Romano rides into Julie's OR to save the day. He can't believe how bad things are, and that Elizabeth didn't think to do...some really minor fix that he hyperbolizes she learned "in grade school." She says that she thinks it would be best if he had another assistant, and takes off, ignoring his angry protests.

Luka is at the desk when Mark shows up to annoy us all with his sunny disposition and mellow world-view. Get lost, you damn hippie! Anyway, Luka offers to help him to walk, but Mark says he's fine. They both go into the lounge. Luka asks what he's doing, and Mark says he's having radiation therapy, "every day for six weeks," and that Elizabeth was supposed to give him a lift, but she's still in surgery. They exposit that Chen's still out on leave. Luka asks Mark when he's coming back to work, and Mark says, "Next week, I hope." Next week? Dude. I have long-term disability in order to assure that I continue to enjoy an income in the unlikely event -- let's all touch wood, now -- that I ever experience a health scare like this. And I mean it covers me for over a year. Why is Mark coming back to work not even a month after his brain surgery?! He can barely walk! What the hell good will he be to any patients?! Whatever. He settles onto the couch and then stretches out on it. Luka remarks that he's had a "fast recovery," and Mark agrees, "Speed of light." Luka says he heard that Mark was doing immune therapy, and Mark says he will be, "as soon as the tumour vaccine's ready." Luka nods. Mark asks if everything's okay in the ER, and Luka says, "Okay as ever. Don't worry." Mark smiles, "I don't. Honest. Life's too short, you know?" Oh MAN. Here we go, with the clichés and the platitudes. Of course, your job is not your life, and you should never get so worried about it that it's at the forefront of your mind when you have just had a tumour taken out of your brain. But this superior attitude people -- only on TV, mind -- have when they've just been through a health scare, like they somehow engineered the whole thing to give themselves a break, like Mark's trip to New York for incredibly invasive surgery was a month in fucking Club Med and that now he's the original Hakuna Matata...it's so patronizing to real people who have had health scares like this, and who still have a sense that there is more to the function of the world than themselves and their own surpassing happiness and fulfillment -- which is not to say that people shouldn't be happy and fulfilled in their jobs as much as in their lives, but that you can't just wake up one day and decide not to give a rat's ass anymore because your happiness and fulfillment are more important than anything else, especially when you are a doctor and people's lives are literally in your hands, okay? There are some things you cannot shine on! And if your job is such a drag that you can't muster the energy to care about it at the expense -- from time to time -- of yourself, then you should quit. And I really hope Mark does, because then I wouldn't have to see his Deepak Chopra-spouting ass week in and week out, which would do wonders for my own happiness and fulfillment vis-à-vis my job. Anyway, Mark patronizingly tells Luka that life's too short, and Luka quietly says, "I know." Because, Mark? HE KNOWS. Like, first-hand. So SHUT UP. Mark pretends to care about someone other than himself by asking how Luka is, and he says he's "the same," which is an interesting answer. Luka adds that it's good to see Mark, and leaves.