One ER gem

[angelophile]

Season 14 of Er has generally been pretty average so far, but getting to the end of it now and they slip in a really really good episode.

In Under Pressure a young couple air airlifted into the ER following a car accident. Obviously deeply in love and struggling with financial and family commitments. Also, on the news, police are searching for a young couple who held up a jewelry store, injuring the cashier during a brief shoot out. You can see where this is going, can't you?

It was one of those episodes that ER does extremely well. Even with the irritating Gate subplot (he's trying to save a sick kid! Who wants to be a clown when he grows up!) it's the sort of closed in life-or-death situation that the ER format was made for. It had echoes of the brilliant episode with Ewan McGregor way back in the day as Morris (Scott Grimes) and Neela (Parminder Nagra) were forced at gunpoint to try and save the life of the obviously doomed patient as the latter day Bonnie and Clyde's lives fell apart.

The real strength was Scott Grimes, managing once again to bring real depth and compassion to what was, and still is, essentially a comedy character as Morris attempted to give Daniel (Josh Stewart) the time he needed to accept his lover wasn't going to recover, no matter how many doctors he held at gunpoint to try and save her. Brilliantly playing the attempts by Morris to save Rebecca AND Daniel and the real roller coaster of emotions clearly being experienced by the character, my heart broke for Morris in the end. I don't know if Scott Grimes was nominated for any awards for this episode, but he should have been, after being relegated to mostly playing comic relief for the rest of the season.

But this one was traumatic, heartbreaking and as much about the patients as the doctors. Just the way ER should be.