For what age: 13+
How many episodes in 4 season: 22 episodes
Season Premiere. The ER is under the bright lights when a television documentary is filmed depicting a typical day in the ER. British trauma specialist Elizabeth Corday joins the staff. Carter restarts his residency, this time in the ER. A man is paralyzed while breaking up a gang fight. Morgenstern suffers a heart attack. Mark's stress level continues to build.
High on morphine, Dr. Morgenstern gives Weaver increased authority while he recuperates from his heart attack. Doug asks Carol for a drawer at her place. Dr. Corday adjusts to the differences between British and American ERs. Mark is served with a wrongful passing suit from the Law family. Carter trains a med student who is better at research than treating patients. Mark and Carol interview applicants for a vacant desk clerk position. Benton and Carla name their son: Reese Benton.
Cynthia Hooper is the new desk clerk. Carla and Benton argue over whether or not Reese should be circumcised, among other things. Carter believes that Doyle is giving Anna special treatment when Anna is assigned all the interesting cases while he is stuck suturing. Kerry puts her newfound power to use rather quickly, and annoys basically everyone. Al has an accident at his job site and gets blood on a co-worker, spurring Jeanie to convince him to tell his co-worker about his HIV status. Jerry manages to blow up the ambulance bay entrance using a patient's rocket launcher. Carter visits his first laundromat with Anna, but he tells her he's been to many. Mark goes on a date with Heather, and they end up at her place, but things don't go quite as planned. Carol hears an errant comment that strains her trust in Doug.
The ER is flooded with injured children following a school bus accident. Mark turns surly when Jenn refuses to let Rachel visit until he cleans up his act. Jeanie faces a crisis when she's forced to use her hand to stop a patient from bleeding. Carter demands that Benton stop treating him like a student, and start treating him as an equal. Carter and Anna get new students, with Carter getting the short shrift once again. A junkie mother claims that Carol dropped her newborn child. Al Boulet loses his job. Reese is discharged from the hospital.
Mark undergoes a tense deposition with the Law family. Jeanie and Al are involved in a barroom brawl. Carol mulls over the idea of opening a free health care clinic. Carter successfully diagnoses a serious injury, only to have Edson steal the credit. Benton's familial duties earn him a waist-high stack of back paperwork. Dr. Romano returns from a European sabbatical, pioneering the latest in robotics technology. Anna treats a young man with testicular cancer.
Kerry investigates Synergix, an ER management group specializing in balancing budgets. She is later forced to fire Jeanie, who is then asked by Al to move to Atlanta with him. Mark is still suffering from the after effects of his attack, snapping at patients and staff alike. Doug is stunned by a collect phone call from California informing him of his father's passing. Benton clashes with Corday after she apparently "steals" a rare procedure out from under his nose. Carol meets with Carter's grandmother to pitch her idea for a free health clinic. Anna is perturbed when she discovers Carter's wealthy background.
Doug learns that his father has passed away. He drives to California to identify the body and gather his fathers belongings, with Mark along for moral support. While putting his affairs in order, Doug learns some surprising facts about his father, and also has a revelation about his own life and future. A side trip to San Diego, where Marks parents live, unveils Marks uncomfortable relationship with his father and leads to a heated exchange between Mark and Doug.
Benton takes advantage of a grieving father for a chance to write a paper on a boy with reversed internal organs. George Henry returns to complete his clerkship and suffers a near fatal allergy attack. Jeanie confronts Weaver and Anspaugh over what she perceives as wrongful termination. Cynthia's error forces the free clinic to open a week early; Carol enlists new ER nurse Yosh to help out. Mark strikes a deal with attorney Herb Spivak for legal representation.
Carter is arrested when he refuses to honor a warrant seeking evidence in a domestic abuse incident. Corday is overjoyed to be able to perform a rare femoral transplant. Doug returns from California. Benton and Corday discover that they have a lot in common. Cynthia takes Rachel to the dentist and other places. Jeanie threatens to sue to get her job back, to Weaver's dismay. Anspaugh rehires Jeanie and Al leaves for Atlanta without her. Ellis West invites Weaver to St. Barts. Attorney Herb Spivak shadows Mark all day wanting to "play" doctor, with some interesting outcomes. Carol lectures Cynthia regarding "inappropriate behavior" while on duty, and later she gets busted by Cynthia for kissing Doug.
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. Mark treats an elderly rape victim, learning about forgiveness. Weaver is apparently seeing Ellis West. Carol and Doug announce their relationship to the staff. Carter signs off on George Henry's internship after performing an intubation on a patient that was already dead.
Another elderly rape victim is brought into the ER. Carter picks up an aspiring med student at a seminar he taught and brings her to the ER for a brief lesson. "Wild Willy" Swift returns as a Synergix attending physician. Romano clashes with Corday after she goes over his head for Allison Beaumont. Dr. Anspaugh's son comes into the ER with cancer-like symptoms. Carol and Doug argue over marriage.
Carter takes time off to help Chase kick his heroin addiction. Doug confides in Mark that he plans to marry Carol in a surprise ceremony. Carol spoils his plans with a spontaneous kiss with EMT Greg Powell. Benton and Corday visit a bar together after another frustrating Romano day. Scott Anspaugh and Jeanie bond when tests reveal that his cancer has returned. Weaver becomes disenchanted with Ellis West and Synergix after discovering that they close most trauma centers that they acquire.
Carter faces a dilemma during a blood shortage when a serial rapist is in need of a transfusion. Carol and Weaver deliver the baby of a mentally challenged couple who fear a relative is going to take the child away. Benton turns down Corday's romantic offer. Weaver actively campaigns against Synergix. Doug comes to grips with his relationship with Carol and tells her that he'll wait for as long as she needs. Cynthia pours her heart out about her relationship with Mark to an uninterested Doug.
Mark, with surprise guest Cynthia, returns to San Diego to be with his ailing mother. While trying to diagnose his mother's condition, Mark decides that he and Cynthia have no future together and tries to come to terms with his seemingly distant father, and learns why he was never promoted to Admiral.
The ER must be evacuated when several workers from a chemical plant track benzene all over the floors. After Weaver is felled by the poison, Carter takes over, directing the evacuation. Dr. Corday does a ride-along with EMTs and rescues a man trapped under a building. Doug and Carol are trapped in the elevator with a sick child.
Several heroin ODs are brought into the ER, including Chase Carter. Mark tries to track down Cynthia. Anna treats a John Doe sent from another hospital because he had no insurance. Doug accuses two parents of child abuse, but finds out that their child is disturbed. Benton and Corday run into his sister Jackie. Scott Anspaugh finishes his chemotherapy.
Corday tries a new experimental procedure on an Asian gentleman without permission from either the patient or a relative. Scott Anspaugh, finally released from the hospital, suffers an attack during a wall-climbing expedition with Jeanie. They discover that he will need a bone marrow transplant. Benton accidentally backs into a pedestrian at a gas station. Dr. Morgenstern makes his return to the ER, with a new outlook on life and his patients. Carter visits Chase, who has suffered brain damage from a heroin overdose.
Dr. Ross wants to become an ER pediatrics attending. Scott Anspaugh decides to stop fighting his cancer when faced with the prospect of a new experimental chemotherapy treatment. Jerry and Mark take charge of the annual ER banquet, with results not quite as planned. Benton must take over an operation by force when Morgenstern is unable to continue. Carol worries when Millicent Carter stops payment on a donation check to the clinic. Anna donates bone marrow.
The bombing of an abortion clinic brings in many victims, pregnant women and protestors alike. Benton is temporarily suspended after his incident with Morgenstern comes to light, until Morgenstern decides to resign. Benton later shares a kiss with Corday. Carter cares for an elderly patient who appears to be the victim of neglect. Scott Anspaugh is buried. Anna walks out on a trauma involving a partial abortion, which doesn't please Weaver.
It's another busy day in the ER, as case after case comes through the doors. Hathaway comforts a burn victim in his dying hours. Carter and Anna struggle to understand a man afflicted with cerebral palsy. Dr. Ross deals with an infant's heroin addiction and its drug-addicted mother. Weaver cares for an elderly couple who may have AIDS. Peter and Elizabeth decide to keep their relationship a secret. Anna's old boyfriend comes to town. Romano asks Corday for a date.
A televangelist broadcasts from inside the ER. Doug, with Carol's help, attempts a rapid detox of Josh McNeal, the methadone addicted infant, instead of returning him to his mother. Dr. Max Rosher, Del Amico's old boyfriend, is at County conducting a feasibility study for a pediatric ward in the ER. Jeanie begins exhibiting pneumonia-like symptoms. Romano realizes Benton and Corday are together.
Season Finale. Greene and Weaver threaten Doug over his illegal treatment of Josh McLean. Dr. Max Rosher ingratiates himself with Anspaugh. Corday receives a letter from Romano informing her that he won't be sponsoring her the following year. A despondent patient shocks Carol with an unusually unhappy act. Kerry becomes upset when Anspaugh tells her that even though she has been Acting Chief of Emergency Medicine for a year, the hospital still plans a nationwide search for a permanent one. Carter accuses Max of taking some Percocet from a medicine cabinet. Benton arranges a hearing test after a day care worker tells him Reese is not responding as the other children do.
