All links in this section bring up images of the scene concerned in the panel to the left. Almost all of these images have supplied by the Emergency Room's extensive archives of screen captures from the series. [2.01 "Welcome Back Carter!"] Not a good start for Carter, who arrives back at County complete with Hawaiian shirt and luggage - and two hours late to boot! Benton is extremely angry at him, and refuses to let him help out in surgery on a pregnant woman caught in a drive-by shooting. He is even more angry when he discovers how little preparation Carter has done for his new year. Carter tries to impress new med student Harper Tracy, but the day ends extremely badly when, seeing a rib-spreader used for the first time, he faints! [2.02 "Summer Run"] Another bad start to the day for Carter, as he oversleeps and Benton punishes him by making him hold the dead-weight of a man's arm throughout a surgery. However, having alerted Benton to a hernia case, he regains some face. Morganstern is impressed by his work. Carter and Harper Tracy are getting on extremely well - she spends the day sticking him with IVs and taking blood samples from him. [2.03 "Do One, Teach One, Kill One"] Carter performs a spinal tap on Ed Menke, but damages his liver. Menke now needs immediate surgery to save his life. Carter is appalled, although everyone else seems remarkably philkosphical about the whole thing. Hicks says it is "just one of those things", and Benton tells him that it is through mistakes that you learn. Ed Menke later dies, although not as a result of Carter's actions. Taking his liver in a jar, Harper and Carter go out for a drink. [2.04 "What Life?"] Benton dislocates his finger and is unable to perform surgery - so he has to watch Carter assist on a gastroplasty with Hicks. He only gets to change the music! [2.05 "And Baby Makes Two"] Carter suffers under Benton's vengeful ire! He is to be performing a number of extremely tedious and insignificant treatments, including draining boils, and suturing. In the middle of the suturing, he notices a melanoma, and gets to remove it. [2.06 "Days Like This"] Doug Ross and Harper Tracy have spent the night together - they both try to explain it to Carter, but he is extremely hurt, saying "I'm really happy you've both made your peace with this, but I'm going to need a little more time, if that's OK with everybody". Carter later illustrates his competance by knowing more about Vucelich's study than Benton (which causes a little friction). [2.07 "Hell and High Water"] [2.08 "The Secret Sharer"] Is Carter a "real" doctor? The mother of a child suffering Bell's palsy certainly doesn't think so - and so Carter has to get his diagnosis confirmed by another doctor. However, having discharged the child, Dr. Ross discovers that Carter had not checked his ears, necessary to rule out the possibility of Ramsay Hunt syndrome. Greene and Ross make him get the child back in, but he cannot get in contact with the mother. So when another case comes in, Carter overcompensates by ordering normally inappropriate tests. Luckily one of these tests uncovers a serious blood disease, which saves him from the wrath of Benton and Vucelich, who as a reward lets Carter scrub in for surgery. Later he calls on the child with Harper to check for Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The child is clear, and Harper, touched by Carter's concern, kisses him. [2.09 "Home"] Carter engineers a meeting between Vucelich and Benton, who pessimistically refused to put his name down for the former's research project. In the meantime Carter enjoys Harper's "company". [2.10 "A Miracle Happens Here"] Carter convinces a Mr Chamberlain to undergo surgery using Vucelich's clamp-and-run technique, and thereby irritates Benton when he is invited to join them in the OR. He is then asked to convince Mr Rubadoux to sign his wife up for the same procedure - Carter is a little unsure, but does so. [2.11 "Dead of Winter"] What to do for Mrs Rubadoux? She is suffering from a variety of ailments after her surgery although Vucelich insists that it was not as a result of the surgery. It is now Carter's responsibility to raise her cardiac output before she can be put into a long term care facility. However, she does not seem to respond to treatment, and it seems likely that she is dying. According to Vucelich, the answer is dibutamine and getting her out of there as quickly as possible. However Carter has become friendly with her husband, Ruby, and cannot bear to tell him how serious his wife's condition is. Ruby trusts Carter, even saying at one point that he was the only one of the doctors who seemed to give a damn about his wife. Carter, in a very touching, but ill thought-out gesture gives Ruby his home number, and the old man rings him for reassurance. [2.12 "True Lies"] Carter finally gets Mrs Rubadoux discharged, and is relieved to finally have got her and Ruby off his hands. However she suffers a relapse, and Ruby wants Carter to look after her. He keeps asking questions about his wife, and Carter keeps avoiding them - even when prompted by Jeanie Boulet. Eventually he snaps and shouts at Ruby that his wife is dying and will never leave the hospital. Ruby, stunned and with tears in his eyes, thanks Carter for having finally told the truth and leaves. [2.13 "It's Not Easy Being Greene"] Carter wakes up with Harper, and they seem quite content. However, this is not to last. Vucelich wants Benton to travel to Europe to present the "Clamp and Run" technique, so Benton asks Carter to look out for suitable cases. The young doctor takes the credit for a case that Harper actually found - and when she finds out, and is furious, he has to apologise to both of the senior doctors. [2.14 "The Right Thing"] Carter sees Susan Lewis and Mark Greene on the subway together - her car is being fixed. He puts two and two together and decides they are having an affair - a rimour which then flies all around the ER. Meanwhile, because of Benton's problems with Vucelich's study, Carter is back in the ER. Without Benton, Vucelich has informed him that won't be anything for him to do in the Aneurism study. While finding this out, however, Carter neglects one of Susan's patients. Jeanie tells him that Mrs Rubadoux is having a memorial service that day which she has been invited to, but which Carter has not. Carter clearly doesn't know what to do about Ruby and feels guilty, confused and angry. Susan sees him taking out some of these feelings on patients, and takes him aside, concerned that he has lost all of his compassion. Heeding her words, Carter goes to the memorial service to attempt some form of reconciliation with Ruby, only to be told "This day isn't about you, Mr Carter". [2.15 "Baby Shower"] Everything is happening at once! Harper thinks she might be pregnant (she isn't) and Carter has an important interview. He is concerned by Benton's letter of recommendation, which Carter thought was rather lukewarm - but apparently from the stolid Benton such a letter is considered almost laudatory. During the interview he makes a comical attempt at some keyhole surgery using some props. Generally everything seems to go well, but there are a lot of candidates.... Carter, now more pleased with Benton after the reception of the letter brings him a Chinese take-away (Benton has been "raising the dead") and thanks him for pushing him hard. [2.16 "The Healers"] Carter attempts to help operate on Raul, a paramedic with horrific burns. When Carter cannot cope with the operation because of nausea and horror at the nature of the injuries, Benton reassures him that things don't get any worse than that. [2.17 "The Match Games"] Carter keeps vomiting - today is the day he finds out if he made the grade and gets to stay at County as a resident. He has come to a realisation about the way he has been treating patients recently and has decided to change his ways. While he is sitting on the stairs, still waiting for the results, a busy lawyer is rushed into the ER. Carter sends off for some haematological tests. However, before these arrive, he receives the letter he has been waiting for - he is in! Delighted, he grabs Harper and they head off to a hotel for champagne and a bubble-bath. When they return they find that the lawyer has leukaemia, has been waiting all day, and that Lewis and Hicks are not thrilled. This is compounded when they discover that Carter has been drinking, and Hicks threatens expulsion. [2.18 "A Shift In The Night"] Almost noone is in the ER - Doug has hurt himself and Lewis and Weaver are off for the night, leaving Dr. Greene and Carter pretty much alone. A car accident makes things much worse, and at one stage Carter accidentally punctures a patient's heart, although the patient survives. When things get too much, Greene decides to treat all the minor cases in the waiting room from a trolley with the help of Carter. Carol realises that Greene is having fun, and when it is done Carter talks to Greene - that evening was just what he thought medicine was about: helping people. [2.19 "Fire In The Belly"] Dale Edson arrives, a new surgical resident and ex- of Harpers. Carter is jealous, and when he hears that Dale has already performed an appendectomy, decides that he must do one as soon as possible. Particularly when Hicks reveals that not all interns will be asked back if their performance is found lacking. Carter finds two possible candidates for his urgent appendectomy - but Benton steals one, and the other one turns out to have only swallowed a toothpick. Keeping Dale out of the ER, Carter steals the next trauma case from him. Harper realises what he is doint and later that day dumps him. [2.20 "Fevers of Unknown Origin"] Carter wants a last minute rotation in Plastic Surgery, but he hasn't seen enough paediatric patients. So he is to spend some time with Doug Ross. Harper is leaving for Parkland in Dallas, but they part on good terms. [2.21 "Take These Broken Wings"] TC Lucas has jaundice and a passion for basketball. She is eager to get back to her games, and hopes to be able to play in a tournament. However, it transpires that she urgently needs a liver transplant. Carter tells her that she won't be able to play in the tournament after all, and tries to lift her sprits, but she becomes very depressed. [2.22 "John Carter M.D."] Graduation day for Carter! Benton refuses to attend any celebrations, saying that in teaching Carter he was just doing his job. TC Lucas is still depressed and scared, and now with her parents away moreso than ever. Carter misses his graduation to sit with her. Benton later reveals that he missed his graduation for a similar reason, and seems more well-disposed towards Carter. The newly graduated Doctor is touched by this, and immediately goes to Morganstern to change surgical team from Langdorff to Benton's Blue Team. His teacher has also left him a present - a lab coat with John Carter MD on it!