ER: The High Holiday (Episode #317)

It's definitely an eventful Christmas at County this year, as it should be. It is the final ER Christmas ever! Kinda sad when you think about it. 

While Morris is busy dealing with a butt load of his father's things that have been dropped off in front of the ER, Neela and Brenner meet an ambulance carrying Gloria.  She's pregnant and got trampled at an immigration rally.  It seems she has already gone into labor, and although Neela tried to pawn the case off on OB, Brenner forces her to take it.  Turns out, she was much needed.

Everyone in the ER is looking forward to the Christmas party, including Banfield who assigns Morris to intern reviews instead of patients.  Lucky for him, too, Abby's old patient Roxanne shows up for a refill on her prescriptions.  Since he can't see patients, Morris dumps her off on Ryan.  Ryan's happy though, she brought the staff brownies.  Ryan, Daria, and Frank all chow down on about two brownies each.  Trust me, this information becomes useful later on in the episode.

Sam has been keeping vigil at Alex's side since his car accident last week.  Every time they try and take him off the ventilator, he seizes and gets agitated.  Gates finds her praying in the chapel.  She seems disgusted every time he goes to touch her, which probably isn't a good thing since they are living together.  However, Sam refuses to give up on Alex.  Best of all, Jerry is back! Apparently, Alaska wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and he has moved back to Chicago.  He offers to help Morris sell his father's stuff for 50% of the proceeds, Morris lets him.  

Meanwhile, Gloria's husband Roberto shows up just as Brenner is noticing a rather large mass on the baby's face.  Things aren't looking good, especially when Immigration shows up for the couple.  Neela manages to put them off, however not for long.  With the baby mama drama in the trauma room, Morris is too busy seeing his childhood parading around the ER to notice.  Roxanne, who has just gotten off the phone with her friend Ida, is searching for Ryan extremely concerned about something.  

Banfield has her hands full with a young wife and mother who was brought in after fainting at the mall.  Sam, in an effort to forget her problems, offers to babysit her baby Lola while they wait for Lola's other mom to show up.  Banfield orders the tests and notices Ryan eating a patients Jell-o.  Realizing something is up, Banfield asks him what the hell he thinks he is doing.  That's when Roxanne finally finds Ryan to tell him she gave him the wrong batch of brownies.  The batch he ate was for her friend with cancer, who likes "special" a.k.a pot, brownies.  Banfield orders Frank, Daria and Ryan to take the rest of the day to sleep it off.  

After Gloria's husband Roberto slips out of the ER, Neela goes to find him outside to tell him Gloria needs a C-section.  Roberto freaks out, but Neela promises to call him as soon as she is out of surgery.  Sadly, this happy family is about to be blown to bits when Immigration tells Neela they are being deported.  Neela talks to Brenner who tells her to do something about it.  She refuses due to the pending malpractice suit.  

Elsewhere, Banfield has to tell a young, newlywed couple that their happy lives are about to be cut short.  It seems the woman's cancer is back, giving her only months to live without surgery.  Dubenko, however, is refusing to perform the life saving surgery on the grounds that she will most likely die.  Banfield convinces him to take the surgery the next morning, he finally gives in.  

Gates is on a role tonight.  First, he gets Sam pissed off, then he convinces her to fight Dubenko into trying the extubation again.  Then, he finds the homeless vet, Max who is thankful for Gates actually caring about him.  Gates offers to take care of his dog while he stays in the hospital for treatment.  Meanwhile, Sam sticks by her son, and gets the extubation taken care of.  Herself.  Dubenko actually allowed her to pull the tube out herself! Crazy.  Anyway, Alex makes it through, and his first words to Sam are, "did I miss Christmas?"  Crying, Sam says no and runs off to get him ice cream.  But not before breaking up with a devastated Gates.  She and Alex will be moving out immediately.

Neela is the bearer of bad news.  She has to tell Gloria that she will be deported, however her baby must stay in the hospital.  Neela is distraught about not being able to do anything.  Brenner convinces her otherwise.  Neela got Gloria out of County with her husband, and sent them to a different hospital where immigration couldn't find them.  The baby will be allowed to go with her in a few weeks.  Feeling good about herself, Neela shows up at the Christmas party only to learn the malpractice suit has been thrown out.  Merry Christmas Neela!

Merry Christmas to Banfield as well, who has decided to try again at starting a family with her husband.  And she must be in the holiday spirit, she has agreed to give Jerry his job back! Just as long as he takes Frank's place as Santa for the party.  Frank got too high off the brownies! 

Happy Holidays! See ya next year!