Season 1, Episode 03:
Going Home
Directed by Mark Tinker
Written by Lydia Woodward
Having chatted with Doug several nights before, Carol wakes up and decides to head back to work, despite the concerns of her mother. After being left alone, she retrieves her nurse's outfit from her closet and sets out her work effects. Upon arriving at County General, Carol introduces herself to Carter for the first time, then steels herself before walking out into the hospital's main hallway, remembering the moment of her arrival at County after she overdosed.
Benton is resting in Examination Room #8 when he's woken up by a mysterious patient who is singing to him. He goes to several people in the wing and asks if she's their patient, but none of them know where she came from. Meanwhile, Greene gives a patient an enema, Doug attends to two children who have arrived in the wing and Lewis and front desk clerk Jerry warmly welcome Carol back to the fold. Benton arrives and asks who the mystery patient is, and Jerry tells him that she was brought in early after being found with no ID on one of the subway lines. Greene also welcomes Carol back before tasking her with seeing to a homeless patient, while Carter attempts to get some answers out of the mystery patient (now nicknamed "Madame X"), to no effect.
A few minutes later, Greene expresses hope to Carol that her first day back will be easy, claiming it will only consist of "a couple kids who faked being sick to get out of school and some drunk partiers". Minutes later, though, a gunshot victim and elderly patient suffering from a heart attack are both wheeled in at the same time. Greene, Lydia and Benton work on the gunshot victim, while Doug (unsuccessfully) tries to talk to Carol as she aids Lewis with the elderly man. The gunshot victim is stabilized by Benton and Carol, while Lewis conducts a drug treatment that later gets her in trouble with the head of the Cardiology Unit, Dr. Kayson, who tells her not to make decisions about his patients without his express approval.
Later that morning, Greene meets with a mother and her son, with the former displaying obvious signs of Domestic Abuse. She claims she fell down a flight of stairs, only for Greene to quickly ascertain that their apartment was on the ground floor of a building and there were no stairs nearby. Despite this, he promises the son, Jerry, that he'll look after his mother. Elsewhere, Carter is getting nowhere with Madame X before Lewis arrives with Dr. Cvetic, who quickly diagnoses that Madame X has disassociative disorder after asking her some abstract questions.
Doug finally finds Carol and attempts to ask her if she wants to go to lunch in the cafeteria, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Dr. John "Tag" Taglieri, and it is quickly established that they're seeing each other. Doug is left at a loss as Carol and Tag leave on the elevator together.
Carter also continues his training with Benton, who allows him to tag-along as the staff offload a teenage patient involved in a boating accident from a helicopter on the roof. Greene and Ross also meet up and discuss Carol's relationship with Tag, with the former noting that Doug was stupid for finding someone else first and pining for her later. Later, Carter makes a breakthrough with Madame X, after utilizing Dr. Cvetic's advice to be more empathetic with patients, and shares some commonality with her over music, but he is distracted by the arrival of Liz, the female patient who stalked him to his vehicle a few days before. Carter and Liz attempt to have sex in the radiology lab, but are busted by Dr. Flint, who laughs it off.
Lewis and Carol are also surprised when they discover that one of their patients, a Ms. Decker, knows the identity of Madame X - a singer named Mary Kavanaugh, who she recognized after the latter sang one of her famous melodies. With the knowledge in hand, the duo are able to find Kavanaugh's family and send her back to them. A short time later, Lewis is called to a teaching session by Dr. Morgenstern regarding the drug treatment for the heart patient. After Dr. Kayson gets annoyed with her explanation, he is forced to begrudgingly admit that his choice of procedure, angioplasty, didn't work either. Yet, when Morgenstern asks for a recommendation from the other doctors over what course of action they would take, both Benton and Greene begrudgingly admit they would have opted for the angioplasty. Afterwards, Lewis rails at Greene for supporting the other doctors in the session instead of her.
In the ambulance bay, Doug invites Carol out for a cup of coffee and he awkwardly opens up to her, asking if he had anything to do with her suicide attempt. She tells him he didn't, and that it was a combination of other factors, before telling him she doesn't want to talk about it further. He also asks her if she'll leave Taglieri and give him another chance, but she counters that Tag was there for her and he didn't want anything to do with her, and walks back into the hospital.
The episode ends with the staff giving Carol a surprise party, complete with a Rousing Speech by Carol where she thanks the staff for looking out for her, and promises to treat life as a "gift". As the staff celebrate, Ross and Carol share a brief look before she cheers in triumph...
Tropes:
- Ass Shove: At the beginning of the episode.Benton: Mr. Ruznick! How are you doing?Mr. Ruznick: I'm having an enema. How do you think I'm doing?
- Brick Joke: The vending machine, which initially appears to have vending problems... until Greene and Malicki reveal to a patient that you can just bang on the machine to get "free stuff", just like Carol did in the opening sequence.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Ivan Gregor, a patient who was wheeled into the ER after being shot during a liquor store robbery, is wheeled in again after he's shot in the leg.
- Ms. Decker, a patient suffering from leukemia, recognizes the melodies being sung by "Madame X", and is able to identify her as "Mary Kavanaugh", a former singer.
- Fake-Out Opening: The opening appears to suggest that Carol's mother is concerned for her well-being, with the dialogue implying that Carol is on suicide watch and the soundtrack being a direct copy of the cue used for The Reveal of her arrival in the pilot. However, as the music seems to swell... she picks her outfit from the closet and reveals her work effects, which have been placed in a jewelbox.
- Contrived Coincidence: Carol just happens to run into a patient (Ms. Packer) whose speech about knowing when she is not going to die (related to her leukemia) and treating every day as a gift has personal relevance to Carol, who is back at work for the first time after her suicide attempt.
- Flashback: Played with. Carol has a flashback to the moment she was wheeled into the ER on the gurney in the pilot... despite the fact that she was comatose during this time. The show makes no effort to explain how she is remembering this perspective.
- Foreshadowing: After catching Carter in the radiology lab with Liz, Dr. Flint relates an anecdote about his old college girlfriend having a nickname of "Penicillin" because of her promiscuous behavior, and Carter reacting in surprise and shock. Come the next episode...
- Gallows Humor: When Carol introduces herself to Carter for the first time.Carter: Oh! I met you on my first day.Hathaway: And my last! Or so I thought.
- And later, when Carol delivers a shipment of barbituates (that she OD'd on) to Susan:
Carol: I'm here to unload that new shipment of barbituates.Susan: At least you didn't kill off your sense of humor.Carol: No, just a few brain cells. - Hypocrite: Ross spends several scenes asking people if they've seen Carol, but the moment someone asks him if he's seen Lewis, he accuses them of treating him like a "hall monitor".
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Carter asks for this, after the mystery patient (Mary) refuses to answer his questions while crying profusely.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: George Clooney's aunt, Rosemary, plays Mary Cavanaugh/Madame X, the singer who hounds the staff.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Dr. Kayson (the head of the cardiology unit) effectively pulls rank on Lewis, he is correct when he asserts that she made a unilateral decision regarding treatment without consulting him first.
- Karma Houdini: The abusive father who beat his wife and traumatized his son is let off scot-free for his actions at the end, taking his family home after they both change their story and deny any Domestic Abuse took place.
- Lampshade Hanging: Carol's initial conversation with Carter (talking about her near-suicide) is a reference to the real-life events that led to Julianna Margulies being picked up as a series regular — she was originally supposed to die in the pilot episode, until the producers (spurred by audience feedback) changed the storyline to keep her alive.
- Noodle Incident:Carter: Remember that thing you did the other night?Carter: The thing on the stairs.Liz: Well, that's nothing compared to (inaudible, in Carter's ear)Carter: I don't think we have any uneven parallel bars.
- No Snack for You: Played with during the opening sequence. Carter struggles to get a snack out of a machine after it eats several coins... until Carol arrives and bangs on the right spot, causing the machine to spit the snack out.
- One of Our Own: How Greene motivates Carol after she successfully helps Benton stabilize the gunshot victim.Mark: You may have doubts about being back... but none of us do.
- The Oner: Carter and Benton exiting onto the roof, waiting with staff to meet a helicopter touching down, then offloading the patient and wheeling her back into the hospital as the helicopter takes off. In one take.
- Previously on…: The pre-show recap officially begins in this episode, summarizing notable events from the first two episodes that will play into the storyline. Notably, these recaps aren't included on the home media boxsets.
- Really Gets Around: Implied by both Liz and Dr. Flint, the latter of whom likens her to his college girlfriend.
- Running Gag:
- For the third episode in the row, the story begins with a doctor (this time, Benton) being woken up... and Played for Laughs, as he's woken up by a patient who is singing to him.
- Ross going around the office asking if anyone has seen Carol, and eventually just trying to talk to her, which goes on for several scenes until they finally meet up.
- Stalking is Love: Liz, the female patient who stalked Carter to his vehicle in the previous episode, returns and attempts to have sex with him in the ER, only to be busted by another member of the staff.
- Tempting Fate:
- Greene initially tells Carol that her first day back will be easy, claiming that it will only consist of "a couple kids who faked being sick to get out of school and some drunk partiers". His claim is immediately disproven a few minutes later when a 79 year-old patient having a heart attack and a gunshot victim are both wheeled in at the same time, forcing the group to split into teams to tackle the situation. Carol even calls him out on this.
- Ms. Packer initially brushes off attempts to get her to stay for a blood transfusion after she is found to have leukemia. Right as she's being discharged, she faints and collapses in the main hallway, forcing the staff to go ahead with the transfusion anyway.
