma Surgery at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, meeting Neela about a job she is applying for, and as seen in the finale remains on good terms with a number of the old County staff, and is still quite a part of her stepdaughter Rachel Greene's life.
• The Bus Came Back: Twice in the final season.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When Susan returns. Granted, she has a slight point, as Mark loved Susan passionately enough to race to Union Station to tell her so and then had a small breakdown when she left.
• Fiery Redhead: She's a strong-willed redhead, although she starts showing a gentler side after developing a relationship with Mark.
• Good Bad Girl: Very openly sexual in her conversation and behavior, especially when first introduced.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Elizabeth treated a patient from Zambia who suffered from back pain, caused by a herniated disc. The patient didn't want open back surgery and Elizabeth had planned to go on a trip with Mark that evening so she suggested a less invasive procedure instead. The patient ended up paralyzed after leaking cerebral-spinal fluid and he sues Elizabeth for malpractice. The case eventually gets settled because the patient decided to sue the manufacturer of the surgical equipment instead, but Elizabeth continued to blame herself for the incident (even though the reason he was paralyzed in the first place is because one of the waldoes wouldn't grip the bone fragment in his spine) and promptly spent weeks avoiding the OR at all costs
  • Elizabeth has a breakdown during her wedding, making known her fear that Mark's tumour will return and her fear of him being hurt or ending up dead. Both of these fears end up being realised.
• Hypocrite:
  • Is pissy about Mark and Susan working together, even though they were never actually romantically involved and even though every day she works side-by-side with her ex-lover Benton.
  • She also chastises a fellow surgeon who asks her to speed up an operation because he wants to go to a ball game, when she herself rushed through an operation because she wanted to leave for a romantic weekend with Mark, permanently crippling the patient (to be fair, it could be that it's because of this error that she's lecturing the other doctor).
• It Runs in the Family: Her mother and father are both scientists. Her father is a surgeon, her mother is a physicist.
• Mama Bear: When Rachel asks if there's anything she can do to make up for nearly killing Ella with an ecstasy tablet, Elizabeth, ill with flu, fixes Rachel with her sunken, bloodshot eyes and says, "You can leave."
• Official Couple: With Mark.
• One True Love: Mark. Elizabeth's relationships before and after Mark all fail for one reason or another, in the latter case probably because of her love for Mark. When Benton asks her if she's seeing anybody in the series finale (seven years after Mark's death), she says that she's become far more focused on raising her daughter and working on her career.
• Put on a Bus: Partway through Season 11.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Mark did manage to give her a daughter, Ella, and spend the first year of her life with her—long enough to hear her say her first words and, in a deleted scene from "On the Beach", see her learn to walk—before he finally succumbs to cancer.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Inverted. She's confused when someone refers to Benton, a surgeon, as "Dr. Benton" and needs to adjust to being called "Dr. Corday", rather than "Miss", as she was back in England.^note Due to the way medical training evolved in England, British surgeons are called "Mr" or "Miss" rather than "Dr" after qualifying as board-certified surgeons, while physicians who don't specialise in surgery continue to be called "Dr".

Robert Romano

Robert "Rocket" Romano

Played By: Paul McCrane

• Alliterative Name: Combined with his nickname "Rocket", he has a triple alliterative name.
• An Arm and a Leg: He loses an arm to a helicopter rotor at the start of season 9. Although Lewis and Kovac manage to reattach the arm, Romano loses motion and sensation in it as the season progresses, and ultimately elects to have it amputated after he severely burns it and doesn't feel anything. He then gets outfitted with a robotic arm early in season 10.
• Ascended Extra: Made frequent appearances during Seasons 4 and 5 before being bumped up to series regular status in Season 6.
• Asshole Victim: Even though Romano was a very good doctor, he was also an extremely obnoxious jerk, so few of his coworkers mourn his passing.
• At Least I Admit It: For all his numerous flaws, as Cleo called him, "a racist, sexist, elitist jackass," there was no denying that he never once hid the fact that he was a colossal egomaniac who couldn't be trusted and whose primary concern was himself.
• Back for the Finale: Like with Mark Greene, he makes one last appearance in the series during its final season after being killed off in Season 10 thanks to the flashback sequence in "Heal Thyself". Despite it amounting to more or less a cameo appearance, it delivers what fans would expect from Romano, having him badger Greene in a forward and insensitive way about his cancer treatments while showing through his actions and facial gestures that he is genuinely worried about Greene's condition.
• Beard of Sorrow: He sports this after he loses his arm in a helicopter accident.
• Black Comedy: His death is one giant example. Not only is he killed by a helicopter that he summoned to the hospital against the advice of his subordinates, but no one even notices or cares that he's gone. It gets even darker when no one attends his funeral service, and Kerry Weaver uses his personal finances to fund an LGBTQ outreach clinic in one final commupance.
• Born Unlucky: Comes up often for him, especially the circumstances of his death.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He just wouldn't be able to keep his job if he wasn't very good at it. He pulls some outrageous stunts, says and does things that would be considered completely inappropriate, almost no one likes him and he tries his very best to alienate the one person (Elizabeth) that does.
• Deadpan Snarker: On steroids. His insults were frequently works of art.
• Downer Ending: From the moment he loses his arm until his death is a series of worsening traumas and fortune for him, ending with a helicopter being dropped on him. Even in death Kerry posthumously insults him, along with many others, with nobody but Corday seeming to mourn him and Neela expressing her pity for his fate.
• Dr. Jerk: Among the worst of them. He is a genuinely good surgeon, though.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: For a character with such an extensive history on the show^note By Season 10, the only main characters who had been around longer than him were Carter, Kerry, Elizabeth, Jing-Mei and Susan. Even then, the latter two had been Put on a Bus respectively during Seasons 1 and 3 and only returned after Romano had been made a main cast member, he suffers a pretty ignoble (though memorable) death when a helicopter falls squarely on top of him, a full year after a separate helicopter had torn one of his arms off.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: A episode that took place near Mother's Day had him enthusiastically describing the elaborate plans that he had for his mother, much to the shock of the other staff members.
  Romano: Bet you didn't even think I had a mother, did you?
  Haleh: Can't imagine what she's like.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although there was a considerable gap in the hierarchy between him and Lucy in Season 6—he was Chief of Staff, while she was a fourth-year medical student—he seemed to genuinely like her, probably due to his oft-stated quality of only respecting people who stood up to him, which she had no trouble doing. When she's murdered midway through the season, he's very distraught by her death.
  • Despite constantly locking horns with Kerry, he never forcibly outed her when she confessed to him about being a lesbian, citing that it's her business and does not involve workplace politics.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Is genuinely angry and disgusted at many of the dishonest stunts Kerry pulls.
• Flanderization: When he first appeared his bad traits were relatively low-key. The more often he appeared, the worse and more exaggerated he got.
• Hates Everyone Equally: He's a bigot, yes, but he seems to have just as much disdain for those who are white/male/heterosexual as those who aren't.
  (to Elizabeth) "I know most people don't like me. That's fine. I don't like most people."
• Heroic BSoD: After his arm is reattached and he realizes he might never regain full mobility, then after he realizes it can't be saved and needs to be amputated for good, effectively ending his surgical career.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Adores his dogs, studies martial arts (as evidenced by him showing up at work in such a uniform), is a member of the Polar Bear Club (he mentions it to Susan in one Season 8 episode and a deleted scene shows him in a Speedo having taken one of the elderly members to the ER) and knows sign language.
  • He is also the only one to tell Elizabeth to go back to Mark. This is especially a touching scene because Elizabeth was probably the only woman he had genuine above-the-belt feelings for, and yet he told her to go back to her husband instead of attempting to use her moment of weakness to his advantage.
  • His devastation at the realization that he might never be able to perform surgery again—a fear that comes true—reveals that for all his Jerkass ways, he genuinely loves his job and being able to help people.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Elizabeth.
• Insufferable Genius: Comes up frequently.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Frequently. He may be an absolute a-hole, but when it comes to medical ethics and procedure, when he turns on the blasters, he's usually right. He would lash out against people for their incompetence and, in one case, illegal behavior. During a major rush of patients, he found Morris smoking pot. He ripped the younger doctor out of the bathroom stall and put him at the entrance desk, telling Morris to not move until he came back. The punishment never happened primarily because in a short time Romano would be killed by the chopper, no one realizing this, and Morris never telling anyone why Romano told him to stay still.
• Karmic Death: That helicopter crash that killed him? It was due to him ignoring the instructions from other doctors and summoning it in order to suck up to a potential wealthy donor. Had he listened to his subordinates, the helicopter likely would have never been summoned and he'd still be alive.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Rushes his own dog into surgery because he refused to trust her welfare to "some poodle surgeon."
• Lonely Funeral: Romano was so disliked that Elizabeth was the only one to show up at his funeral.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When he has to operate on his Morality Pet Lucy Knight, he actually stops being a Jerkass for a few hours and even manages a genuine Friendship Moment with Elizabeth.
  • For all his faults, he is normally kind to child patients. But when he is moved sideways (or in his view, demoted) to become head of the ER, he even starts acting belligerently toward them.
• Pet the Dog: However rare they were, his Nice Guy moments were genuine. Even some of his supposedly Jerkass moments revealed that he was actually doing someone a favor—assisting a heavily pregnant Elizabeth with surgery, giving Benton time off to spend with his son, concern for the ailing Mark. Plus, the literal examples with his beloved animals, as well as his genuine fondness for Lucy.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: The first thing he does when introduced is ask Benton why he doesn't have N-Word Privileges when Chris Rock does.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Seasons 4 and 5 before being added to the main cast from Seasons 6-10.
• Properly Paranoid: In Season 10, he rides the elevator up to the hospital helipad with Neela to drop off a patient's watch that had been left behind. However, seeing the helicopter ready to take off triggers flashbacks to the loss of his arm from the year before, and he quickly gives the watch to Neela before heading back down himself. He turns out to have been completely justified in his fears, as the helicopter starts to fly out of control shortly after taking off due to the strong winds. If he had stayed on the roof, he may well have been impaled by some debris just like the doctor left behind with Neela was. Unfortunately, Romano dies anyway when he takes a walk outside in the hospital parking lot to clear his head, as the helicopter ends up crashing right on top of him.
• Shout-Out: When he's in the OR he wears a bandana with rockets on it. Whether the bandana or the nickname came first is never specified. He also has a model Saturn V rocket in his office, which he says is a gift from a former girlfriend.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Not that Romano was a saint before, but in his early seasons he showed a capacity for kindness, showing affection for Lucy Knight, Peter Benton's son Reece, and especially Elizabeth Corday. Unfortunately, after Lucy's death and grimly accepting that Elizabeth would never return his affections, he became a full blown tyrant who nobody mourned after his death.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Romano has been seen with some very attractive girlfriends.
• Villain Respect: The way to get Romano's respect is to stand up to him. Greene, Benton and Corday learn this; Lucy Knight is simply never fazed by him in the first place. He also comes to respect Luka a bit more upon his return from working in Africa, approving of his improved methods for clearing triage, and remarking he should send all the staff to spend some time working there too, though Luka having saved his life after losing his arm may have played a part in the respect.

Cynthia Hooper

Cynthia Hooper

Played By: Mariska Hargitay

• Butt-Monkey: She has trouble keeping her shit together.
• The McCoy: She's overly emotional, and it often affects her work.
• Fragile Flower: She readily admits that it doesn't take much to make her cry.
• Naïve Newcomer: She's introduced as having just moved to Chicago, and her inexperience as a hospital desk clerk lands her in hot water with several of the staff, most notably Carol.
• Romantic False Lead: She and Mark briefly become an item, but she breaks up with him once she realizes he doesn't love her.

David Greene

David Greene

Played By: John Cullum

Ruth Greene

Ruth Greene

Played By: Bonnie Bartlett

Millicent Carter

Millicent "Gamma" Carter

Played By: Frances Sternhagen

Chase Carter

Chase Carter

Played By: Jonathan Scarfe

Yosh Takata

Yosh Takata

Played By: Gedde Watanabe

Roger McGrath

Roger McGrath

Played By: Victor Williams (Seasons 4-7); Vondie Curtis-Hall (Season 8)

Scott Anspaugh

Scott Anspaugh

Played By: Trevor Morgan

Introduced in Season 5

Lucy Knight

Lucy Knight

"At the beginning of every day, I've been grateful that I'm walking in here on my own choosing, and not carried in on some gurney. And at the end of the day, if I've helped just one person, it's been worth it."

Played By: Kellie Martin

• Audience Surrogate: Brought in because Carter, the previous audience surrogate, was now a fairly experienced and accomplished doctor.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: She and Carter fight. A lot. They end up making out in "The Storm, Part 1", but it never goes any further—Noah Wyle was adamantly opposed to the relationship, feeling that it was improper, as Carter was a second-year resident while Lucy was a third-year medical student and therefore Carter's subordinate, and out-of-character for Carter.
• Character Development: Despite her brief time on the show, she went from being a bumbling, clueless medical student to a very competent one who would no doubt have been an excellent physician.
• Cousin Oliver: It was explicitly stated that she was brought on to bring some new blood to the now five-year old series.
• Distaff Counterpart: As an inexperienced third-year medical student, she was all but stated to be a female version of Season 1-Carter.
• Downer Ending: Her young life, growing friendships and brief but promising medical career are cut suddenly and shockingly short when she is stabbed to death by a schizophrenic patient, after Carter kept blowing her off over the patient and not listening to her recommendations, her death devastating the entire staff. To add insult to injury, it is revealed shortly after her death that she had matched at County, and would have become a Psych resident if she had lived.
• Foreshadowing: She talks about being grateful to walk into the ER rather than being wheeled in on a gurney, a few weeks before meeting this very fate.
• Kill the Cutie: Lucy is stabbed multiple times by a patient in the middle of a psychotic break on Valentine's Day. She doesn't survive despite the best efforts of the staff.
• Morality Pet: For Romano.
• Naïve Newcomer: She begins as this. She gradually grows out of it.
• Ship Tease: With Carter in Season 5, culminating in a kiss, but apart from that it didn't develop much further, due to Noah Wyle not wanting a relationship between the two characters. Occasionally in Season 6, her interactions with Luka showed signs of this, but nothing came of it, as she was soon Killed Off for Real.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Lasts only a season and a half. Despite the professional development that Lucy undergoes, the audience never gets to know much about her personally.

Amanda Lee

Amanda Lee

Played By: Mare Winningham

Lynette Evans

Lynette Evans

Played By: Penny Johnson Jerald

Morales

Morales

Played By: Demetrius Navarro

Charles Corday

Charles Corday

Played By: Paul Freeman

Roxanne Please

Roxanne Please

Played By: Julie Bowen

Mobalage Ikabo

Mobalage Ikabo

Played By: Djimon Hounsou

Reggie Moore

Reggie Moore

Played By: Cress Williams

Introduced in Season 6

Luka Kovač

Luka Kovač

Played By: Goran Višnjić

• Berserk Button: Wife-beaters, child-abusers, just Asshole Victim patients in general.
• Byronic Hero: Tall, dark and handsome with a troubled past, who guards his emotions but possesses a kind and gentle soul.
• The Casanova: Like Mark, Luka had never been with anyone other than his first wife Danijela before he started seeing other women. Unlike Mark, Luka actually knows how to charm them.
• Chick Magnet: Especially during his bachelor era from Season Eight to Season Ten.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Likely because he was unable to save his own family during the war, he develops this, often to his detriment—he takes a waitress from his favorite bar under his wing, blithely ignoring all signs that she's a thief and a liar.
• Commuting on a Bus: Throughout Season 14. Notably, Goran Višnjić does not appear on the DVD cover for the season, but is first-billed as a member of the main cast in all of the episodes he appears in (7 out of 19). In-Universe, Luka spends most of it off-screen in Croatia to be with his dying father, occasionally appearing to see Abby and their son Joe. He eventually returns to Chicago full-time, only to spend time away from Abby when she reveals that she cheated on him. He forgives her in the season finale, and turns up one final time in the third episode of Season 15 for them to depart County General together.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The pain, guilt and loss of his wife, son and daughter during the war in Croatia hangs like a cloud over Luka for most of the series.
• Derailing Love Interests: Started becoming more childish and emotionally withdrawn during season 8 in order to justify his breakup with Abby to make her relationship with John look more palatable.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Despite growing tension with Carol and how good he was to her and her daughters, along with a shared kiss, she ultimately reconciles with Doug and departs County with the twins to be a family with him in Seattle, devastating Luka, who was finally starting to move on from his grief over his wife with her help.
  • Also his initial relationship with Abby who was distant and growing closer to Carter at the time, and his relationship with Sam. Ultimately subverted with Abby as she and Luka get back together after she breaks up with Carter and he breaks up with Sam.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Frequently suffers from this in his professional and romantic lives alike, despite how capable and caring he is.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything Luka went through both before and during the series, he eventually got a happy ending with Abby and their son.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first episode, he takes time to sit with and comfort a young girl who's mother was taken into the hospital to be treated while she was left behind in the ambulance. During a later trauma, Luka orders the trauma team to prioritize delivering a baby who's mother was involved in a fatal accident. These acts show Luka's kindhearted nature, especially towards children, along with his stoic pragmatism when faced with difficult decisions.
• Friend to All Children: Luka has a soft spot for children, talking to them with patience and understanding, even taking the time to learn the latest trends and interests so he can comfort them when they are brought into the ER. It's all but stated this affection is due to the loss of his own children back in Croatia.
• Good Is Not Soft: Luka is one of the most kind hearted characters in the show's history. He also has no qualms making hard choices about prioritizing patient care (once refusing to allow a man who opened fire on a crowd of people onto a helicopter, despite medical protocol dictating that as the most critical patient he went first), or even beating someone down to teach them a lesson.
• Happily Married:
  • He was this to Danijela in the past, which is why he suffered a Heroic BSoD upon her death and the deaths of their two children.
  • Zig-zagged with Abby. They go through a lot of strife, but by the end of the series they're in a good place.
• Headbutting Heroes: Comes up frequently with him, especially early on with the similarly passionate about his patients Benton and later on with Pratt.
• Heroic BSoD: Plenty of these for him too, most of which seem to happen just as things are getting better for him—he starts to recover from the loss of Danijela and their two children Jasna and Marko by falling in love with Carol; despite briefly dating, Carol leaves him to reunite with Doug. He starts to recover from this by dating Abby, then he kills a mugger attacking them. One even happens out of nowhere then gets even worse after he almost kills a co-worker in a car accident.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's 6'4", while his main love interest Abby is 5'3".
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason he breaks up with Abby the first time. He bends over backwards to try and make her happy, but she's always miserable and content with being so. It gets to the point where they have a fight, he says a lot of things he didn't mean, and they break up.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Only debuted in Season 6 but is one of the most recognizable characters in the show.
• Magnetic Hero: A capable, charismatic, passionate arguer and take charge leader when required to be, with the most stand out example being when he convinced Kerry to let him bend the rules to treat a dying Croatian boy at County, convinced Corday to perform the surgery for him and a number of others to assist with the case, saving the boy's life in the end.
• Mr. Fanservice: Of the Tall, Dark, and Handsome variety.
• Nice Guy: He went through some dark periods, but for the most part managed to remain this since his arrival on the show, his introduction showing it with his kindness towards a frightened little girl, comforting her while her mother was recovering from her injuries.
• Official Couple: With Abby.
• Pragmatic Hero: Luka isn't intersted in playing politics or even following proper medical procedure. He goaded an abusive husband into appearing mentally unstable, cleared out the ER waiting room without charging anyone any money, and refused to give priority to a man who opened fire on innocent people. He'll do what he feels is right, regardless of the rules. He also has no qualms prioritizing the patient most likely to survive in a hectic situation.
• Romantic False Lead: Twice! First he was this for Carol in her relationship with Doug. Then he was this for Abby in her relationship with Carter.
• Sadistic Choice: Played with. In his past he had to choose between saving his wife or his daughter, carrying one away to look for help or get to a hospital when both were gravely injured after their apartment was shelled. Luka was unable to choose between them, to leave either, and both ended up dying, no help coming for them, something that causes him no shortage of grief years later.
• Say Your Prayers: He did this in one episode while in the Congo, but winds up living through it. Subverted since the praying saves him—the rebels holding him think he's a priest and shooting priests is the one thing they won't do.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He lost his first wife and two children in the Yugoslav wars. Quite a lot of his behavior can be attributed to Heroic BSoD. It's also implied that he has some slight PTSD.
• Ship Tease: With no shortage of female characters to various degrees over the years.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A brooding hunk who is good with kids, with allusions to a mysterious, tragic past and a not-so-secret longing for Carol? He was referred to as "Euro Ross" on many other fan boards (his resemblance to Doug didn't help much to dispel this). A period of promiscuity for him pretty much cinched it. Not to mention the fact that he falls in love with and eventually marries Carol's effective replacement Abby.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Like Doug it comes up often from the female staff, patients and women outside the hospital. A housewife who was suffering from a stroke even had a number of thoughts about him for this while she was paralyzed and he was treating her.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Particularly in season 9, after his breakup with Abby and he starts sleeping with a lot of women. He even drunkenly hits on Abby at one point, even though she's with Carter. He partially snaps out of his downward spiral after getting into an accident that almost takes the life of a med student.
• Unexpected Virgin: During a scene where several other characters are discussing when they lost their virginity, he admits that his first time was on his wedding night, because his wife was religious and they married young.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Carol. Especially bad as from his side of things, developing feelings for her was an indication that he was recovering from the deaths of his wife and children.

Cleo Finch

Cleo Finch

Played By: Michael Michele

• Clingy Jealous Girl: Gets pissy about going to Mark and Elizabeth's wedding, even though Benton and Elizabeth broke up three years before.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: To Doug. She's his opposite in practically every way, right down to their race and gender, except for being a skilled and dedicated pediatrician just like he was.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Benton. Her aloof, reserved personality is very similar to his.
• Flat Character: As she never served any purpose but to be Benton's African-American girlfriend, she got zero individual storylines and we learned very little about her during her two years on the show.
• Happily Married: To Benton.
• Hypocrite: Her few scenes with Elizabeth indicate that she disapproves of the fact that Elizabeth and Benton once had a relationship, even though Cleo herself is the product of such a union.
• Malcolm Xerox: For a while, tended to see racism as the reason behind every slight or reprimand.
• Maligned Mixed Ancestry: Against herself. It's implied that the reason for her hypersensitivity about race issues is compensation for being of mixed race and having grown up in the suburbs.
• Official Couple: With Benton.
• Plucky Girl: Even when she's faced with the possibility of contracting AIDS from an HIV-positive patient in the Season 7 finale, she continues to work and save other patients during a multi-trauma.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 8. Unlike most examples here, she doesn't return.

Dave Malucci

Dave Malucci

Played By: Erik Palladino

• Abusive Parents: Implied, given his reaction to them.
• Anti-Hero: Malucci, unlike most of the others, was a character very difficult to call an overall good or bad person, with a number of check marks in both categories balancing each other out. Ultimately it is left to the viewers to decide for themselves the kind of man and doctor he was.
• Ascended Extra: Spent his first few episodes credited as a guest star before being added to the opening credits.
• Brutal Honesty: Doles it out and receives it frequently. The latter most notably from Corday in one of his earlier appearances:
  Elizabeth: "Do you want to know the staff's opinion of you? You're lazy, sloppy, and your careless attitude towards your responsibilities as a physician endangers lives, as witnessed today. In short, none of us thinks you're much of a doctor."
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Deconstructed. He's initially presented as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Doug: brash, impulsive, problems with authority, womanizing, etc. Eventually, however, he's way out of his league — he makes numerous mistakes, is warned by Elizabeth that "none of us thinks you're much of a doctor" (unlike Doug, Malucci is considerably dumber than the other doctors and also much lazier), and is finally fired both when his misdiagnosis kills a patient and when he's caught having sex with a paramedic while on duty.
• Butt-Monkey: Usually the butt of the joke, mockery and comedy of the seasons he was in. Most evident when he stupidly drinks Carol's breast milk from the fridge when he uses it for his cereal without bothering checking.
• Casanova Wannabe: Played with. Hits on practically every woman in sight, many of whom reject him. Even the woman he's caught having sex in an ambulance with blew him off initially. That said he does show up for Mark and Corday's wedding with two women as his dates, and has various women coming to the hospital searching for him, with him hiding from them and making excuses.
• Confirmed Bachelor: Unlike most of the rest of the cast, he never has an outright love interest who is part of the main cast, preferring to womanize.
• Cunning Linguist: Speaks Spanish. Makes sense, considering he went to medical school in Grenada.
• Downer Ending: Whether the viewer believes he deserved it or not. Dave and Jing-Mei attempt to perform a procedure that ends up killing a patient, after they are unable to reach Kerry for her approval or presence, their supervisor, because she was off consulting with a detective over her missing mother when she should have been at the hospital and left her beeper at Doc Magoo's in the process. Despite Malucci's often highly questionable professionalism and at times jerkass qualities, he is scapegoated for losing the patient despite being the lowest ranking of the three so Kerry can cover her own ass from the fallout, throwing him and Jing-Mei under the bus, and Kerry soon fires him not for having sex with a paramedic on duty, but because she simply didn't like him and was looking for any excuse to do so. This is despite him possibly having a child he is trying to support. He points out how little she ever cared to ask him about his life or get to know him and delivers a long overdue spiteful rant to her in retaliation. Malucci is last seen clearing out his locker and glowering silently at Kerry, before departing County, career in tatters, and never being seen again, and only remembered negatively afterwards. The only silver lining to his story being Kerry eventually losing her Karma Houdini status and being fired as well.
• Dumbass Has a Point: On several occasions. Case in point, with the exception of the homophobic slur that he caps it off with, his "The Reason You Suck" Speech that he gives to Kerry is dead-on accurate.
• Dumb Jock: A doctor variant. Attended medical school in Grenada because he did poorly in college and on his MCATs.
• Foil: To Romano and Doug. Like Romano, he's brash and rude, like Doug, he's impulsive and a womanizer, but unlike either, he lacks the consistency and respect for his colleagues that make him worth having around.
• Handsome Lech: A downplayed example. A good looking guy with an often arrogant, abrasive personality who hit on just about every non patient woman at the hospital with a pulse, but would back down any time he was turned down instead of pursuing it further. He generally knew when it was time to turn down the seductiveness.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Claims to have a kid, although this may have been an appeal to Kerry's emotions.
  • He actually proved to be a pretty decent doctor on the rare occasions that he got his act together and stopped goofing off.
  • He was also self-aware enough to admit that his college years were basically just a party, and that his MCAT score was so low, he was forced to go to medical school in Grenada, which he jokingly refers to as "the Harvard of the Carribbean."
  • Cared a great deal about his patients and did his best to help them, even when uncomfortable with the situation, such as trying to advise a gay young man to leave his abusive AIDS infected boyfriend, or at least use protection so he doesn't get it too. He even risked his own life to help out a Hispanic couple who were being preyed on by drug dealers.
  • Despite their animosity, he attempted to fix Kerry's car when it broke down in front of the hospital, showing he had some mechanic skills as well.
  • Liked to play hockey during his free time outside of the hospital.
  • Despite his accidentally killing a patient, he tried to save the patient and was scapegoated for the entire thing and fired at the first opportunity by Kerry who had screwed up in the first place by misplacing her beeper, thus not being there to approve of the attempt or oversee it.
• Idiot Ball: Despite knowing full well that Kerry is out for blood due to his part in accidentally killing a patient, Malucci sneaks off to have sex with a gorgeous paramedic. Kerry catches him and subsequently fires him. That said, Kerry was out for his head regardless, and would have found a reason to get him fired and scapegoated for the loss of the patient somehow.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arguably this or Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, depending on the viewer's interpretation of him. He has his moments of care and kindness, especially towards patients, is enthusiastic and outgoing, and even assaults a man who raped his daughter. A good example of this was when he went back, retrieved and recited a message he had dictated from a wife over the phone to her dying husband after initially throwing the message away because the man died before Malucci could recite it to him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Unlike his predecessor Doug, there is seemingly less beneath Malucci's philandering, arrogant, Dumb Jock exterior, at times more interested in learning and practicing new medical techniques than he is with the feelings of the patients. Or he talks too much at the worst time, says the wrong thing or displays Brutal Honesty. He's even fired in part for having sex in an ambulance while on duty, and one of his few moments of depth (see above) being in his very last episodes.
• Kick the Dog: He claims to have a child to support. Kerry fires him anyway. Later, Malucci's last mention on the series was Carter telling Gallant that he was reckless and killed a patient.
• Monster Clown: He has some unresolved fear of clowns.
• Nerves of Steel: What he lacks in manners and common sense he doesn't lack in courage and determination, always ready to throw down if need be, or charge to the scene of an accident after roping in Carter to help him, and even ready to risk his life to protect patients from criminals outside the hospital.
• Nosy Neighbor: Shortly after joining the staff, he interrogates everyone about why Kerry limps. He finally admits it's none of his business after she confronts him about it, but still fails to learn his lesson—one year later, he does exactly the same thing regarding the paternity of Jing-Mei's baby.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Dave finds out drug dealers have been pretending to be a pharmacy to prey on a Hispanic couple he and Cleo are treating, he angrily storms out of the hospital, and off screen he goes to the fake pharmacy, pretends to be someone in need of their help and retrieves evidence to take them down to protect the couple, getting physically attacked in the process but escaping back to County with the evidence for the police.
• Papa Wolf: Demonstrated in full when he tries to assault a father who raped his daughter, and might actually be a father if his claims to Kerry are true, his reaction lending further credence to this claim.
• Put on a Bus: Partway through Season 8. Unlike most examples here, he doesn't return.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In part this was the reason for his departure. Although Kerry made it plain she would pull out all stops to keep Malucci out of the ER, she didn't have the outright authority to unilaterally fire him for sleeping with a paramedic while on his break, it was a matter for the disciplinary board, and not an especially grievous, fireable offense, as pointed out by Malucci and Greene to her. By this point however, as she keeps pressing and impeding him, Malucci finally decides he has had more than enough of Kerry and tells her and the job to go to hell, storming out of the hospital instead of taking it to the board or fighting for the job as Jing-Mei later does for hers.
• Second Episode Introduction: He makes his first appearance in the second episode of Season 6.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Like Luka, Malucci was given many of Doug's characteristics—brashness, impulsiveness, problems with authority, an antagonistic relationship with Kerry, and a once-mentioned but never explained kid, along with a Berserk Button reaction to Abusive Parents that likely stem from his own experiences. To the point where his fan board nickname was "Doug Ross, Jr."
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Jing-Mei, Kerry, and Benton especially.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Lasted only a little over two seasons and got very little Character Development.

Abby Lockhart

Abigail "Abby" Marjorie Wyczenski Lockhart

Played By: Maura Tierney

• Abusive Parents: Subverted. While her mother may not have been willfully abusive or neglectful, it's still clear that Abby's childhood was hell thanks to her mother's Bipolar Disorder, a mental illness that she consciously chose not to seek help for.
  Maggie: I never asked to be sick!
  Abby: You never tried to get better!
• Ascended Extra: In her first appearance, she was an OB nurse at Carol's birth. Not long after, she appeared in the ER as a medical student, and was later transferred to be an ER nurse after being forced to drop out of medical school.
• Betty and Veronica: From Seasons 7-9, she's the Archie to Luka's Betty and Carter's Veronica. Luka comes from the war-torn Croatia; he's always a Nice Guy towards both his colleagues and patients throughout his tenure on the show, as well as a good mentor to the medical students, interns, and residents; and he helps and defends Abby whenever she's in trouble — such as when Kerry yells at her for putting in a chest tube despite her being a nurse in Season 7, and when her neighbor Brian brutally beats her for convincing his wife Joyce to leave him in Season 8. Carter comes from an incredibly wealthy family; he Took a Level in Jerkass after his stabbing and continues to do so for a long time; he constantly inserts himself into Luka and Abby's first relationship out of jealousy, giving off Entitled to Have You vibes towards Abby in the process; and, when he does date Abby in Season 9, he tries to change and fix her, which she explicitly tells him she doesn't appreciate, as she feels she isn't broken.
• Broken Bird: Her rough childhood and disasterous first marriage has left her very cynical about life and love.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Displays this twice in Season 8. She's a complete bitch to and about Luka's new girlfriend Nicole, even though she and Luka have broken up. She's similarly nasty to and about Susan whenever she sees her with Carter, even though she and Carter haven't even been together yet.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has her moments. Most notably as a nurse and occasionally after she has Joe.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything, Abby finally gets her happy ending with Luka.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. She had one during her first marriage out of fear of putting a child through the same hell she went through, or the child itself being mentally ill. But played straight when she gets pregnant by Luka, despite still having the same fears.
• Happily Married: Zig-zagged with Luka. They go through a lot of strife, but by the end of the series they're in a good place.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Neela.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Only debuted in Season 6 but is one of the most recognizable characters in the show.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: A deeply snarky, unpleasant mannered and bitter woman quite often, especially in later appearances.
• Kick the Dog: In "300 Patients", Neela pleads with Abby to end her alcoholism relapse. The following conversation ensues:
  Abby: You know what, Neela? Sometimes, you are such a child!
  Neela: Stop it. I'm trying to help you.
  Abby: Well, I don't need it, really!
  Neela: You've got to stop this. Think about...Joe, think about Luka, you have to—
  Abby: And I really don't expect you to even begin to understand this.
  Neela: Well, if you love them, you'll do something—
  Abby: If I love them?!
  [Beat]
  Neela: Please...I'm your friend—
  Abby: Are you really about to lecture me on love, with your track record?
  Neela: Don't.
  Abby: Because I'm thinking, right now, Ray is really wishing he didn't meet you!
• The Masochism Tango: She outright calls her and her mother's interactions "The dance we do"—she shows up in the beginning stages of mania, swearing that things are going to be different, but eventually going completely off the wall and causing chaos, then disappearing for months before turning up again, this time in a depressed phase, possibly to the point of being suicidal. Despite how miserable the whole thing makes Abby, it's obvious that she can't bring herself to get out of it.
• Morality Pet: She is one of a scant handful of her colleagues at County that Kerry Weaver even seems to like, let alone trust, but their relationship is genuinely warm and kind.
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Why she goes ahead with having Luka's baby, despite her misgivings about the child possibly being bipolar.
• Official Couple: With Luka.
• Off the Wagon: Comes up now and again, which leads into her cheating on Luka in the process.
• Parental Substitute: Was this to her own mother and brother whenever her mother was in a manic or depressive state.
• Put on a Bus: Near the very beginning of the final season ("The Book of Abby"), she leaves the ER to be with Luka and Joe in Boston. She makes one final return in "Shifting Equilibrium" via phone call in order to reassure Neela on the latter's last day working at County General.
• Really Gets Around: It's implied that she slipped into this kind of behavior whenever she was drinking. Chuny at one point teasingly calls Abby "The ER Slut".
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Aside from his good looks, the reason why Abby develops feelings for Luka, her main love interest, is because he defended her from Kerry and took responsibility when he allowed her to put in a chest tube in a patient, despite her being a nurse at the time, during a multi-trauma and the staff was very limited. Later that night, she spontaneously kisses him and ignites their romantic relationship after he tells her that she's a good nurse and could be a great doctor.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She replaced Lucy as the "bumbling and clueless" medical student for a bit after the latter's death. Then, though their personalities and backgrounds were vastly different, she replaced Carol as the token nurse character and love interest of Luka once the latter left. Interestingly, when Abby first appeared on the show, she was precisely at the point Carol would have been in her medical studies had she decided to go to medical school.

Frank Martin

Frank Martin

Played By: Troy Evans

• Ascended Extra: Debuted all the way back in the Pilot as a cop.
• Big Eater: Oh boy. This led to his heart attack.
• Deadpan Snarker: A lot. Sometimes this was combined with his Jerkass behaviour, other times it was his method of communicating.
• Friend to All Children: Does make some snarky remarks about the staff's kids behind their back, but is shown to be more patient and concerned for their health and wellbeing compared to other patients.
• The Generation Gap: Was implied to be the reason behind his jerkass behaviour. The further along the series went, he became less of a Jerkass.
• Hidden Depths:
  • It was later revealed that he had a wife and a daughter with what looked like Downs Syndrome and was also a war veteran.
  • His reaction to the deaths or injuries of various staff members (Mark, Gallant, Jerry, Pratt) reveals that, despite his gruff demeanor, he genuinely likes and respects his coworkers.
  • He's also a very good cook, as indicated when he gives Catherine a recipe when she's debating what to prepare for her visiting in-laws.
  • Goes all out to give Neela a nice going-away party (themed as a Bollywood performance!) so he can apologize to her for the bigoted comments he made about her ethnicity and nationality when she first joined the staff.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's initially a Jerkass, but he gets better after his heart attack.

Isabelle Corday

Isabelle Corday

Played By: Judy Parfitt

Paul Sobriki

Paul Sobriki

Played By: David Krumholtz

Introduced in Season 7

Maggie Wyczenski

Maggie Wyczenski

Played By: Sally Field

Kim Legaspi

Kim Legaspi

Played By: Elizabeth Mitchell

• Closet Key: Kerry had no idea she was gay until she began a relationship with her.

Richard Lockhart

Richard Lockhart

Played By: Mark Valley

Rena Trujillo

Rena Trujillo

Played By: Lourdes Benedicto

Introduced in Season 8

Michael Gallant

Michael Gallant

Played By: Sharif Atkins

• Advertised Extra: He was promoted to the main cast shortly after his first appearance. If anything, the series made less use out of him after promoting him than before.
• Back for the Dead: His final episode features his brutal death by a roadside bomb, in the opening scene.
• Commuting on a Bus: In Seasons 11 and 12 until he died.
• Downer Ending: Killed suddenly in Iraq from a roadside bomb, leaving Neela a bereaved widow and his friends and family back home devastated.
• First Love: To Neela.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: He and Neela express a mutual interest in each other in Season 10, but he gets shipped off to Iraq before he ever officially asks her out. From then on, their relationship takes place via letters and e-mails. It's not known if they ever even had a proper date before he returns on leave and proposes to her, with them marrying that same day. This is acknowledged when, a month after they've married and they argue over his wanting to return to Iraq and her not wanting him to, Neela admits to her dismay, "I love you, but I still don't know you."
• Good-Looking Privates: Whenever we'd see him in uniform.
• Meaningful Name: Gallant, obviously. To the point where his final episode is named after him—"The Gallant Hero and the Tragic Victor".
• Nice Guy: Along with Luka, he was one of the kindest and most helpful characters on the show.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 10.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Pratt's Red. Pratt is more rude and impulsive, while Gallant is kind and by the book.
• Too Happy to Live: Mentions his wife Neela and how much he's looking forward to going home and seeing her not five seconds before the truck he's riding in is blown up, killing him. This is foreshadowed by the fact that less than a minute earlier, he had been unable to save a fellow soldier who had himself recently gotten engaged.

Greg Pratt

Gregory "Greg" Pratt

Played By: Mekhi Phifer

• Ascended Extra: He appeared in four episodes towards the end of Season 8, before being promoted to the main cast in Season 9.
• Character Development: Started out very impulsive and egotistical. By his tenure's end, he'd become an excellent teacher and was about to be named ER Chief.
• Downer Ending: Despite his impressive Character Development over the years, Pratt ends up dying a horrific, bloody death from an explosion at the beginning of the final season, surrounded by his friends, co workers and brother, before he was able to propose to his girlfriend, radiologist Dr. Bettina DeJesus, as he had been planning to, and after he was just about to finally be named the ER Chief after his years of dedicated hard work.
• Meaningful Name: He is a bit of a prat, after all.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Season 12 finale, after Gallant dies and Ray reveals that he's been trying to contact Neela, his main love interest and Gallant's widow, Pratt gently persuades Ray to give her some space and not complicate things. In "A House Divided", Pratt tries to give Ray advice on how to sort things out with Neela. However, Ray reminds him that he already took the senior doctor's advice before by giving her a lot of time and space, but in doing so, she started dating Gates instead.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 8 before being added to the main cast the following season.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Gallant's Blue. Later on the Blue to Morris' Red.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Died at the final season premiere.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • He shares a few characteristics with Malucci, being introduced in the same season the latter departed. He starts out as a brash, arrogant resident who often flirts with women, including sharing a tension with Jing-Mei, and has issues with his supervisors. However, unlike Malucci, Pratt stuck around County long enough to undergo a good deal of Character Development, eventually becoming an ER Attending and would have become the ER Chief if he lived. This similarity is Lampshaded by Carter at one point.
  • Starting in Season 11, he has some traits in common with Doug—with whom, incidentally, Malucci also shared some traits—particularly regarding the drama with his Disappeared Dad and their strained relationship, and with his efforts to be promoted at the ER in the final two seasons.
• Too Happy to Live: Was preparing to propose to his girlfriend Bettina and had just been named the new ER chief when he was killed.

Sandy Lopez

Sandy Lopez

Played By: Lisa Vidal

• Twofer Token Minority; She's Hispanic and gay. And a female firefighter too, which, while not a complete anomaly, is still not very common.

Jack Carter

John "Jack" Carter

Played By: Michael Gross

Eleanor Carter

Eleanor Carter

Played By: Mary McDonnell

Nicole

Nicole

Played By: Julie Delpy

Joyce Westlake

Joyce Westlake

Played By: Christina Hendricks

Brian Westlake

Brian Westlake

Played By: Matthew Settle

Introduced in Season 9

Paul Nathan

Paul Nathan

Played By: Don Cheadle

Erin Harkins

Erin Harkins

Played By: Leslie Bibb

Eddie Dorset

Eddie Dorset

Played By: Bruno Campos

Eric Wyczenski

Eric Wyczenski

Played By: Tom Everett Scott

Leon Pratt

Leon Pratt

Played By: Marcello Thedford

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin

Played By: Donal Logue

Introduced in Season 10

Neela Rasgotra

Neela Rasgotra

Played By: Parminder Nagra

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Subverted and Defied. She and Gallant contact each other as much as they can throughout their relationship, and both are able to resist cheating on each other, although they nearly came close to doing so—he with one of his coworkers in Iraq, she with Ray's bandmate Bret. After she realizes she's in love with Ray, she moves out of their apartment to remain faithful to Gallant.
• Character Development: Goes from a shy neophyte, to confident physician, to even more confident surgeon.
• Claustrophobia: In "Blood Relations", she suffers from this while stuck in a hyperbaric chamber with a baby who has carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Commuting on a Bus: Officially departs the ER in the antepenultimate episode, but manages to make brief appearances in the final two episodes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Ray tended to bring this out of her, before and during the time they were roommates.
• Dude Magnet: Her love interests include Gallant, Gates, Brenner, and finally Ray. Not to mention Dubenko's crush on her, medical student Mae Lee Park's crush on her, Bret's and Nick's (Ray's former bandmates) crushes on her, and Pratt's flirtation with her that led to his break-up with Jing-Mei.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything she went through, she finally gets her happy ending with Ray.
• Her Heart Will Go On: While affected by Gallant's death at the end of Season 12, she does continue to engage in relationships afterwards, with Gates, Brenner, and Ray.
• Heroic BSoD: She has one so bad after being notified of Gallant's death that she turns around and picks up two charts to go back to work, as if nothing happened.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Abby.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Only debuted in Season 10 but is one of the most recognizable characters in the show.
• Lethal Chef: According to Ray, her cookies are "the worst cookies ever made in the history of baking." Frank, Chuny and Morris agree with him, although they're more polite about their opinions.
• Naïve Newcomer: Takes on the role of the "hapless medical student" for the show in Season 10. She gradually grows out of it over the next year.
• Official Couple: With Ray.
• One True Love: Ray. Neela's other relationships all fail for different reasons—with Gallant, it was because they barely knew each other, as well as his returning to Iraq despite her not wanting him to, which led to his death; with Gates, it was his constant lying and issues with Meg and Sarah; and with Brenner, it was his inability to open up to her about anything. In stark contrast, her relationship with Ray is open and honest; she enjoys spending time with him and is genuinely happy around him; and even when she dated other guys, she sought him out for advice instead of them, proving she holds a deep trust in him.
• Progressively Prettier: Goes from merely "cute" when she first joins the staff to positively drop-dead gorgeous by the time she leaves.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In "The Human Shield", she arrives at the hospital in a Little Black Dress in preparation for Gallant's return.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • She shares a few characteristics with Carol, most notably in their love lives. Both married—or, in Carol's case, almost married—their first on-screen boyfriends, Tag and Gallant. Both of their second boyfriends, Shep and Gates, are paramedics. Both only briefly dated their third boyfriends, Luka and Brenner. Finally, both left County General to reunite with their fourth and final boyfriends, Doug and Ray.
  • She also shares a few characteristics with Lucy, most notably in their career paths. Both start off as a bumbling and clueless medical student. Also, both have an uneven rotation in the ER, but excel in a different medical field—for Lucy, it was Psychiatry, and had she lived, she would have been given a position as a Psych resident at County; for Neela, it was Surgery, and she ends her tenure at County as a great surgeon.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She leaves a bottle of wine at Abby's apartment, which Abby later drinks after very stressful day and subsequently relapses.

Sam Taggart

Samantha "Sam" Taggart

Played By: Linda Cardellini

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played Straight with her ex-husband Steve and final boyfriend Gates. Inverted with Luka.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She's furious when she sees that Luka has hooked up with the woman he had a fling with while in Africa, even though she herself told him she wanted to take a break. She later gets pissy when Neela develops a short-lived crush on him. A few years later, while dating Gates, she does the same thing—breaks up with him outright, but gets angry when he begins dating someone else.
• Crime of Self-Defense: An assistant district attorney fully intends to prosecute her for murdering her ex-husband, ignoring that said ex-husband was not only a dangerous felon, but one who had committed several more serious felonies (escaping prison, several counts of assault with a deadly weapon/attempted murder, kidnapping, and rape) in the span of a day or so. Luckily for Sam, by this point she's been hired as a private nurse for a very wealthy man who is a big contributor to the district attorney's re-election campaigns, and he casually mentions (read: threatens) to the ADA that he'll be having dinner with the DA later in the week, and wonders if prosecuting Sam is really worth it (the implication being the DA hadn't even been informed yet).
• Deadpan Snarker: One of her defining character traits.
  Angry Patient: (banging chair against window) Hey! You listening?!
  Sam: Sir, please don't do that.
  Angry Patient: Why?! You gonna do something about it?!
  Sam: No.
  Security Guard: (tackles Angry Patient)
  Sam: But he will.
• Establishing Character Moment: Proceeds to take a needle of a sedative from Morris, jumps in and proceeds to inject the sedative into a mentally disturbed guy who was being incredibly aggressive.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: By the time she saved the money for an abortion, she couldn't work up the nerve to go through with it.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Only debuted in Season 10 but is one of the most recognizable characters in the show.
• Mama Bear: Don't mess with Alex or else she will come after you.
• The Murder After: She kills Steve when he falls asleep after raping her.
• Official Couple: With Gates.
• Rape as Drama: When her ex-husband escapes from prison (nearly killing both Jerry and Luka in the process), he also kidnaps Alex and Sam. While they're hiding out, he rapes Sam, who has to stay quiet since Alex is sleeping nearby. The entire scene is shot very uncomfortably.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She shares some characteristics with Carol. Both are the token nurse character of their respective eras; Carol from Seasons 1-6, Sam from Seasons 10-15. Both have a Disappeared Dad. Finally, both have a temporary relationship with Luka, who grows close to them partially because he gets along with, and helps them take care of, their respective children.
• Teen Pregnancy: She had her son Alex at age 15. Unlike most teen pregnancies though, Sam and her son are fairly level-headed.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Punches out an abusive boyfriend when he not only calls the girl a slut, he grabs Sam's arm, arguably making her actions self-defense.

Archie Morris

Archibald "Archie" Morris

Played By: Scott Grimes

• Ascended Extra: He was a recurring character throughout Seasons 10 and 11 before becoming a main cast member in Season 12.
• Character Development: Probably the most extensive in the show's history. Started out as an annoying, bumbling, incompetent fool who no one liked. Ended as one of the best doctors in the hospital whom everyone respected.
  Carter: Looks like you followed my advice, Archie.
  Morris: How's that?
  Carter: You set the tone.
• The Confidant: Abby Lampshades that, by the end of the series, he's become a trustworthy person to come to when it for sharing one's issues. This is reinforced later when Catherine reveals her history with County General to him—she had brought her son there for treatment and he had died there—and Brenner confides to him about getting molested as a child.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his initial shock at suddenly meeting four children who are biologically his from his sperm donations in the early 1990's, he quickly adjusts to meeting his kids and is very kind, enthusiastic, fond and paternal towards them right away for the short time he got to know them, wanting to get to know them better.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Only debuted in Season 10 but is one of the most recognizable characters in the show.
• Ladykiller in Love: He's something of a party animal...who finds himself falling head over heels in love with police detective Claudia Diaz in the final season. While they aren't engaged by the time the series ends, Morris makes it clear that that's where he sees their relationship going, and Claudia agrees with him.
• Official Couple: With Claudia Diaz.
• Plucky Comic Relief: In the first few years of his tenure. Downplayed later on as he becomes more competent and his comedic lines appear less and less.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Seasons 10 and 11 before being added to the main cast in Season 12.
• Secret-Keeper: Two in the final season. He is the only one in the department to know that Cathreine Bansfield lost her son in the very ER she now oversees, and he is the one who Simon Brenner opens up to about his abusive past.
• The Stoner: In Season 10. He gets better.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a lazy stoner who needed his friends help to get through a shift and was forced to stay as a doctor by his father to someone Catherine Bansfield herself described as one of the best doctors in the ER. A sign of his development is how he was assigned to perscribe triage for a group of injured workman in the closing moments of the final episode, showing his growth in terms of skill and character.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Went from a disinterested doctor who couldn't care less about his patients and who was oblivious to how much everyone in the ER disliked him, into a thoughtful,caring confidant that multiple characters opened up to.
• You Are in Command Now: When Carter is Put on a Bus in the Season 11 finale to reunite with Kem, he instructs Morris to "set the tone", just as Mark had told him in "Orion in the Sky".

Makemba "Kem" Likasu

Makemba "Kem" Likasu

Played By: Thandie Newton

• Heroic BSoD: She goes into this after the Tragic Stillbirth of hers and Carter's son and never recovers.

Alex Taggart

Alex Taggart

Played By: Oliver Davis (Seasons 10-11); Dominic Janes (Seasons 12-15)

• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Son, rather, but he utterly epitomizes this, frequently running around the ER and causing trouble.

Steve Curtis

Steve Curtis

Played By: Cole Hauser (Season 10); Garret Dillahunt (Seasons 11-13)

Nick Cooper

Nick Cooper

Played By: Glenn Howerton

Lester Kertzenstein

Lester Kertzenstein

Played By: Rossif Sutherland

Mr. Chen

Mr. Chen

Played By: George Kee Cheung (Season 10); Henry O (Season 11)

Introduced in Season 11

Ray Barnett

Ray Barnett

Played By: Shane West

• Abusive Parents: A Berserk Button for him. In a deleted scene from Season 12, it's implied, but not explicitly stated, that he had a stepfather who suffered from substance abuse. In "Split Decisions", he threatens Zoe's father after he learns that the man beat her. In "A House Divided", he becomes angry with a man who mistreated his stepson, and he tells Kerry that the man reminded him of someone he used to know.
• Afraid of Needles: In "Shot in the Dark", he's nervous about getting the flu shot, as he has a "thing about needles," and tells Abby to give him the shot when he's not expecting it. She does so just as he's leaving after his shift.
• An Arm and a Leg: He has both of his legs amputated after getting run over by a truck. He later has them replaced with prosthetics.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • In Season 12, he's the Veronica to Gallant's Betty for Neela's Archie: Gallant's a military doctor and devoted to Neela, while Ray's a part-time rock musician and a womanizer. Despite Neela and Ray falling in love, she chooses to remain faithful to her husband Gallant.
  • In Season 13, he's the Betty to Gates' Veronica for Neela's Archie: Ray's a serious third-year resident who's honest with everyone, while Gates is an arrogant ER intern who constantly lies to save his own neck. Despite Neela initially choosing Gates because she was On the Rebound from losing Gallant, she quickly becomes miserable in the relationship. During Luka and Abby's wedding, Neela breaks up with Gates and chooses Ray...right before the latter gets run over by a truck.
  • Also in Season 13, he's the Archie for Neela's Betty and Katey's Veronica: Neela's a serious surgical intern who tries to separate her personal life from her professional life, while Katey's an incompetent medical student who doesn't mind that everyone—especially Neela—is aware of her relationship with Ray. Despite dating Katey, Ray doesn't actually care about her because he already chose Neela in Season 12, and he only dates Katey because he's jealous of Neela's relationship with Gates.
  • In the final season, he's the Betty to Brenner's Veronica for Neela's Archie: Ray has come to terms with his accident and enjoys working in the physical medicine and rehabilitation field to help fellow amputees and handicapped patients, while Brenner can't come to terms with his abusive childhood and prefers sleeping around over being an efficient Attending. Despite briefly dating Brenner, Neela already chose Ray at the end of Season 13, and she leaves Brenner to be with Ray.
• Butt-Monkey: Goes through a bit of trouble, culminating in him losing both of his legs near the end of his tenure as a main cast member. Fortunately, things get better for him when he returns in the final season.
• The Casanova: Much like his predecessor Doug, he attracts a lot of women, mainly groupies, and is successful in getting them into his bed. However, he's nicer than the usual archetype, as he doesn't take advantage of them nor does he discard them so callously.
• Chick Magnet: Throughout the three seasons where he's a main character.
• Commuting on a Bus: After being absent in Season 14, he reappears throughout the final season, far more well-adjusted than he had been in the past, and reignites his relationship with Neela. In the antepenultimate episode, she leaves Chicago to be with him in Baton Rouge, and the penultimate episode reveals that they're living together again.
• Disappeared Dad: Both his biological father and stepfather are mentioned but never shown on-screen. He speaks fondly of his biological father in "Quintessence of Dust", telling one of his patients that his father got him into music and loved the blues. He doesn't feel the same way about his stepfather, though.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Neela. He tries to Defy this by telling her that he's sick of waiting for her to choose him over Gates. However, it's still Played Straight—after Neela loses interest in Gates due to his constant lying and issues with Meg and Sarah, and after Katey breaks up with him because she knows he only has eyes for Neela, Ray admits that he believes his commitment and patience in waiting for Neela to reciprocate his feelings will win her heart.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything he went through, he finally gets his happy ending with Neela.
• Friend to All Children: He's very good at interacting with child patients or children of patients, and encourages them to open up to him fairly easily.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Neela in Seasons 12 and 13.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Following the accident that results in the amputation of both of his legs. When he returns to Chicago for a visit in the final season, he's been fitted with prosthetics and is living as normal a life as possible and has used his injuries to focus his medical practice on those in similar situations.
• Ladykiller in Love: He hooks up with groupies and "hot" women and claims to like them, but he doesn't genuinely care about them. In stark contrast, he outright confesses and shows that he's truly fallen in love with Neela.
• Mr. Fanservice: Getting introduced as part-time doctor and part-time rock musician meant that this was inevitable.
• Official Couple: With Neela.
• One Head Taller: He's 6', while his main love interest Neela is 5'2".
• One True Love: Neela. With other women, he'd state that he merely liked them, or comment on how "hot" they were, or talk about how great the sex was, all of which are superficial, and he never wanted to be serious with any of them. Conversely, Neela is the only woman he confesses his love to, he wants to take her out on dates rather than immediately jumping into bed with her, and he indicates to Pratt that he's thought about settling down with her.
• Put on a Bus: After Season 13.
• Second Love: To Neela, after Gallant.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He shares a lot of characteristics with Doug. He's initially brash and impulsive and has issues with authoritative figures like Susan and Kerry prior to his Character Development. He has a Berserk Button for Abusive Parents that originated from his own experiences. He has a great rapport with children. He's a handsome and charming stud in and out of the hospital. Finally, despite his constant dalliances with groupies and "hot" women, he genuinely falls in love with Neela, who herself shares a few characteristics with Doug's true love Carol.

Lucien Dubenko

Lucien Dubenko

Played By: Leland Orser

Jane Figler

Jane Figler

Played By: Sara Gilbert

Jake Scanlon

Jake Scanlon

Played By: Eion Bailey

Wendall Meade

Wendall Meade

Played By: Mädchen Amick

Howard Ritzke

Howard Ritzke

Played By: Andy Powers

Charlie Pratt

Charlie Pratt

Played By: Danny Glover

Chaz Pratt

Chaz Pratt

Played By: Sam Jones III

Olivia Evans

Olivia Evans

Played By: China Shavers

K.J. Thibeaux

K.J. Thibeaux

Played By: Jordan Calloway

Darnell Thibeaux

Darnell Thibeaux

Played By: Hassan Johnson

Helen Kingsley

Helen Kingsley

Played By: Frances Fisher

Introduced in Season 12

Tony Gates

Anthony "Tony" Gates

Played By: John Stamos

• Abusive Parents: He was raised by an alcoholic father. He is none too pleased when his father shows up midway through Season 13.
• Ascended Extra: He appeared in two episodes in Season 12. He became a regular in the following season.
• Berserk Button: It's not a good idea to talk about Meg's death in front of him.
• Chick Magnet: His love interests include Meg, Neela, hospital chaplain Julia, Dr. Daria Wade, and finally Sam.
• Cock Fight: With Ray over Neela in Season 13, culminating in a fight at Luka and Abby's wedding.
• Love Triangle: He and Ray compete for Neela's affections throughout Season 13. She breaks up with Gates after he and Ray fight at Luka and Abby's wedding, and in the Season 13 finale, she reveals to Ray that she's chosen him over Gates. While Ray initially doesn't want to deal with Neela following his accident, they reconcile and get together in the final season, during which Gates had already moved on to having feelings for Sam, effectively ending the Love Triangle.
• Mr. Fanservice: One of the more sexual characters in the show's last few seasons. A fair amount of his subplots deal with him romancing Neela and then Sam.
• Official Couple: With Sam.
• Papa Wolf: To Sarah.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a guest character in Season 12 before being added to the main cast the following season.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He has a lot of Doug's characteristics. He's Tall, Dark, and Handsome, a Chick Magnet, and a Papa Wolf. He's brash and impulsive, and has issues with authority, to the point where he's explicitly called a "cowboy" by his supervisor Pratt, similar to how Doug was called the same thing by his supervisor Kerry. He has a Berserk Button for Abusive Parents that stem from his own experiences. After other relationships come and go, he genuinely falls in love with the token nurse character, Sam, who herself shares some traits with Carol.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: As to be expected for someone played by John Stamos. He takes over for Luka in this position after the latter starts Commuting on a Bus.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Is given this by Sam when he lets Alex out of the house against Sam's orders and Alex ends up in a serious car accident. It leads to the destruction of their relationship that lasts until the final episode.

Victor Clemente

Victor Clemente

Played By: John Leguizamo

Eve Payton

Eve Payton

Played By: Kristen Johnston

Jessica Albright

Jessica Albright

Played By: Dahlia Salem

Zoe Butler

Zoe Butler

Played By: Kat Dennings

Blaire Collins

Blaire Collins

Played By: Stana Katic

Jodie Kenyon

Jodie Kenyon

Played By: Callie Thorne

Introduced in Season 13

Kevin Moretti

Kevin Moretti

Played By: Stanley Tucci

Dustin Crenshaw

Dustin Crenshaw

Played By: J. P. Manoux

Bettina De Jesus

Bettina De Jesus

Played By: Gina Ravera

Hope Bobeck

Hope Bobeck

Played By: Busy Philipps

Sarah Riley

Sarah Riley

Played By: Chloe Greenfield

Meg Riley

Meg Riley

Played By: Paula Malcomson

Dawn Archer

Dawn Archer

Played By: Angel Laketa Moore

Ben Parker

Ben Parker

Played By: Kip Pardue

Gracie

Gracie

Played By: Lois Smith

Curtis Ames

Curtis Ames

Played By: Forest Whitaker

Mike Gates

Mike Gates

Played By: Stacy Keach

Eddie Wyczenski

Eddie Wyczenski

Played By: Fred Ward

Jim Riley

Jim Riley

Played By: George Gerdes (Season 13); Bill Bolender (Season 14)

Becky Riley

Becky Riley

Played By: Deka Beaudine (Season 13); Frances Conroy (Season 14)

Introduced in Season 14

Simon Brenner

Simon Brenner

Played By: David Lyons

• Ascended Extra: He was a recurring character towards the end of Season 14. He became a regular in the final season.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: After weeks of being at each other's throats, he and Neela get into a full-fledged shouting match, which of course culminates in them going at it.
• Did Not Get the Girl: In the final two seasons, he falls for Neela and they even briefly become a couple. However, throughout their short relationship, Neela remains in love with Ray, and she leaves both Brenner and County General to be with Ray in Baton Rouge.
• Evil Brit: More like "Jerkass Aussie", but the gist is the same.
• Ladykiller in Love: His womanizing ways are established from his first scene, but he falls in love with Neela.
• Nepotism: To the point of being either a Stealth Pun—he's Donald Anspaugh's nephew (nepotism comes from the Latin word "nepos", which means..."nephew")—or a literal example of Nephewism.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Introduced as a Recurring Character in Season 14 before being added to the main cast the following (final) season.
• Rape as Backstory: His Berserk Button reaction to a pedophile patient leads to him confessing to Morris in "Age of Innocence" that he was molested by one of his mother's boyfriends.
• Really Gets Around: His first scene is of him waking up in bed with two women, and his womanizing reputation is well established afterwards.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He has a few of Doug's characteristics, namely an abusive past that influences his good (anger about abused children) and bad (sleeping around) behavior.

Harold Zelinsky

Harold Zelinsky

Played By: Steven Christopher Parker

Paul Grady

Paul Grady

Played By: Gil McKinney

Laverne St. John

Laverne St. John

Played By: Bresha Webb

Kaya Montoya

Kaya Montoya

Played By: Julia Jones

Introduced in Season 15

Catherine Banfield

Catherine "Cate" Banfield

Played By: Angela Bassett

• Black Boss Lady: Not afraid to put people in their place, often with a properly stern expression.
• Broken Bird: Catherine and her husband were devastated by the death of their son. The two were estranged from one another due to the trauma of it for a fair amount of time, though they manage to reunite by the final season.
  Catherine: I'm not sure why I've done anything I've done since that day. Why'd I not leave my apartment for almost two years? Then I see the news about the tsunami, and I fly to a place 10,000 miles away. Why'd I do that? Why'd I come back? Why did my son have leukemia? I never understood any of it.
  Morris: I—I'm sorry for your loss. I...I don't really know what to say.
  Catherine: When your parents are gone, you're an orphan. When your spouse dies, you're a widow or widower. But when you lose your baby...there's no word for that.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Her son was one of Mark's last few patients.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Highlighted with her and Morris' interactions. While at the start, there is some friction due to her firmness and his resentment at a stranger taking Pratt's place so soon after his death, by the time of "Heal Thyself", Catherine is able to open up to him about her son's death and Morris looks at her in a different light.
• Due to the Dead: Mark Greene's heroic- if ultimately futile efforts- to save her son have a lasting impact on her years later. As such, she accepts Carter back in the ER after he reveals to her that he knew Greene, and it is shown that the fact that Rachel is his daughter may influence her decision to accept her in the ER.
• Remember the New Guy?: Despite her son supposedly being one of Mark's last patients, she was nowhere to be seen in Season 8.
• Second Episode Introduction: She makes her first appearance in the second episode of the final season, following Pratt's death in the first episode.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Bossy, abrasive, takes charge, and takes no nonsense? Sounds a lot like either Kerry Weaver or Angela Hicks.

Daria Wade

Daria Wade

Played By: Shiri Appleby

Andrew Wade

Andrew Wade

Played By: Julian Morris

Ryan Sanchez

Ryan Sanchez

Played By: Victor Rausk

Tracy Martin

Tracy Martin

Played By: Emily Rose

Russell Banfield

Russell Banfield

Played By: Courtney B. Vance

Mary Taggart

Mary Taggart

Played By: Amy Madigan

Kelly Taggart

Kelly Taggart

Played By: Shannon Woodward

Lucy Moore

Lucy Moore

Played By: Ariel Winter

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