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. [3.01 "Dr. Carter, I Presume"] Carter joins the Blue Team, which includes Dale Edson and Dennis Gant. Carter knows Benton is tough on interns, but he doesn't realise that he is going to make him work hardest of all - he is given the first night shift and told to cover the ER during the day. He gets irritable because of this, as well as responding badly to being second-guessed by all and sundry. Haleh decides to make him pay for being such a grouch, and so wakes him up whenever he tries to get sleep and asks him unnecessary questions. Advised to make peace with the nurses, he buys them all donuts. Suddenly he is overwhelmed by the amount of cases that he is expected to handle - everything from burns to a man who punched through a window. Gant helps him out, but Carter is still shattered when he leaves. Greene gives him a sparkler - "You're gonna make it". [3.02 "Let The Games Begin"] One of Carter's neighbours, Betty, knocks on his door waking him up - she says that she is short of breath. Carter realises he has overslept and, yelling some advice, he rushes off. He arrives late for surgery with Benton and Morganstern. [3.03 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"] Betty wakes Carter up again. He goes to work and discovers that of all the interns, only he and Dennis Gant are not in the OR that day. Noticing the name of Abby Keaton on the schedule, he decides that Benton is trying to get an elective with her. Finding Benton worrying about this elective, he manages to convince him to let him book an OR for a woman with a fat tumour. Then he lies about the nature of the operation so that he can use the OR sooner, only to be discovered by Anspaugh. Meanwhile Gant is in trouble with Benton, and tells Carter that he doesn't think he can cope with the kind of treatment he has been getting for a whole year. Betty then turns up in the ER suffering from smoke inhalation - Carter's apartment block has burnt down! [3.04 "Last Call"] Carter is back with his parents after his flat burned down. Gant offers him a room at his place. Benton is delivering a lecture, but the slides for it were lost in Carter's apartment fire. Benton starts the lecture before Carter can explain, and is embarrassed when the slides are not there. Abby Keaton gets Benton and Carter to pursuade Laura Armitage to consent to some operations, and they both scrub in. [3.05 "Ghosts"] Hallowe'en in the ER! Gant is looking after a patient dressed up like Frankenstein's monster, but when Benton arrives he give the case to Carter instead. Gant is worried about Benton's assessment of his work, but Carter tells him that it was just the same for him the previous year. Carter then lies to an eight-year old girl going into surgery about the condition of her father - Benton disagrees with this, but Keaton approves. Carter later goes to tell the girl himself about her father's death. [3.06 "Fear of Flying"] Carter and Ross are treating a young patient - Zach Herlihy. Unfortunately a floated nurse almost kills him when she gives him potassium rather than saline. She has been moved from medical surgery to try to force her out of the hospital before she is eligible for her full pension. The child survives. [3.07 "No Brain, No Gain"] Carter arrives at work to find Gant exhausted - pulling a massive shift with eighteen hours to go. Dale Edson has mislaid a patient, and they decide to look out for him. When they find him, Carter is invited to join the operation, but is concerned when he realises that the patient doesn't really seem to know what is going on. He feels that he should order a psych consult but is worried about Anspaugh's reaction and so doesn't do so. The patient goes to surgery, and the operation is a complete success. Or so it appears. Having returned from Karaoke with Anspaugh and a visiting Japanese surgeon, Carter is dismayed to discover that the patient died of a stroke shortly after surgery. Dale is smug and tells Carter that it is a pity he didn't order the consult, and Carter furiously gets into a fight with him. Dr Keaton breaks up the fight, and when stitching up Carter's hand, tells him to call her Abby and suddenly kisses him! [3.08 "Union Station"] Carter and Keaton are almost caught in flagrante delicto, by Benton. They allege that they are writing an article together. Later they both watch as Benton backs out of an operation on a child, saying that he doesn't think he can handle it. With this out of the way they can get back to the serious business of "working on the article". [3.09 "Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies"] Susan Lewis is gone and there is loads more work to do. All the doctors are helping out, but Gant is doing the most. Carter seems more concerned with Abby Keaton and Benton is starting to notice - but Carter's concern is partially motivated by the fact that Abby has arranged to go to Pakistan to work for a while. Carter offers to help out Gant, but he is refused. Gant is trying to make a point with Benton - but this point is rather undermined when Carol gives a patient to Carter assuming that Gant is overwhelmed with work. Benton finds out and is angry with the young doctor for what he sees as not pulling his weight. Later, Benton meets Carter in the car park (he's waiting for Keaton) and surprises him by being positive about his work. Carter and Keaton drive off to cut down a Christmas tree, but giggling get involved in a snowball fight instead. [3.10 "Homeless for the Holidays"] [3.11 "Night Shift"] [3.12 "Post Mortem"] [3.13 "Fortune's Fools"] [3.14 "Whose Appy Now?"] Carter and Doyle are being competitive again. However they bond over a bullet, as Maggie informs Carter that the bullet he is attempting to remove from a patient with HIV would be razor sharp - putting him at risk of infection. When this patient is taken away and they are given a routine appendectomy they are both reasonably annoyed - however the patient is none other than Doctor Peter Benton! With great delight Carter decides to enjoy the operation, and with the help of Shirley, a polaroid camera and some very loud music they proceed to open up Carter's teacher! Later Carter asks Doyle out at a shooting range, but Doyle suddenly hides - her ex-girlfriend has just walked in! [3.15 "The Long Way Around"] [3.16 "Faith"] Benton is back at work after his appendectomy, and Carter keeps teasing him about the operation, which does not go down well. Benton brushes him off, but undeterred Carter produces the polaroids! Later, a woman arrives in the ER complaining of abdominal problems. Carter thinks that she has atriol fibrillation, but again does not press this opinion when Anspaugh (and a team of interns) say that it is far more likely that she has congested heart failiure. When the patient later feels worse, Carter calls Dr. Hicks and explains his thoughts to her. She calls Anspaugh who agrees and (mildly humiliated) lets Carter perform the operation. [3.17 "Tribes"] Everything seems to be happening around Carter. The whole ER is playing basketball when a sudden rush of patients keep everyone busy. While Dr. Greene meets Chris Law for the first time, and Weaver copes with a junkie, Carter is left to looking after some of the patients. [3.18 "You Bet Your Life"] Carter is again fighting over a patient. He wants to give Mr Bartok surgery, but Anspaugh says no - the patient is septic and would probably die on the table. However, Carter convinces Hicks to operate. When Anspaugh finds out, there is hell to pay and Carter is forced to provide a formal apology at his office. While they are deciding his fate, Carter sits tensely, before Hicks arrives to tell him that despite being on probation he is still on the surgical programme. He is amazed to discover that Hicks wanted him thrown out, but that he was supported by Anspaugh! [3.19 "Calling Dr. Hathaway"] Carter is late for his rounds with Anspaugh. A bad situation is made worse when it becomes obvious that he is unprepared as well. Anspaugh is extremely annoyed by this to the extent that he asks Carter a lot of questions which get harder and harder until he is wrong. He talks about it with Doyle, and then the two of them go to look at a gunshot victim being treated by Benton. Carter thinks of a way to save the patient which he read about in an article in People magazine - and it works! However, Anspaugh is still angry with him so he is not allowed to scrub into the OR. Suddenly Benton has to rush off - Carla has gone into labour with their child. This leaves Carter to look after his cases, which then turns out to include the gun-shot patient, who suffers an allergic reaction to one of the drugs given to him by Edson (who had not taken a full medical history). Carter tells Anspaugh, but Edson has already falsified the history, which leaves him in a difficult position - does he tell Anspaugh and drop Edson into considerable trouble? Doyle says he should, and is furious when he procrastinates about it - in the end Carter talks to Edson who pleads with Carter not to tell Anspaugh, and even tries to bribe him. Carter is disgusted and says that if Edson does something like this again, then he'll bury him. Carter later tries to discuss this with Benton, but fails as his teacher has other things on his mind. [3.20 "Random Acts"] While all hell is breaking loose for Dr. Greene, Benton manages to get Carter a place in a kidney transplant. Carter is delighted, meets the patients, Carl Twomey (the donor) and his sister Jean (the recipient). Carter tells Jean that he will look after her brother. However, having removed the kidney and taken it to the OR, Carter is horrified to discover that Carl is haemorrhaging, and that now he is helping out with Jean, he cannot be near Carl as he promised. Carter does not go to the post-operative diagnosis, as he should, because he wants to check up with Jean and Carl. Benton is not thrilled by this, obviously concerned that Carter is too 'sensitive' to be a surgeon. [3.21 "Make A Wish"] Is surgery right for Carter? The young doctor finds himself put in between Weaver and Anspaugh over the treatment of a Mr Lensky. Weaver has suggested a non-operative treatment, but Anspaugh thinks the man might lose his life if treated any other way. The patient himself is against surgery because his father died during an operation. Carter decides to go with the man's desires stating "I don't believe I should cut someone open just because I can", which dismays Anspaugh. Later that evening Carter asks Weaver about the possibility of transferring to emergency medicine. [3.22 "One More For The Road"] Decision time has come for Carter - will he stick with surgery or change to emergency medicine? He starts off by speaking to Anspaugh about his concerns, and about the possibility of a move. Anspaugh does not react well, informing Carter tersely that he is on the surgical programme "irrespective of what you think", and reminding him that he has a contract with the hospital. Back in the ER, Carter is confronted with Burt Kromkey, who is seriously ill, and whose wife is unable to look after him. Carter spends the day attempting to find the solution to his patients' needs, to the extent that Anspaugh informs him that he is neglecting his job, and the upcoming rounds. Carter is resolute, however, shouting that "I'll be there if and when I can". Later he and Anspaugh come to an accomodation. Carter's mind is made up, and Anspaugh reveals that he himself has often wondered if he did the right thing in sticking with surgery. Delighted to hear that Carter found a nursing home where the Kromkeys could be together, he says that they will try to sort something out.