User Reviews

Stephen King can't help himself so we get more of headless man, carrying around his head, this time taking a shower in their spiritual wing of Kingdom Hospital! A new character is introduced, Sheldon Fleischer (Michael Lerner), an obese lawyer on trial, who is outed as having slept with a younger woman, impregnated her, coerced this girl into getting an abortion, then fired said girl from his firm. He collapses with a coronary when the girl's mother, being questioned during voir dire to see if she was a candidate for jury duty, and is rushed to Kingdom Hospital. Convicted pyro maniac Rolf Pederson (Jim Shield) actually survives the incident where he accidentally set himself on fire, this time moved into the same room as Sheldon (haha). Meanwhile, Stegman (Bruce Davison) is trying to keep his sanity, working at Kingdom Hospital, because the earthquake caused much damage to his office, even resulting in an outbreak of cockroaches and the accidental release of pricey lab rats he wants caught. I wish I could say much else happens, but this particular chapter doesn't move stories or really develop the characters substantially, except that Sally (Diane Ladd) is able to convince her son to get a pass key so she can research the history of Mary (Jodelle Ferland) by snooping around in rooms she isn't allowed to enter. This chapter seems devoted to comedy such as a meeting on Stegman's weaknesses, as the staff is asked by Dr. Jesse James (Ed Begley Jr.) to comment on how he can improve as a doctor—such as when Stegman sees double Jesses while scoffing at Dr. Hook (Andrew McCarthy) who believes that there might be some credibility behind the idea of Kingdom Hospital being haunted. A running gag I haven't mentioned all that much is the fact that the maintenance man is never at work, always having a new replacement (oh, and he also isn't present for jury duty, although the substitute says he is to Stegman), which just infuriates Stegman, his demands never adhered to. The character of seismologist Dr. Richard Shwartzton (Gerard Plunkett) is developed more in this episode, as he tells the staff while in the ER that his feet are burning (a hallucination later shows fireants crawling all over both feet, quite a hairraiser) and can hear a peculiar noise he described as "black noise". Dr. Henry Havens (Alan Scarfe) gathers all the newer doctors together (Jamie Harrold's Dr. Elmer Traff, behind the beheading of Frank, is ultimately the topic of conversation) for the preparation of an autopsy, but most importantly to preach about not defiling the corpses and disrespecting them. I'm not real sure where they are going with Lerner's character, his importance so to speak, and how he plays into the grand scheme of things, though the scene where Hook has cameras rolling and a form for Fleischer to sign so he cannot sue for malpractice is rapid-fire work by McCarthy who seems to be channeling James Cagney from One, Two, Three. Jack Coleman's Peter Brickman actually draws Sally's face for wife Natalie, unable to speak his artistic skill helps break the communication barrier.