The star of "ER" has always been the ER itself, and if you somehow forgot that point during its 15-year run, John Wells and his team offered a poignant reminder Thursday night in the final shot of the final episode called, fittingly, "And in the End."
After an hour and a half of reunions and reminiscing, of subtle and not-so-subtle references to past episodes, of story lines that highlighted the inevitable but still shocking nature of death, "ER" drew its final breath with its doctors and nurses greeting a phalanx of ambulances coming from a power plant explosion.
For all its grim backdrop -- early morning Chicago after a night of storms, the horrifying wounds -- it was a joyful scene, coming to a close with a newly rejuvenated John Carter (Noah Wyle) beckoning Rachel Greene (Hallee Hirsh), daughter of Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) and now a medical student, to join in what another doctor called "the fun part."
It's over, but it isn't. In the ER, the dying never stops, but then neither does the living.
Still, it's difficult not to see the end of an era. Fifteen years ago, "ER" brought us a new sort of television show, full of medical jargon uttered at a breakneck pace as gurneys and saline drips careened down corridors, narrowly missing the camera and the viewer. Blood sprayed onto lab coats and medical personnel -- summoned from supply room trysts -- put on their serious faces and saved, or neglected to save, the lives of every sort of person imaginable.
For 15 years, it served as a template not only for countless medical shows but for the hourlong nonprocedural drama that for a while was a staple of television and now seems in danger of extinction. How do you end such a thing?
"ER" has never been stingy with sentiment, and nostalgia has been part of its palette for years. These last few months, Wells and his writers used Carter as the through line from past to present, and Thursday night, the opening of the Joshua Carter Center not only allowed Wylie to deliver a tear-jerking speech about the son he lost but it also gave old-timers including Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes), Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) and Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle) an excuse to go out for a drink or two, along with Rachel, as a next-generation stand-in for her dead father.
