Let me begin this week by quoting, of all people, myself. Three weeks ago in this space I wrote this about Sam: “I have to be honest – I was afraid they’ll do the ultimate cliche and have her assaulted or hit by a car when she was outside of the bar, but I’m glad they didn’t do that.” It took them three weeks and it wasn’t Sam, but they still went with that cliche.
So who was the victim? A very drunk Dr. Ray Barnett. He thought that the staff party (which was actually Luka and Abby’s wedding, but more on that later) would be the perfect opportunity to finally get it on with Neela. Imagine his surprise to see her show up with Tony, who ambushed her as she was about to leave for the party. Ray was so upset – after all he even prepared a music CD for her, that he spent most of the night drinking. And when he was almost done drinking, Tony shows up. Being the insensitive ass that he is, Tony didn’t see where Ray was coming from and they two had a short fight until they were broken up by Pratt and Morris. Ray left the party and headed for a bar, and as he left that bar, he had a very close encounter with an approaching truck. We don’t know whether he’d dead or alive, but I’m sure I’m not the only one wishing it would have been Tony instead.
But let’s go back to the wedding. Kovac had Hope and Archie help him plan a surprise wedding ceremony for Abby, under the disguise of a staff dinner. You can imagine how unhappy Abby was when she first found that out. Luka really went all out – he even got her a dress she wanted. It took some talking, but she came around and had a very lovely wedding. Abby recruited Neela to be her maid of honor (an obvious choice) and she did a fine job; even talking some shit in what I guess is Hindi, pretending it had to do with Love and romance, in order to make the ceremony feel more special. Luka, on the other hand, had to ask Pratt to be his best man. It felt weird and the writers acknowledged that, which was an admission that Luka didn’t really develop strong personal relationships with any of the ER staff other than Abby, and perhaps Sam and Carter (Who’s not there anymore). The wedding also had a nice gimmick, as it was conducted by a Rabbi, since the justice of the peace Hope booked couldn’t make it. This actually provided some nice funny moments and it was well done.
But again, let’s go back to Neela. She was in the weird position of being around three guys who love her – Ray, Tony and Dubenko. Dubenko already knows he has no shot with her, but he still has hopes. Tony and Ray were fighting for her heart and Neela told Tony straight up it won’t work between them, and by the end of the episode it was implied she’s picking Ray. This seems like the right choice – I’m sure they can be great roommies once again, and even more than that. Too bad Ray had to go and get hit by a damn truck.
This was actually one of the better ones this season of ER had. The change of scenery and different kind of storytelling really helped this episode. I’ll also give them points for getting the correct date on the video camera. Too bad they had to ruin it with the truck. But still, I won’t complain too much about it because I guess that’s the most we can expect from ER these days – a mostly good episode, even with a shitty ending.
