The BEST episodes of ER
Every episode of ER ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of ER!
ER follows the medical personnel and patients in the emergency room of Chicago's fictional County General Hospital. The doctors and nurses of County's ER confront the daily challenges of a busy urban hospital, including overcrowded waiting rooms, staffing shortages, and the impact of life-and-death decisions. While they teach the next generation of doctors, each must tackle the demands of their personal lives, at times unsuccessfully.
#1 - On the Beach
Season 8 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/9/2002
Mark decides to use his remaining time to help "fix" Rachel and takes her to Hawaii to show her where he grew up. He teaches her how to surf, and how to drive a stick shift. Mark catches her chasing one of his Vicodin with a shot of vodka and confronts her about wasting her life. One day after surfing, he has a seizure, and Elizabeth arrives with Ella in tow. She wants to take him home, but he refuses. Early in the morning, he dies. After the funeral, Rachel tells Elizabeth she'd like to visit Ella, and Elizabeth agrees.
#2 - Orion in the Sky
Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/4/2002
Mark serves his final day in the ER overseeing the first day of Gregory Pratt, a cocky yet eager new intern. Through observing his patients, he decides to forego chemotherapy, and spend his remaining days in peace. He also meets with his ex-wife, tells Weaver to live a little and leaves. Meanwhile, Abby plans to move back into her apartment when her landlord lets her know that Brian's moved out.
#3 - And in the End…
Season 15 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/2/2009
Gates works on a young teen brought in with alcohol poisoning after playing a deadly drinking game with friends. Dr. Carter opens a new medical facility for the underprivileged in Chicago and some old friends from County General all come to show their support. It’s Sam’s birthday and Alex and Gates surprise her with a special gift. Meanwhile, Carter works with an intern to save a mother in labor with twins.
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#4 - All in the Family
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/17/2000
Weaver discovers Carter and Lucy. As police begin to arrive, Benton rushes between the two, being the only surgical resident on duty. Greene and Corday are paged to return to the hospital. Carter almost loses his kidney, but with quick thinking by Anspaugh, Benton is able to save it and Carter will be okay. On the other hand, Lucy has her chest cracked because her heart stops but she is stabilized. In the OR waiting room, while waiting for emergency surgery to fix a life-threatening blood clot, Lucy flatlines. Romano and Corday desperately try to save her life but she dies and the staff receives the news. Meanwhile, Paul Sobriki is found running naked down Michigan Avenue and is brought in. His wife arrives at the ER; incapable of believing her husband would be capable of such a violent act. And while Benton is busy with Carter, Cleo is forced to crack a man's chest open to save his life, resulting in Benton's ire.
#5 - Lockdown
Season 8 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/16/2002
The day begins slowly as Weaver calls to say she'll be late, and Chen thinks she's developing a fever. Then multiple MVAs come in, quickly followed by two children suffering what appears to be smallpox. The staff panics, but not as bad as the patients, when a lockdown is ordered for the ER. The feverish Chen is quarantined with homeless Stan. Lewis takes charge as Weaver arrives and the police won't let her in. The girl infected by smallpox dies and Pratt embarasses Carter in front of her parents. Carter notices Pratt is sick as well, and sends him to Chen's room. Jerry phones the news, and the patients riot, nearly using a gurney to break open the emergency bay doors. Control of the ER is relieved from Weaver by an infection specialist. The staff prepares to stay, still not having a confirmation on whether it is smallpox or not, and the lockdown continuing as a result. Carter and Abby kiss after being quarantined together.
#6 - Do You See What I See?
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/18/1997
Benton is hailed as a miracle worker after he seemingly heals a blind man. Corday operates on Allison Beaumont again. Mark discovers Cynthia's hidden past. Carter discovers his cousin Chase shooting heroin. Greene treats an elderly rape victim, learning about forgiveness. Kerry is apparently seeing Ellis West now. Carol and Doug announce their relationship to the staff.
#7 - The War Comes Home
Season 14 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/2007
Moretti's first day is challenging as the ER is inundated with casualties from the peace rally - including Neela. Dubenko faces a crisis in surgery. Abby, Pratt and Morris conspire about how to deal with a shared problem. A new intern arrives unexpectedly, and Gates is reassigned.
#8 - Love's Labor Lost
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/9/1995
Greene misdiagnoses a pregnant patient, leading to a long and arduous surgery.
#9 - Such Sweet Sorrow
Season 6 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/11/2000
Carol resuscitates a terminal cancer DNR to say goodbye to her family, and realizes that life is too short. She runs out of the hospital after saying a quick goodbye to Luka and Mark and hops on a plane to Seattle to see Doug. Carter's mental status is dissipating rapidly to the point where he almost kills a woman. Chen notices and tells Mark her concern that Carter is bipolar. Weaver goes on the warpath after noticing ER staff taking shortcuts in their work, including Abby, who discharges a woman prematurely without running extra tests. Corday offers Malucci a sobering assessment of his performance. Mark prepares to bury his father and enjoys his daughter's company.
#10 - The Peace of Wild Things
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/1999
Benton struggles with the idea of taking a DNA test to determine whether or not Reese is actually his son. As the signs continue to pile up, Kerry and Mark use a fake patient to convince Dr. Lawrence of his Alzheimer's. Carter has trouble persuading a woman from a nursing home fire to sign a DNR for her husband and later is asked to forge charts for a family with no insurance. Carol continues to meddle in Meg's life, having her arrested so that she can be detoxed. Cleo is blamed for an explosion in the suture room, but it may actually be Dr. Dave's fault.
#11 - The Letter
Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/2/2002
A letter from Dr. Greene arrives via fax, and Carter reads it to the staff. Everybody is stunned when he reaches the last page, a note from Dr. Corday, stating that Mark died that morning. Frank posts the letter and various staff members who weren't in attendance take time to read it. Sandy gets Weaver to admit that she's lost a friend. Luka, Abby, Haleh, Susan and Gallant are joined by Weaver and Sandy at a bar. Carter comes looking for Abby and they end up talking all night at Doc Magoo's. Abby goes to an AA meeting later that day, and tells Carter that she went for him. Carter takes his place as the rock of the ER. Meanwhile, Susan learns that Chloe is in rehab and Suzie is staying with Joe, Pratt matches County, and Romano operates on a girl with a genetic deficiency.
#12 - 9½ Hours
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1994
Greene calls in sick so he and Jennifer can spend the day together, leaving Ross in charge of the ER. Carter works on a high school wrestler that starved himself to make weight. Hathaway counsels a young rape victim. Benton is dealing with his senile mother, and butts heads with Ross. Lewis is worried about Cvetic's growing temper problem.
#13 - Chaos Theory
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/26/2002
Abby, Carter, Chen, Pratt and homeless Stan will be confined to the ER for two weeks, while all of the other patients are evacuated and sent to different hospitals. While on the roof arguing with Luka about the use of a helicopter, Romano backs up into the tail rotor, and has his arm severed above the elbow. Anspaugh arrives to perform surgery, and reattaches the arm. Susan is stuck on the roof with a dying patient. After 2 weeks, the ER reopens. While all of this has been going on, Elizabeth has been in London, working at her father's hospital, where her supervisor doesn't like the American mannerisms and vocabulary she's picked up. She ultimately decides to return to Chicago.
#14 - It's All in Your Head
Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/28/2002
Mark learns that his tumor is back and inoperable, giving him 4-5 months to live. Corday is living in a hotel, and confesses to Benton that she thinks she's left Mark. Susan cares for Mark after his first radiation treatment. Abby learns that the case against Brian has been dropped because somebody beat him up. Seeing Brian enter her building, she seeks comfort at Luka's, where he's engaged in a game of Pictionary with his friends. Jerry and Frank clash, leading to a fistfight. Chen has a stalker.
#15 - Make of Two Hearts
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/9/1995
Kayson pursues Lewis romantically. Ross and Hathaway cope with a young Russian girl with AIDS whose adoptive mother abandons her. A humane policeman hauls in a dog he hit with his car.
#16 - The Long Way Around
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/13/1997
Carol is held hostage in a bungled convenience store robbery. Her medical skills are put to their toughest test as she works feverishly to save the gravely wounded store owner.
#17 - The Greatest of Gifts
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/14/2000
While giving birth, Chen undergoes second thoughts about giving her baby up for adoption, a decision complicated by the adoptive parents watching her every move. With an enormous lack of sleep, Carter is called back to the hospital to act as Chen's coach, and is later tempted to take Vicodin to stay awake. Finch and Benton encounter trouble trying to keep Kynesha hidden from the gang. Legaspi plants a kiss on Weaver. Greene and Corday spend the day in New York seeking help for his brain tumor.
#18 - They Treat Horses, Don't They?
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/8/1998
Mark goes to a trauma scene with the EMTs, where he treats a gunshot victim who has a bomb strapped to himself. Later, Mark’s daughter persuades him to treat a horse with colic, and Jerry gets the bad end of the enema. Carter intubates an elderly woman who is DNR. When her HMO declines to admit her, Carter either has to find a relative quickly or let her die. Kerry finds herself more and more frustrated when Anspaugh suggests that they're not considering her for ER Chief, and she discovers she’s the last to hear that Doug was made a pediatric attending. Corday serves her last day as a surgical fellow. Benton meets with Carla to discuss getting Reese hearing aids. Jeanie returns from vacation. Carter goes out with Roxanne, the insurance saleswoman he treated.
#19 - Hell and High Water
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/9/1995
In the middle of a torrential rainstorm, Dr. Ross stumbles across a child trapped in a drainage pipe rapidly filling with water. Doug does everything possible to save the boy, Ben Larkin. Harper develops a bond with a young girl with separated parents.
#20 - The Crossing
Season 7 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/22/2001
Carter meets a new pedes intern, Rena Trujillo. He and Luka are then dispatched to the site of a major train wreck. Carter must perform a tricky double amputation on an injured firefighter after Corday goes into early contractions at the scene. After Elizabeth returns to the hospital, Abby and Chen treat Corday, who is told to stay on bed rest. Benton lets prospective med student William White follow him around the ER. Weaver calls Legaspi for a psych consult on a suicidal girl who caused the train crash by driving her car onto the tracks. Luka wrestles with his faith, revealing that he could have saved his wife by sacrificing his daughter. Bishop Stewart grants him absolution before his death.
#21 - Blizzard
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/8/1994
It's a December blizzard, and the day starts out quiet. Hathaway announces her engagement with Tag. Suddenly, County General goes into crisis mode when a 32-car pileup on an expressway inundates them with patients. Among the patients are a young male that Benton knows that lost his leg, a patient of Ross' that dies suddenly while waiting for treatment, and a man who is snowed in at home and calls Greene when his wife refuses to go to the hospital to have her baby. Lewis tries to save a man that suddenly develops an aneurysm, and the patient is saved by the most unlikely person.
#22 - Partly Cloudy, Chance of Rain
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/2001
An enormous rainstorm pelts Chicago. Cleo's last day at County is interrupted by the arrival of Benton's DNA results: he's not Reese's biological father. Benton meets with his lawyer regarding the trial; she advises him to let Roger see Reese; he refuses. Money from the nurses' secret stash and Frank's Palm Pilot go missing, only to turn up in Nicole's purse. She later tells Luka that she's pregnant. Susan accuses Mark of being grumpy with his patients; he spends the day treating a kid who fell in the river with his younger brother and whose parents blame him. Weaver travels to an accident site, where Pickman's ambulance was rammed by an SUV. She treats a pregnant stab wound, going as far as to give her a C-section in the broken ambulance, with Gallant's help. Carter's grandmother comes in after being involved in a hit-and-run and breaking her hip. She becomes delusional in an MRI machine, calling out for her husband.
#23 - 24 Hours
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1994
John Carter, a third-year medical student, begins the first day of his rotation in the ER at County General Hospital. Dr. Mark Greene, an ER resident physician, considers an offer to go into private practice. Dr. Susan Lewis, another ER resident, deals with myriad patients, including one diagnosed with advanced cancer. Dr. Doug Ross, the ER pediatrician, confronts a woman about potential child abuse. The head nurse, Carol Hathaway, returns several hours after her shift as a patient, following an apparent suicide attempt.
#24 - The Birthday Party
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/16/1995
Greene and Benton each have family birthday parties to attend, but ER demands may keep them away. Meanwhile, Carter mistakenly thinks it's Benton's birthday and hires belly dancers as a celebratory surprise. Hathaway considers adoption.
#25 - The Gift
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/15/1994
A transfer team is due by helicopter to receive donor organs - but Benton has not yet obtained next-of-kin approval for the organ harvest. And although it's Christmas Eve, Greene has not found time to shop for gifts. Ross crashes a party.