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ER: Twenty-One Guns (finale)
by Bob Sassone, posted May 20th 2006 11:31AM
(S12E22) I was sort of dreading this season finale. All week I had been seeing the coming attractions, and there was going to be yet another melee in the ER. Shooting, maybe an explosion or something, couldn't tell. This particular emergency room seems to get as much action as the front lines of a war.But this episode was actually one of the better season finales the show has ever had. A bit crazy, but well done and rather suspenseful, with more than one plot twist I didn't see coming at all.
While Pratt and Neela attend Gallant's funeral, Sam is showing the ropes to a new nursing student, her ex-husband is brought into the ER yet again, along with another prisoner he had gotten into a fight with. (I think I actually groaned out loud here - I mean, the ex-husband shows up yet again?). The two prisoners are in separate rooms, taunting each other. Sam and the new girl and a cop are with the other prisoner while other docs tend to her ex. Sam leaves to go talk to her ex in the other room, leaving the new girl and the cop in the room. As Sam is treating her ex, we see that the new girl has pulled out a rag and placed it over the cop's mouth! (I didn't see that coming at all, I thought this new person was going to be a new character on the show next season or something.) The prisoner grabs his gun. The new girl goes into the other room and holds a gun to everyone while the other prisoner unlocks Sam's ex.
Just then, Luka comes to the door, wanting to get in. The new girl tries to lie to him to get him to leave, but he insists on coming in. He comes in and, well, gets a gun pointed at him. But Luka decides to play hero (bad idea, Luka), and the new girl jams a needle in his back, and he falls to the floor. She gave him vex (I think that's the name), the stuff you give a patient when you need to put a tube down his throat. But she gives him, like, 9 million times the dosage, and he's paralyzed and he'll stop breathing if they don't intubate him.
Sam convinces her ex to get Luka on the table. After several nerve-shattering tries, she finally gets the tube in him, but is dragged out by her ex and the other guy (disguised as a cop) so they can leave the hosptial.
If you've seen the promos, then you know what happens next: Gunfight at the OK Corrall, as Abby notices something wrong with the way Sam is leading her ex out in the wheelchair and asks two cops to investigate. The entire ER and waiting room is in a hail of gunfire: people are diving behind desks, cops are shot in the elevator, patients cover themselves with chairs, glass shatters everywhere. Since this is ER and since it's the season finale, you know that someone important is going to be shot here. I thought it would be Morris, since it's his last day, but it turns out to be ... Jerry! He covered a young boy from the shots and was shot himself.
The crooks and Sam get outside, and Sam pleads with her ex to not go, to "think of Alex." And he says to her, "I already did!" And he opens the van and Alex is there bound and gagged! Sam jumps into the van.
Back in the ER, the gang is working hard to save Jerry, who takes a turn for the worse after looking OK at first. (Nice to see some real emotion here by Kerrie, who almost starts crying when she sees Jerry.) Abby isn't feeling well, but continues to work. She needs something from the hallway and goes to get it. She starts to feel dizzy, and then notices that she's bleeding. Her hand is full of blood, and she reaches for the window to steady herself, but she falls, and blood splatters the window.
Meanwhile, Luka sees all this happening and knows that something is wrong with Abby. He's shaking the table he's on, but can't move because he's intubated, and no one knows he's in this room!
So, as the season ends, we have Jerry dying from a gunshot wound on the table (hope he makes it - though I think he is starring in a new show this fall), Sam and Alex kidnapped by escaped cons, Abby on the floor down the hall, bleeding, having trouble with her pregnancy, and Luka all alone in a room and he can't move or yell for help (one of my nightmares). Yikes!
Earlier this week I said that I was going to stop watching ER next season because it had gotten too boring. Now it looks like I'll have to tune in for the season opener at least. Damn it.
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