Casualties of a disaster flood the ER, which is short-handed because everyone is at Dr. Carter's going-away party because he's leaving the ER after 11 years. Dr. Pratt looks for the courage to confront his father, Charlie.
After Carter finds out Kem's mother is hospitalized in Paris he decides to go there to tell Kem how he feels about her. Meanwhile, Ray makes a fatal error.
Morris is named the new chief resident, which makes nobody really happy, except Morris. Meanwhile Luka and Sam are having communication problems, Carter gets a promotion Susan really wanted and Ray finds out a 14-year old who always comes in for free drugs has been raped.
Jules 'Ruby' Rubadoux is back in the ER. He's still angry with Carter about the death of his wife.
A woman on a hunger strike refuses treatment until the INS give her son another deportation hearing. Abby searches for proof when she suspects a patient is the victim of elder abuse.
Sam's ex-husband shows up and wants to take Alex on a trip. Gallant is back and Neela hopes to see him before he goes back to Iraq.
Neela (who's in Chicago) and Gallant (who's in Iraq) miss each other and write letters. Gallant also tries to save the life of a little girl.
A soccer mom finds herself completely aware of everything going on around her, but is unable to move or speak after suffering a stroke.
Dr. Weaver meets her birth mother, but their relationship changes when Kerrie reveals she is gay. Dr. Carter causes a commotion when he confronts a couple hoping to scam some painkillers.
While examining a young boy, Pratt finds a suspicious gash across his chest and calls Wendall (recurring guest star MäDCHEN AMICK) for a consult. Kovac and Pratt examine a man who was shot when he confronted his boss with a gun. Jake (recurring guest star EION BAILEY) tries to convince Abby to date him despite his being a student.
When a 16-year-old girl who had received a kidney transplant from her father arrives at the emergency room feeling dizzy, Carter traces the problem to a new drug that the girl was taking to control seizures related to her kidney dysfunction.
Two teens enter the ER with gunshot wounds. When one dies, Neela botches telling the next of kin, making the woman hysterical.
Gang members kidnap Abby hoping she can save one of their members with a gunshot wound. Ray starts treating a patient, but when she requests a new doctor, he gets offended.
Abby has a dialysis patient in critical condition, but she cannot find his physician, who does not want to be bothered during the holidays.
A wounded police officer's teenage son must make a life or death decision. Abby tries to convince a girl needing appendicitis surgery to stay at County, but her fathers wants her transferred to another hospital.
A rape victim, barely able to speak, does all she can to help police find her attacker.
The last 44 minutes of ex-con & alcoholic Charlie Metcalf's life are in the ER, as he slowly succumbs to end-stage liver failure.
Neela starts a new job in the emergency room after working at the convenience store near the hospital. On Neela's first day, Pratt expects the interns, Abby, Ray and Neela, to take on a large patient load during their shifts. Pratt turns processing the patients into a competition, in which Ray is clearly going to be the winner.
Carter, Pratt, Kovac and Abby are dealing with a woman and her three children who've jumped from a three floor apartment trying to escape from the father. Meanwhile Dr. Lewis becomes Chief of Emergency Medicine, Howard quits his internship and Dr. Corday is facing dismissal.
It's a busy Fourth of July and Carter is the only attending working.
Neela is still struggling with her decision not to continue becoming a doctor. We discover that Ray is in a band. Kovac and Sam are amoureux, but where does that leave them?
After being shot at, Pratt, Jing-Mei and Elgin are trying to get of their sinking car. Sam took Alex with her while fleeing for Steve, Kovac is considering to go after them. Abby wants to go to bed since tomorrow is her first day as a doctor, but is thwarted by Weaver, whose custody battle might take a dramatic turn. A young drug-dealer is brought in with "a foreign object" in her tunnel of life.
