ER

Pratt's car crashes into the river. He, Chen, and Elgin are severely injured. Abby begins her internship at County, as do Ray Barnett and Howard Ritzke, while Neela returns to Chicago after giving hers up in Michigan. Alex and Sam crash at a motel, where Alex secretly places a collect call to Luka. Luka comes to find them and asks Sam to return to Chicago with him. The Lopez family gives Weaver full custody of Henry, and will take care of him while she is at work. Carter and Kem scatter their son's ashes, and Carter asks her to marry him.

A depressed Carter has difficulty coping in the wake of Kem's decision to leave the country. Luka invites Sam to move in with him. Neela's parents visit, confused by her decision to drop out of Michigan. The nurses freeze out Abby after a slip of the tongue to Haleh. Weaver advises Barnett to change his appearance. Abby treats a young woman kidnapped from her home country and forced into sexual slavery.

Sporting a large scar on his head, Pratt is back at work, but ends up being sent home early. Neela spends the day looking for a job. The new OR attending declines to perform an illegal organ donation procedure between two HIV positive people, but Carter convinces Corday to do it. Abby irks Ray by ordering a drug test on one of his patients. Luka takes Alex to his soccer game, and Susan and her family pay a visit to the ER.

A woman who threw her children out a third-floor window to escape their abusive father is discovered to have done it while going through Valium withdrawal. Susan becomes Chief of Emergency Medicine and learns what it's like to be in management. Plagued by his OCD, Howard abruptly quits his internship, leaving a slot open. Susan can't find anybody to fill it, then discovers Neela working across the street at the Jumbo Mart. Corday is in trouble after her illegal organ donation procedure, facing dismissal and the loss of her license to practice medicine. Weaver offers her a non-tenured position as a clinical instructor, and Corday must decide whether to accept the demotion.

A day in the life of County's interns has Pratt ordering each doctor to discharge 25 patients by the end of their shift. Ray is quickly pushing people out the door, but may be doing so by not paying enough attention to his patients; he okays a man's organs for transplant without getting proper consent from the man's wife. Dubenko looks out for Abby when Ray rides all over her in a trauma. Neela is a little rusty on her first day back at the hospital.

The final 44 minutes of alcoholic ex-con Charlie Metcalf's life plays out as Kovac, Pratt and Sam struggle to save his life. Charlie comes to the ER with a stomach ailment that quickly grows more serious. Slowly deteriorating, he confronts a series of doctors and specialists, and the realization that he is dying. As we learn his history, he tries to connect with his estranged son. Meanwhile, Kovac confronts Pratt about his attitude, and we see how each is touched by Charlie's story.

Sam and Luka move in together. When a raped and badly beaten woman is brought into the ER, Sam wants to try a risky procedure to let the woman talk. The woman dies, however, and Luka covers for Sam. At Susan's one-month review, Weaver suggests that she be more of a leader. Susan schedules a JCAHO drill, which proves to frustrate the staff more than help them learn. Even after giving birth, a young girl insists that she's not pregnant.

The 15-year-old son of a seriously wounded policeman is given the authority to decide the course of his father's treatment, and he turns to Ray for advice. Carter accompanies Wendall rock climbing. Luka begins to take a more active role in Alex's life after he's suspended for bringing a copy ofMaxim Magazineto school. An exhausted Chen returns to work, where Pratt finds her stealing potassium.

Christmas Eve finds Chen unable to locate someone to cover her shift. Because she needs to care for her dad, she quits. Pratt visits her house and tries to talk her out of euthanizing her dad, but she ends up doing it anyway. Carter and Wendall share an awkward kiss. New med student Jake and Abby treat a man with lupus and a family living in their car. Carter forces Ray to miss his plane. Morris's girlfriend visits.

Abby faces a life and death struggle when she is abducted by two gang members that need her to aid their wounded friend. Back at the hospital, Susan is frustrated with her subordinates not listening to her, and faces the fact that she can't be everyone's friend and boss at the same time. Susan and Luka try to teach the residents to empathize with the patients, which turns out to be easier said then done. Ray treats a woman whose case is more complicated than it appears.

It's Abby's first day back at work since her abduction, and it may be too soon for her to return. ER patient satisfaction scores are very low, so Susan enlists Luka to teach the residents how to communicate more effectively with their patients. Two teens, both suffering from gunshot wounds, are brought to the ER, and Neela fumbles badly when informing a family member of their relative's condition. Abby tells Neela that she needs to find a new living arrangement. Attorney Herb Spivak returns to the ER, trolling for clients.

A 16-year-old is brought in with renal failure after a kidney transplant, and Carter concludes that a new drug she was taking for her condition is the culprit. He creates a media uproar and a public relations nightmare for the hospital when he openly questions the safety of the drug, which happens to have been recommended by the girl's neurologist, George Henry, a former student of Carter's. Meanwhile, Neela's crush on Luka is resolved, and med student Jake reveals an increasing interest in Abby.

Pratt treats a young boy with a suspicious gash on his chest, but lets him leave before Wendall clears him. Susan works at getting multiple grants for the ER in order to better her chances at tenure. Kovac and Dubenko disagree on a patient's treatment. Jake switches the remainder of his shifts in an effort to date Abby.

Weaver is spending the day working in the ER when she meets her birth mother, who has disguised herself as a patient in order to meet Kerry. An evangelical Christian in town with her choir, she is deeply taken aback when she discovers that Kerry is gay. In the meantime, Jake and Abby have trouble hiding their relationship at work, Pratt warily hands a patient over to Jane, and Carter confronts a pair of Demerol junkies.

Ellie Shore is a mother of three who has a stroke and cannot speak. While she is treated, we are inside her head, hearing her thoughts. Wendall dumps Carter on their three-month anniversary, since he's clearly still attached to Kem. Neela and Ray treat three kids with a suspicious father. Morris has applied for Chief Resident. Luka and Carter want Pratt for the job, but he's not interested. Dubenko wants to write up a case with Abby, but is he interested in taking her on a date instead? Luka and Sam discuss kids.

Gallant and Neela have been exchanging letters regularly. He struggles with the war he sees every day, while she is searching for her life's purpose. He enlists her help in getting a critically burned Iraqi girl lined up for surgery in Chicago and heads for the U.S. with 72 hours leave.

Neela searches for Gallant when she discovers that he was at the hospital and didn't come see her. Eventually, he comes back and they spend the evening together. Alex's dad Steve shows up, but when Frank tells Luka that Steve is wanted in Colorado, Luka talks Steve out of leaving town with Alex. Carter feels he has invested money in a clinic that is more interested in glamour than medicine. Pratt hits on Olivia Evans, who works for an anti-violence organization called CeaseFire, and later winds up asking her for help with a patient.

Susan, Sam, and Neela treat a woman who has tried to stop her son from being deported by going on a hunger strike. Pratt struggles to find a way to convince a woman with breast cancer to seek treatment. Abby treats two elderly sisters involved in a suspicious mugging. To Weaver's delight, Carter donates $150 million to the hospital's new venture, in exchange for naming rights. Morris spends the entire shift finishing up a report for Lewis.

Jules Rubadoux, whose wife was a patient of Carter's nine years ago, comes into the ER with heart problems and wanting nothing to do with Carter, whom he feels is responsible for his wife's death. Anspaugh and Kayson advise Ruby to have surgery, but Abby tries to get him to consider the alternatives. In the end, Ruby allows Carter to tell him the truth about his chances. Pratt asks Olivia from Ceasefire out. When he shows up at her office to pick her up, he's ambushed into speaking at an anti-violence meeting. Susan meets with the tenure committee. Sam is in her own world all day, and buys a pregnancy test. Ray tries to stop the Chadwick sisters from leaving without having been seen by social services. Morris may end up becoming Chief Resident.

Carter receives early tenure, at Susan's expense. Luka finds Sam's pregnancy test, and discovers that she's not expecting. Pratt's friend convinces him to attend an old friend's 30th birthday party. Ray thinks a 14-year-old is a drug seeker, but he's really the victim of molestation. Abby meets Jake's extended family at his niece's baptism. Morris is named the new Chief Resident.

Carter flies to Paris to see Kem when he learns that her mother is in the hospital. In Chicago, Birdie and Rebecca are back in the ER. Neela, Abby and Ray all make rookie mistakes with various patients. In therapy, Sam announces that she doesn't think she and Luka should be together. Jake tries to find out where his relationship with Abby is heading.

Carter's last day at County General is marked by a surprise gathering and an 11-year-old patient he delivered as a medical student. Ray is at a party and must takes charge when a balcony collapses. With all of the attendings at Carter's party, the three interns manage the traumas until Luka arrives. Pratt briefly visits his father, without revealing their connection. Upset that Sam won't let him visit Steve, whom he does not know is in jail, Alex steals Sam's credit cards and hitches a ride out of town.