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May 3, 2007: I Don't
Oh. My. God. I actually feel like I am going to throw up right now. Are you kidding me with this? I guess as a true ER fan, I had to know that something unexpected was going to happen at the end of this episode, but silly me, I thought that something would be true to the overriding theme of that night. So maybe a surprise hookup — Sam and Tony? Or Sam and Lucien? (Though at this point, would Sam hooking up with anyone really qualify as a surprise?) But instead, what do we get? We get our beloved Ray being taken out by a great big truck only seconds after receiving a conciliatory voicemail from Neela. Happy wedding day, Luka and Abby! Yep, I definitely think I’m going to throw up. At the very least, I need a drink. My nerves are shot.
I have to admit that I was on the fence with this entire “secret wedding” deal. It seemed far-fetched to me. (Not to mention the relentless promos from NBC that made me feel like I had seen the episode before it even aired.) In the real world you are lucky if the groom picks up his own tuxedo, never mind single-handedly planning an elaborate secret affair complete with a tailor “on standby.” (Though before I get in big trouble, let me add that my own hubby was a full participant in our wedding planning!) But to be truthful, I have a very easy time suspending my disbelief when it comes to sappy, sentimental, romantic plotlines. That would probably make me a terrible television critic, but it comes in handy when you are a blindly devoted fan. When you throw in an adorable baby in a miniature white suit (arriving right on cue) and the “Croatian Sensation,” as Luka was not so lovingly dubbed by his slightly reluctant bride-to-be, I am a goner. Though for me there was a pall cast over the entire evening because I know that Luka and Abby will have exactly three minutes to enjoy their wedded bliss before we have to deal with Goran Visnjic's departure (one that will undoubtedly be accompanied by unceasing NBC hoopla around how “a beloved doctor says goodbye to the ER forever”).
I am a total sucker for these types of episodes that offer a glimpse of our favorite characters outside of the ER. I love watching them interact with each other on a personal level. For me, this wedding was very reminiscent of Carol’s ill-fated wedding, which ended Season 1 (minus, of course, the close friend being run over in a drunken stupor).
There were so many great little moments tonight, it was hard to keep up:
— Abby telling Luka that the wedding site looked like something out of a Meatloaf video (she was kind of right).
— The face Luka made right after Abby said to him, "You saved the best for last." I don't think it is possible for that guy to be any dreamier.
— Abby and Luka asking Neela and Pratt to stand up for them; both scenes were touching and well-acted.
— All the random, alcohol-induced hookups (and less random ones like Archie and Hope, whom I actually found oddly endearing as a couple).
— Timmy telling each of the nurses, including Malik, that they were the hottest (and Chuny responding, “I know”).
— Dubenko following Luka around the room warning him not to hurt Abby and then repeating his “threat” on the wedding video; also the little kiss he planted on Neela and her stunned reaction, because at this point, even she has to be wondering why everyone seems to be falling in love with her.
Finally, I loved the verbal smackdown between Tony and Ray. It was almost as if Ray was speaking for the audience when he talked about Tony walking into the ER and acting like he owned the place. He summed up quite tidily what a lot of us have felt about Tony. We were supposed to care about him before we even got a chance to know him.
All in all, despite that ending, I still thought this was a fantastic episode. I even liked the parts that appeared to be videotaped (a filming technique that I normally don't enjoy), and I especially loved that last shot of the entire gang happily celebrating together. Too bad all that happiness will be short-lived.
To wrap things up, I have to talk about the poem that Abby used in her vows. It is called “i carry your heart with me” by ee cummings and it is one of my very favorite poems. (If it sounded vaguely familiar to anyone, it was the poem that Cameron Diaz reads at her sister’s wedding in the movie In Her Shoes.)Here is the full text (complete with the poet's signature visual style):
"i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart); i am never without it(anywhere i go, you go my dear and whatever is done by only me is your doing my darling. i fear no fate (for you are my fate my sweet) i want not world (for beautiful, you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you.
here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of a sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)"
Want to see more behind-the-scenes action from Luka and Abby's wedding? Find ER clips in our Online Video Guide.
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May 4, 2007 12:22 AM
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Tell me they didn't go there with Ray. I feel the same I could not believe what just happened. How in the world is Neela going to handle this when she finds out?
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May 4, 2007 1:06 AM
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Terrible.
Wedding was fun and romantic and beautiful.
But not Ray. Not this way. Can't he just leave the show without being smashed by a truck?
Though we actually never saw the smashing, so maybe maybe maybe??
Gonna miss Luka so much. I think I'm in the camp that this should be the last year. It already feels like the end with the ER closed, people hooking up, etc. I've watched every episode but one. I'll miss it very much. But this does seem, to me, the best way to go out.
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May 4, 2007 1:59 AM
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Ray is GONE????No. Not Ray. Kill the bald surgeon or someone else...(Tony is making the list) but ray? Who saved all those people on the collapsed balcony? This sucks. really sucks. Neela is not a bad woman but to kill her husband and now the guy she should be with. Thats just bad. really bad.
The wedding was cute. I liked the Rabbi, I also liked the ee cummings poem.
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May 4, 2007 2:07 AM
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At least is wasn't a heliocopter falling from the sky ... merely something ordinary like a truck.
The wedding was sweet. I loved the Rabbi. And I loved Neela's gibberish that sounded like a blessing. And the e.e. cummings poem.
And actually I would like to see Neela with Lucien. They would make the cutest couple. But how is Neela going to deal with the death of Ray when she is still not to terms with Gallant's death? That sucks.
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May 4, 2007 2:50 AM
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I went to pick up some meat, but the butcher wasn't there, so I ended up getting fish instead.
That one got to me. I had to put my hand on my chin and talk in the grumbly voice that us menfolk use when we're trying to not let other people know we've gotten all weepy.
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May 4, 2007 2:59 AM
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This episode was so EXCELLENT! I cried through the entire first 30 minutes. Luka and Abby are so sweet together! Love the wedding! Love all the ER staffs' interactions with each other! The kicker for me is when Neela helped Abby put the Croatian traditional wedding accessories on. Precious.
RAY! OMG! Ray!!!! How could this happen. I thought they were gonna stop with the too-close-for-comfort truck encounter, but no, they took it a step too far for me. Ray needs to know how Neela feels! It's soooo close to happening. . . I hope they "find" him next week!
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May 4, 2007 3:24 AM
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First, Neela spoke Punjabi with a very British accent. Second, it was hilarious when the other surgical intern kissed her in the ladies' room.
As for killing characters off - I'm sick of it.
Cancel the show. NOW!!!!!
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May 4, 2007 4:27 AM
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While it was cute to learn what Nela said during the ceremony, I got to thinking that she couldn't have made up something romantic in her native tongue, such as "You'll always be the love of my life and I look forward to spending the rest of our days with each other, raising a family."
Overall, it was a good episode that could have been better had it not been the complaining/dragging her heels act of Abby at the beginning. All I could think was "not the old Abby again. Sigh."
She said it best during her dance with Luka: she couldn't have planned a better wedding. Heck, if I didn't know any better, Abby was taking a page out of "debbie downer."
Anyway, loved the kisses Nela received from Dubenko and the female doctor.
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May 4, 2007 8:49 AM
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In the real world you are lucky if the groom picks up his own tuxedo, never mind single-handedly planning an elaborate secret affair complete with a tailor “on standby.”
I believe it was Hope who actually planned the whole wedding. And it was her cousin who was the 'tailor on standby'.
I really enjoyed the whole episode, (except for the whole Ray getting smashed to smitterings thing). I thought it was well written, well acted, and gave all of us who have been waiting for this day something to smile about. And as for Abby dragging her feet at the beginning, it seemed totally realistic, totally in character, and quite understandable for her to react that way.
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May 4, 2007 9:24 AM
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As someone who feels this has been the BEST season of "ER" since it began, I was very happy with this episode. I agree that Abby could have been just a touch less crabby, but she did warm to the idea eventually, and was very sweet to Neela and Hope (and Luka, of course). Maura Tierney can do no wrong by me.
I'm also a big fan of "after hours" scenes with the docs interacting with each other. Everything seemed very natural here--I almost wish I was an invited guest just hanging out with these people. Morris was perfect just being Morris, and he and Hope make an amusing couple.
Sam didn't have much to say, but she was SMOKIN'!
I'm really hoping Ray wasn't splattered all over the street. The violent death toll of ER staff through the years has been getting way too high (although I was happy to see Romano squashed by the helicopter).
And, believe it or not, I do feel a bit sorry for Gates. Yes, he is a screw-up in many ways, but I think he's just one of those people who means well but just can't get things right when dealing with people, either romantically or otherwise.
All in all, it was a wonderful episode, but Ray's final(?) scene did put a damper on the otherwise happy occasion.
By the way, does anyone know what Stanley Tucci's new character will be like? I'm really hoping he won't be some kind of by-the-book hardass who makes everyone in the ER miserable, a la Romano!
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May 4, 2007 9:44 AM
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...Trish, I was hoping you would post the entire poem, and you did not dissapoint; thank you! loved loved the episode, everything about it, even the drunken Ray/Tony fight; and I thought Hope and Archie were adorable as a couple. One of my favorite scenes was one of the "video"ones, towards the end, of Luka, Archie and Pratt together; oh, and I love the looks Archie and Pratt give each other when they know trouble is on the way...I don't want ER to end now; I'd like one more season; supposedly ER is renovated through the 2008 season right? what do you all think will happen with Ray???...
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May 4, 2007 9:53 AM
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Pinkie! How dare you! Don't even let the words utter from your lips! ER can't leave yet. I'm just as interested now as I was back in '94. I still never miss an episode. Honestly, when ER and L&O go off the air for good, I'm gonna need meds.... and alcohol! 
Trish - That is one of my three favorite poems (the others being The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost & Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden). When Abby started to say it, I felt my eyes well up, but I was able to hold it together b/c she butchered it in paraphrasing. Then coming here this morning and seeing the whole thing in print... I'm sobbing! Nothing like kicking the weekend off in tears...lol
Poor Ray, he's grown so much in his years from a "part-time dr./ full time musician" with an attitude and no responsibility factor to a caring, warm leading man and skilled ER doc. And then he gets hit by a truck!
<Sigh>
The best laid plans....
And I don't buy the new thing they're trying with Gates... the whole "I'm a rebel b/c I'm angry about my ex-live-in-booty-call killing herself and leaving me and the kid alone... how could she do this to us??!!" I have two words...
PUH - LEEZ. This show won't be on long enough for me to love Gates. He needs YEARS of rehabilitation. Too Bad, So Sad, Don't Care.
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May 4, 2007 9:54 AM
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By the way, what IS the difference between an ER nurse and a Porsche?
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May 4, 2007 10:29 AM
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NO, NO, NO, NO, NO...Is Ray leaving the show too?!?! I thought the ending was a big suprise and the scenes for next week just said an ER doctor goes missing. So please, someone tell me he's not leaving! I was just beginning to like him and it seems everyone I like is leaving right about now. I can't stand it!!!!!!!
The whole wedding was far fetched but I too am a hopeless romantic and just about cried at Abby's half poem by EE Cummings and Luka's vows to Abby. I also liked all the little funny things they put in like Abby's meatloaf video comment, the Rabbi himself was funny, Neela's "blessing" and then telling Hope it said something about going to the market to buy meat and Neela's comment of "make that a double" (Burbon) after looking at the woman intern that kissed her in the bathroom.
Call me crazy but I also liked the scene with Ray and Gates fighting. It's quite true (although thankfully no such thing happened at my wedding) that when you have a bunch of drunk people at a wedding or any such event there will be fighthing. And yes, Trish...I think Ray was speaking for all of us when he said You came in the ER acting like you owned the place. I know Gates is suppose to be a cocky kind of guy but we were expected to like him before we even got to know him and I don't like that at all.
I was even liking Morris last night whom I really couldn't stand up until the past 2 episodes. All in all I guess whether it was far fetched or not I thought it was a good episode (as they usually are...I guess that's why I've watched it all along)! I can't wait to tune in next week (and up until the end of the season) to see what happens with Ray!
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May 4, 2007 10:32 AM
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