Spoilers

“2:00 PM”

I’m not crying… you’re crying!

Okay, I am crying.

This episode hit hard. It was a one-two punch and that did not even take into account Dr. Collins and the miscarriage. That was pushed back by the character and the moment.

We get a young girl who was a drowning victim, who the staff desperately tried to warm up so they could get her heart started. The little girl who, as we find out, saved her little sister from drowning in the pool.

Oh my god, this was heartbreaking. Every minute of this story on screen ripped at the heart. If there ever was a story that demanded a happy ending, it was this one, but that would not be coming.

Then, as the grief over the loss of this little girl was sitting with us, they held an honor walk for Nick Bradley, the young man whose story has been going on for most of the show. His parents finally decided to allow the organ donation to proceed and the wheeled him out of the ER past friends and staff.

The show had to counterbalance the anguish of the episode with a man who arrived with a malfunctioning pacemaker, who was named Willie, and he turned out to be a member of the Freedom House Ambulance Service, which was the very first U.S. emergency service staffed by paramedics with medical training that went beyond basic first aid. 

There was also a nice moment with Dr. Javadi, a patient and a corpse of a black widow spider.

But all of the loss floating around the ER was palatable and just emotionally stunning. This may have been the best episode the series so far.