(tv) ER's Lucy Knight

Lucy Knight

(NBC's) ER: Season 6
Episodes: Be Still My Heart and All in the Family
Friday, December 17, 2004
TNT (Ch 35)

I've started watching ER: Season 10 on NBC on Thursdays primarily because I noticed Parminder Nagra in an ad. I liked Nagra in Bend it Like Beckham and thought it would be a good show if she was in it. Although I've seen spots for this show numerous times before that, I never thought it would appeal to me, so I never bothered. But when I started seeing this show, I got hooked. And just like any other tv addict that has very little else to do in life, I had to watch the series from the beginning.

So I rented the first two seasons available on Netflix. Season 3 DVD set hasn't been released yet, so I was bummed and started reading the comprehensive episode guide at alt.tv.er: The Episodes. I discovered TNT has been showing re-runs (what luck or coincidence!) and it was somewhere in towards the end of Season 3. Unfortunately, the show has been airing during 10 AM - 12 PM and I am at work. Hmmmm, shifted my lunch hour to 11 AM - 12 PM at work and started coming home to watch, at least, every other episode (I live 5 min away from work). I thought I had to live with reading the missed episodes. I didn't want to buy a VCR to tape the show cause it's outdated technology (according to me). And DVD recorders costed a fortune and I was debating if I was crazy enough to buy one just to record this show.

Turns out I was. I bought one (Sony RDR-GX300) at Amazon.com for $360 (and also a Sony HT-DDW660 Home Theater System for $180 while I was at it. heheheh). Told myself I needed good birthday presents for myself now that I was over the 25 mark and will be turning 26. heheheh. So I started recording the show and have been watching every episode from 2nd half of Season 4.

That was way too much history when this article was supposed to be about one character. I liked most characters of ER from Season One cause I think that was when the show held its most magic. I believed in every story line and was impressed by the drama. But when Susan left in Season 3 and I found out that it was because of Sherry Stringfield's personal reasons, I realized that the characters would be doing uncharacteristic things just to fit an agenda. Of course, you know that about every show. But I like to believe that the actors and writers are committed to some degree in maintaining the integrity of the story line and the characters in it. By Season 5, I knew George Clooney didn't want to continue with ER, and when the writers tried to dramatize Doug Ross' leaving, I was totally prepared and was completely unaffected by his departure.

At this point I knew all the characters, except John Carter, were set to leave since I have been watching the current season of ER at its regular NBC. I even knew Kellie Martin was leaving the show in 2000 and that her character got stabbed by a patient. As with Doug Ross and the other characters that didn't fit the show or had an agenda, I expected the writers to make Lucy Knight do something uncharacteristic and of course something dramatic, her priorities would change and she would have to leave Chicago or something. Mostly I was expecting her to choose psych over the ER cause she did better during her psych rotation, and slowly expected her to be phased out into oblivion. I was not expecting what they showed.

I'd say Lucy Knight's exit (in these two episodes of this article) was the most dramatic so far among the seasons I have seen. I wasn't the only one who thought so. Thirty-one million viewers had tuned in to watch the second episode seemingly from the cliffhanger first episode (as against the usual 24 million. Source: imdb.com - E.R. Wields Knife to Pass Millionaire).

Lucy Knight was a medical student on the show and typically wasn't jaded yet to the daily ER trauma incidents unlike the residents and doctors. She gave every case her best, went to enormous lengths to help every patient assigned to her, and despite disagreements and reprimands from her seniors about her decision making, she always made her patient's care her top priority. Even when she was still learning, and made mistakes, she regretted it to no end, and could not forgive herself when she lost a patient. Her big eyes and her puppy-sad look conveyed just about every emotion she wanted to. She is (a terrific actress and) a dear character.

The writers did a tremendous job of pulling the entire cast together into a heightened dramatic state. Every doctor, surgeon, resident, student and nurse scrambles to help when they find out Lucy and John were stabbed by an unrestrained schizophrenic patient. Kerry is shocked when she discovers them and cannot believe that no one noticed them and instead everyone was having a party in the lounge with loud music. Mark and Luka are shocked and guilt-ridden when they realize they should have checked on Carter and Lucy and their patient sooner since they are the real doctors. The most skilled resident surgeon Peter Benton gets nervous in the OR and has to be calmed by the more experienced Anspaugh when he is operating on his beloved student John Carter. Elizabeth has no problem working with the loathesome, pig-headed Romano whom she despises every chance she gets. Romano himself showed, in his own way, that he cared for one of his own, and a part of him was emotionally affected (unusual for his character) when Lucy dies in his arms. The whole ensemble comes together in this amazing way, the episode was truly one of the greatest episodes of ER.

The most horrific part that affected me deeply and sort of haunted me for days afterwards was minutes before Lucy dies. Elizabeth and Romano operate on her after she is restored from V fib in the ER. They have to remove her spleen and repair her damaged liver, but she survives and wakes up. Just when it seems the worst might be over and she thanks Elizabeth for saving her life, she develops suddens chest pains, suspects that it could be PE (pulmonary embolism) and Elizabeth agrees. In Radiology, they confirm the blod clot in the right pulmonary artery and Elizabeth discusses her plan of action with Lucy and promises her that she will get her through this.



This is the most chilling part. Being a medical student, Lucy realizes exactly what is happening to her and what the chances are of recovering from a pulmonary embolism. She is battling despair and trying to find hope in Elizabeth's promise, absolutely afraid and worse, unable to speak. She lets a quiet tear drop across her face (I found a wonderful screenshot of this on Google Images). You can feel her pain. What you know already is a terrible tragedy and this hopelessnes just makes it all the more worse. I just cannot get over this scene. Lucy Knight almost knows she is dying. I know she will die. I had a lump in my throat and it wrenched my heart.

A little later, when Elizabeth and Romano are getting ready for another procedure, she loses consciousness and eventually goes into ventricular fibrillation and finally arrests. The look of sorrow on Elizabeth and frustrated anger on Romano just mark the severity of what just happened. The news slowly spreads in the ER and everyone reacts to it in their own way. The final touching scene when Romano stoically closes Lucy's chest and Kerry covers Lucy's face is amazing.

All in all this episode was gruesome, horrific, tragic and filled with drama in every moment. Lucy Knight's tragic death affected me. Kellie Martin had her reasons to leave the show. Either to finish her studies or because it was getting difficult for her to conitnue to work in a "pretend hospital" when she lost her real sister to a fatal disease in a real hospital (Source: imdb.com). Anyway, at the risk of getting mistaken for the classic 50's sitcom, I want to say - I love Lucy. She was a lovely character and I miss her dearly.