"ER" Regains Its Heart

I was starting to feel a little gipped after the first half of last night’s “ER”…

25 minutes into the episode and Anthony Edwards still hadn’t shown up yet. But finally, right at the 10:30 mark, he made his first appearance.

And although I would disagree with the promos that the episode was “legendary,” it was pretty strong…

I read a few reviews that criticized the way the show brought Edwards’ Dr. Mark Greene back, but I actually thought it was kind of brilliant.

If you missed it, the first half of the episode doled out small tidbits of information about a tragedy in Dr. Banfield’s (Angela Bassett) life—a health emergency involving her son. Flashbacks of her son getting sick were cut into a present day story involving a health emergency for another child.

Then we saw the big reveal in the story of Dr. Banfield. Her son was brought to the Cook County General ER and treated by Dr. Greene. As she remembered how Dr. Greene treated her son, Dr. Banfield was able to properly diagnose the little girl in the present and eventually save her life. Sadly, the same was not possible for her son, who passed away in one of the very rooms in which Dr. Banfield must work every day—another brilliant touch…

It was nice to see the caring Dr. Greene do what he did best. And to keep from having to use makeup (and hair) to make Edwards appear younger, the show decided to set the events at the same time Greene was having his chemo treatments (The writers clearly thought these returns out.).

But Dr. Greene was not the only familiar face we got to see. Jerry (Abraham Benrubi) briefly stepped into Trauma One, as did Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes). And just like we remembered him, Dr. Romano (Paul McCrane) came by to lecture Greene about putting off his chemo to attend to his patient. “I’m not the one who had the idea for you to get cancer,” he told him. But unlike we remember him, when Greene went back into Trauma One, Romano actually stood and watched with a look of concern. It was a nice touch…

(I was mistaken about Noah Wyle’s Dr. Carter making an appearance. Apparently, Wyle was just on the set and did not actually film a scene.)

But much like Jennifer Aniston’s hyped appearance on “30 Rock,” the show actually didn’t belong to Edwards. It belonged to Angela Bassett and her real-life husband Courtney B. Vance. I’ve got to believe that both of them are in line for Emmy nods.

As painful as it was to watch Banfield and her husband deal with the death of their son, it was nice to see Greene deal with it as he always did—with lots and lots of heart.

I think this is the first full episode of the show I’ve seen since Edwards left, but I’m pretty sure that the show never regained its heart after his departure. That is, until last night…

If you missed it, you can watch the episode here.

Photo Credit: Matt Dinnerstein