Straight from episodes of ER that are not this one: Abby's brother Eric is bipolar, just like Mental Maggie, who showed up to throw in her two cents that Abby can't fix this quickly. Eric insisted that he isn't crazy like Maggie was. Proving that ER is more absurdist fantasy than anything, Luka paid for sex from a hooker, as if he's not so hot that even hookers would lie down for free. And in the oddest choice ever, we see two seconds of Leon out in the hallway with Pratt just as Chen rushes out buttoning her shirt. What? That tells me nothing. I've watched TV before and I know that scenes like that sometimes convey wacky ketchup-stain hijinks. What I think they were trying to get across is that Pratt's brother is a little...simple.

On a snowy, cold morning in Chicago, Abby "Nurse Wretched" Lockhart jolts awake when she hears something break in her kitchen. Shuffling grouchily out of her bedroom, she spies Eric sitting rigidly on the couch watching television. "Where's Mom?" she asks densely, as if Maggie isn't less than a foot out of her line of vision. "You need cable," Eric barks. Abby goes ahead and exerts the minimal effort required to walk, turn her head, and get a view of Maggie in the kitchen. "I broke a bowl," Maggie apologizes. "I'm making scrambled. Want some?" Of course this family eats scrambled eggs. It all makes sense. Abby feels like there are enough scrambled things in the room, so she declines Maggie's offer with a bratty "no" that should earn her a scrambled face, but doesn't. "Got cheese?" Maggie asks. "Just the stuff in a can," Abby grunts. She then complains that, at 5 AM, it's a trifle early for breakfast. Eric brats that he's not even hungry. How did Eric get there? Last we left them, Eric was asking for another hearing of some kind, and they were in Nebraska, and Carter was there, and they got hotel rooms...did we skip an episode? "He's been up since 3," Maggie whispers to Abby. "Maybe you should talk to him." And after having done nothing but want to talk to Eric for, oh, two or three episodes, Abby pulls a long face as if this is a hideous request and pads reluctantly into the living room to darken its poor unsuspecting aura.

Abby asks Eric if he had trouble falling asleep. "Trouble staying that way, actually," he says blithely. "Kind of a crappy neighborhood you live in." Abby plops down next to him and helpfully asks whether he wants to talk about anything that might, in some small way, help the audience patch these gaping holes in the storyline. Eric cares deeply for us, so he dons his tutu and tights and dances the Exposition Fairy Twirl. "You had me medically discharged and I'm about to check into a loony bin today," he says. "Treatment center," Abby corrects. "It's one of the best, and it's just days." Eric snorts, "My days," and stands up in a huff to go hit his mark near the bookshelf. Maggie wanders over, sensing that she needs to try to change the subject. Abby totally ignores her and begs Eric to understand that aggressive treatment now will improve his chances of long-run mental health. "My chances!" Eric reminds her. Maggie goes on about how tired that all are, but again, Abby pays no attention because she only listens to the sound of her own voice. "We agreed, Eric," she wheedles. "When the hell did this become 'we'?" Eric explodes. Abby levels him with a condescending and fatigued gaze as she coolly tells him, "When you started having to take Depakote." Eric is wounded, stunned, unable to believe that his sister's completely written him off. "Is that how it works?" he bristles. "Anything over 500 milligrams gets you locked up?" Abby tries to make him listen to her, because she knows how freeing and satisfying that can be, having fallen in love with her own voice. "You're lucky you're only 250," Eric tells Maggie, brushing past them into...where? His bedroom? Does he have a bedroom in that place? "It's weight-based," Abby calls after him. God, she's insufferable. Shut up, Abby. I didn't hate her until the Eric storyline.