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Post by darksparrow on May 1, 2009 14:40:52 GMT -5
Rewatching season 5 "Sticks and Stones". That's an episode I didn't even remember, and it's shocking because it's such a loaded Carter episode. I honestly have no idea how I managed to miss it.
Carter goes on a ride along with the paramedics and they're trying to help a landlord who angered his tenants by turning off their heating. The guy's kind of a bastard, frankly. The angry mob attacks the ambulance, one of the medics is trapped outside and the other is bleeding and can't see, so Carter has to take charge of the ambulance and drive it, and then he runs someone over. Another unit brings the kid to the ER and the boy survives, with no permemnant damage. So even though Carter's obviously feeling guilty and in trouble, you think you'll have a good ending. Until one of the paramedics that were with Carter is shot- the unit is ambushed by the same angry mob and they're shooting at the driver, thinking it's Carter. Now THAT is one massive guilt trip right there. What a horrible place for the overly sensitive, quick-to-blame-himself doctor to be in... The scenes where they're working on the medic in the ER, and the scenes with Carter pacing outside the OR like a caged tiger are so beautifully written. And the ending... so terrible, but such a beautiful acting job. Carter walks out of the OR and everything about him is shock and defeat. it's beautiful.
(and on a completely shallow note, Noah looks really good in this one. The paramedic uniform really suits him, and I love the haircut. Thought it was a season 6 thing, turns out it happened earlier... I love learning new things!)
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Post by spaceyume on May 2, 2009 9:09:36 GMT -5
What a horrible place for the overly sensitive, quick-to-blame-himself doctor to be in... Nice catch I still remember his face when he was driving that ambulance. Carter said "god" maybe twice. And then he tried so hard to save the mistakenly shot paramedic in trauma room. OMG!!!! I can't believe you actually said this! I remember exactly how he looked in this episode cause that hair cut and uniform (and even that grey t-shirt) was soooooo good-looking! lol. I know poor Carter was having a hard time. But I couldn't stop thinking "how handsome he is OMG how handsome he is" all the time while watching this episode. Sorry...couldn't help it.
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Post by Raffy on May 2, 2009 9:13:02 GMT -5
You're are not the only one, really And I really liked Carter's storyline in this one. Thank you for the clips!
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Post by claired80 on May 3, 2009 14:33:20 GMT -5
Thanks Anna for the clips! ;D It is indeed a wonderful episode. And I agree with you and everyone: Carter looks really good in that one Noah's acting is perfect all along (yeah, what else? ). I remember watching it as a re-run not long after the first airing of "All in the Family" in France, and getting really bad goosebumps when Carter says "they were shooting for me... " , wondering how anyone could ever want to kill this guy . You can feel all along the OR scene where Carter is watching from the observing room that he is thinking it could/should have been him there on the operating table, and watching this soon after watching "All in the Family" was really weird and powerful.
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Post by darksparrow on May 3, 2009 15:38:04 GMT -5
Completely random season 4 scene that isn't all that memorable (or all that Carter) but I just had to share- Why do I bring it up? Because we JUST COVERED THAT PARTICULAR SYNDROME IN CLASS LAST WEEK. Now I didn't remember that storyline at all, and in fact I'm incredibly proud because I knew what was wrong with that patient almost as soon as I saw him- Henry might as well be quoting my notes... AND then I realized, Henry's doing Brain research... messing around with chemicals in the lab... holy cr@p, I'm Henry!!! I don't want to be Henry! cue major career crisis. Sorry. I had to let that out. Back on topic, everyone. ;D
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Post by Raffy on May 4, 2009 1:53:21 GMT -5
OMG, Anna you're Henry!!!! ;D Totally out of topic but that episode make me think that years ago I've read a really intersting book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sachs: the writer is a neurologist and writes about his experience with patients with neurogical disorders. The book comprises 24 essays and one of those is about Korsakoff's syndrome. From wikipedia "The Lost Mariner", about Jimmie G., who has lost the ability to form new memories due to Korsakoff's syndrome. He can remember nothing of his life since his demobilization at the end of WWII, including events that happened only a few minutes ago. He believes it is still 1945 (in the late 70s and early 80s), and seems to behave as a normal, intelligent young man aside from his inability to remember most of his past and the events of his day-to-day life. He struggles to find meaning, satisfaction, and happiness in the midst of constantly forgetting what he is doing from one moment to the next. I think TPTB did a quite good job with that case
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Post by janet on May 4, 2009 2:33:30 GMT -5
Thanks. I'd forgotten, or missed that scene with Henry. Years ago I was working in a day center and an old man was being bullied by other residents in his homeless hostel and he would suddenly behave in a very strange way which we couldn't understand and it turned out that he had Korsakoffs syndrome, which I had never heard of.
I have also read "The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" a truly moving book about the bizarre affliction people with neurological disorders can have
On a general note. Thank you Raffy, Anna and Clare for all these past clips, especially the ones with Anna. I always thought that she would have been Carter's best partner. I loved the way Maria Bello and Noah worked together. They seemed so much more convincing than some of his other pairings. I have the DVDs frpm series 1-9. I've never bothered with the subsequent ones, well 10 and 11, but its good to see clips isolated like this . It brings back wonderful memeories. Thanks guys.
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Post by claired80 on May 4, 2009 2:37:23 GMT -5
Lol!!! well, it's not so bad being Henry ... I think... I was surprised in that episode actually that Carter and Anna don't know about that syndrome (not that I knew about it either, one of the many things I learnt from ER ;D ), and that Carter looks so bewildered while visiting the lab when he searches for Henry. I don't remember if it's in the same episode exactly, but Carter asks what all the stuff around is (DNA electrophoresis I think...), touches bottles... I mean, shouldn't he have had a bit of biology, genetics, chemistry during his cursus and know what a research lab looks like?
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Post by darksparrow on May 4, 2009 12:00:39 GMT -5
Are you kidding me? He's a joke. *sigh* In real life I'm sure he probably would. My friends in med school take the exact same chemistry classes as I do. Like five different chemistry classes- it's a huge part of the program. Even though most of his chemistry training would be theoretical, I'm sure at some point during med school he's have been in a lab. Just as I'm sure that at some point during two years of med school, Henry would have learned some basic medicial procedures. It's just that they're dealing with two different aspects of medicine, which I think is pretty cool. You can be really smart and do your PhD in medicine and still be completely useless in a real emergency. But really, the writers wanted to get some funny out of the situation, I suppose. And Carter WAS adorable at the lab.
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Post by claired80 on May 4, 2009 12:30:36 GMT -5
Lol!! thanks for the clip! ;D He is adorable indeed!
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Post by claired80 on May 6, 2009 9:31:08 GMT -5
Not Carter related: I just rewatched "Do one, teach one, kill one", and noticed that, as new ER Chief, Kerry Weaver has a board with ER doctors' pictures put on a wall, and among the doctors, there are pictures of producers Joe Sachs, Wendy Spence Rosato (I think?) and John Wells ... Funny little cameos... I couldn't get a better screenshot (Joe Sachs is on the cut top left pic):
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Post by darksparrow on May 10, 2009 6:11:21 GMT -5
I'm re-watching the second half of season 6 now, and I just have to say, it's horrifying to watch those episodes knowing where Carter's storyline is going. There are so many clues, so many scenes where it's so obvious that everything's wrong, you want to scream at the screen because everyone is so oblivious. It's really easy to see towards the end of the season- some of the scenes in "Such Sweet Sorrow" are so loaded with sadness and pain and guilt that you can almost feel it physically.
The opening sequence- with the beautiful "Letting The Cables Sleep" in the background- is one of the most perfect opening sequences that I can remember on any show. The transition between Carter and Carol and Abby... each having a sleepless night for their own reasons... and everything about Carter, and that smoke... I remember how shocking it was to first see it, because we just assumed that everything was ok, but we see that he's falling apart... powerful stuff.
And this is exactly what I'm talking about... when we watched that scene for the first time, we assume that Carter's problem is the insomnia... but the entire bathroom scene just screams "druggie!!!". Carter's nervous, he's looking around his shoulder, and the resigned, disgusted look in the mirror... how could we miss that? And what a dramatic difference between that Carter and the one that emerges from the bathroom...
That right there should have been enough to clue us in... PTSD doesn't explain this, insomnia doesn't explain this. As a matter of fact, even bipolar disorder doesn't explain this. The only thing that really makes sense is drugs, and nobody- including the audience- even goes there. Chen- bless her- sees that something's wrong, she just thinks it's the wrong something... And Mark's half-assed attemped to find out what's wrong with Carter is really disturbing. I know he has a lot of stuff on his mind, and it's really not his job to save Carter, but the man sitting in that corner looks everything but fine. Love the little look that Carter gives him as he exits... "yeah, right..." so much for relying on your friends.
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Post by claired80 on May 10, 2009 6:46:40 GMT -5
Oh, what a beautiful analysis of the episode Anna!! I find it all so perfectly said... Indeed. That second half of S6 was so perfectly written, so perfectly acted by Noah. It was quite a risk to write it this way. Just a bit more signs and we would have guessed, just a bit less and we couldn't say upon rewatching: "It was there!!! right under our eyes!"... It was really tricky I think to find just the perfect balance, and they managed beautifully! I remember the first time I watched him whistling, with that sad beautiful music in the background. It was so confusing... From how he looked before, and with the sad music, it was obvious him looking all upbeat wasn't a good thing, but I really couldn't understand what it was... I thought he was simply just completely losing it... That's why it was genius to put it on Carter. That line by Mark in May Day: ".. but it's Carter, your mind just doesn't go there..." is so true!! Oh yeah. That was one disturbing scene. You really think "That's it, Mark?.. you think you helped there?" .. but at the same time it's all understandable. And the last look by Carter can be interpreted in many ways I think. I was a bit reading in it: "Sh!t, Mark is becoming suspecting... " Noah's acting is so complex in the second half of S6. Carter has so many layers, it's actually hard to describe him, I find . It's a mixture of guilt, anger, strength, depression, not wanting to be judged for not being able to be okay, but at the same time wanting people to cut him some slack because he went through something they can't even start to imagine... It's all pull/push, sort of... Ah, really superbly sad . And the writing is so full of these little "blink and you miss it" moments. Like in "Loose Ends". Carter is working out, not limping a bit, seemingly all recovered (which at the time made me think "That's it?, stabbing storyline is over... ?"), he takes all the cases he can in the ER (especially from Malucci), nothing can stop him... and boom, in the end, there's just a multiple stab wounds arriving and now he wants Malucci to take it... That's the only little hint in that episode that Carter is not all okay!
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Post by darksparrow on May 10, 2009 7:24:52 GMT -5
Whoa, I missed that entirely! Good catch...!
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Post by claired80 on May 10, 2009 7:43:23 GMT -5
I was really wondering how come Malucci didn't get it! He just brushes it away, letting Carter handling it alone. I was screaming at him "Come on Malucci!!! Stab wounds? you don't get it??"! And it has one of Noah's "split second" little pieces of acting, just when Carter picks up the chart, this very subtle frown...
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