ER - Season 12

Sam and Luka report Alex missing after he runs away to find his father. Acting on information from the police, they follow a lead to Iowa, then eventually head for Colorado. As they travel, they discuss their relationship, slowly realizing they have very little in common. With Alex safe, Sam tells him the truth about his father and takes him to see him. In the ER, Susan, Pratt, and the nurses evaluate Ray, Neela, and Abby's first days as R2s, while each of them struggles to manage patients, new interns, and their first attempts at teaching.

A baby's life is endangered when the surrogate mother refuses a C-section. The biological parents, Ray, and Dr. Coburn disagree over the surrogate mother's treatment. Abby makes a difficult diagnosis on a young boy with a rare illness. Pratt is reunited with his father and his family. Sam tells Luka she's moving out, and Luka discusses the move with Alex.

New nurse manager Eve Peyton causes a stir in the ER. Luka and Kerry treat a severely burned man. Abby helps a woman who might have breast cancer make a difficult decision, then makes a discovery about Dubenko. Sam and Luka find it difficult to work together.

Luka treats a woman who awakens after a six year coma. Kerry returns to the ER, and clashes with Luka over the treatment of a baby injured in a car crash, while Neela treats the mother, who may have caused the accident deliberately. Abby learns about Dr. Dubenko's condition, and we learn his first name. Eve continues to challenge the nursing staff. Jerry gets struck by lightning.

There's a new attending in the house, Dr. Victor Clemente, and he has not made a great first impression. Clemente puts the residents through their paces, alienating Pratt and infuriating the R2s. Luka spends the day with recently awakened coma patient Blaire. As Luka struggles with whether or not to tell her about her accident, Blaire tries to make sense of her flashes of memories, resulting in a tragic event. In the ER, Luka and Clemente clash over her treatment, and Luka finally tells her what happened, possibly too late. Abby visits her cancer patient, leading her to get a baseline mammogram. Dr. Dubenko's surgery goes well, and Ray meets a new girl at a rock concert.

There's monkey business in the ER as Clemente, Abby and Neela treat an infant chimpanzee. Pratt has a painful failed attempt at reconciliation with his father. Eve promotes Sam, then forces her to be involved as she fires Haleh. Ray discovers Zoe has chlamydia, and is underage. A recovering Dubenko trails the staff via a two way television hook-up. A boy and his father are injured in a construction accident.

A young girl is used as a "human shield" by her kidnapper, and both are wounded during a shootout with police. While Abby treats the girl, she is caught in the middle of a dispute between Clemente and Luka over the girl's care. Neela assists Luka, then Dubenko, with the kidnapper. Later, Luka and Clemente argue over style and practice, leading Luka to put his name in as a candidate for Chief of Emergency Medicine. Abby takes her anger, and need for comfort, to Luka. Gallant's leave is delayed, to Neela's dismay, and Ray gets his comeuppance from Zoe's father.

For Neela, what begins as a routine ride along with Gates and Zadro turns into a defining day when a commercial jet and a private plane crash over Chicago. As Clemente manages the trauma in the ER, Pratt joins Neela on scene. Luka and Abby wake up together at Luka's, but the crash soon takes them back to work, where the tension between Luka and Clemente continues. As patients flood in, Sam recalls Haleh when extra nurses are needed, and earns Eve's approval. Luka and Abby care for a patient with severe facial injuries while Pratt struggles to save a patient with a heart injury. Ray's youthful friend returns and creates a nuisance. As the day ends, Luka and Abby talk, and awkwardly decide to stay "just friends," while Neela has a welcome, and overdue, visitor.

Neela and Gallant make an impetuous decision. Weaver addresses the Kovac/Clemente rivalry for the position of Chief of Emergency Medicine, encouraging them to get along, which results in them competing to be agreeable. Morris takes a stand against Weaver regarding the best course of action during a trauma. Luka, Clemente and Sam try to convince a mother to accept treatment for her seriously ill son. Luka and Abby decide "just friends" isn't such a great idea after all.

Kerry and Pratt treat a little girl hit by a stray bullet. Luka and Ray treat a woman with cancer who makes a difficult choice. Clemente's former flame shows up. Eve's extreme response to a rude patient forces Luka to bring in the nursing supervisor. Haleh auditions singers for the Christmas party. Sam discovers the impact Steve's imprisonment has had on Alex, and takes him to visit his father. Abby shares some big news with Luka.

Abby struggles with the decision of whether or not to keep her baby. Luka and Neela advise a very religious 15-year-old about her pregnancy options. Kerry takes a fall on the ice and injures her hip. Ray's band is ready to move to the next level. Clemente gets a visit from two detectives.

With Luka eager to get home, Clemente AWOL and Kerry temporarily off her feet, Dubenko volunteers to cover the ER briefly, but quickly becomes involved with a septic patient and her husband, who is unwilling to accept she will not improve. He soon finds himself at odds with both the ER and ICU staff over an appropriate course of treatment. Abby's excitement over her pregnancy means no sleep for Luka, and they head out for a bit of early shopping, and some dressing-room fun. Neela gets surgery as an elective, but is shocked to learn that rather that finishing his training in the US, Michael plans to return to Iraq. Ray helps Zoe escape to live with her sister when she arrives in the ER after a beating by her father, and Pratt fakes a blood test to help Darnell avoid arrest.

Nate Lennox, a former professor of biochemistry who was Abby's early medical school mentor, suffering from advanced ALS and now able to move only his eyes, is admitted with pneumonia. The progression of his disease is shown in reverse through a series of flashbacks. As Ray, Sam and Luka begin limited treatment under the proxy of his attendant, Abby believes Lennox has communicated different wishes, leading to a struggle to determine what course of action should be taken, and how long to fight the inevitable.

An unexpected visitor puts Clemente in the middle of a domestic dispute, and things don't look good. As the police sort out events, Luka, Abby and Sam try to save the victim in the aftermath of a shooting. Luka and Abby await important news about the baby. Pratt finds himself the center of unexpected attention at a fundraising event.

Note: "Many Rivers to Cross" performed by Lou Beatty, Jr.

Now in Darfur, Carter and colleague Dr. Dakarai work alongside relief workers to treat famine victims. Back in Chicago, Luka and Kerry differ over Clemente's next step, and Pratt and Neela treat a hit and run victim.

Weaver must make a difficult choice about having hip replacement surgery when the pain interferes with her work. Ultimately she decides to go forward with it, and asks Abby to take care of Henry if something goes wrong. When Abby discovers that one of her patients has contracted meningococcemia, the E.R. is briefly quarantined. Sam treats a man who collapsed, Richard Elliott, who offers her an intriguing job. Meanwhile, Neela decides to attend a support group for military spouses. Pratt confesses to Kovač that he falsified a blood test; an infuriated Kovač suspends him for five days.

Kovač  and Abby work feverishly to save a young Turkish woman with multiple stab wounds. Kovač and the woman's mother connect as she shares her experiences from her former life in Turkey. As the girl's condition worsens, Clemente steps in and decides to try a risky procedure; surprisingly, he and Kovač work together effectively for the first time. Sam accepts a part time job working for Richard Elliott. Neela pulls an all-nighter in preparation for a speech at a surgeon's convention but is disappointed when her speech goes awry. Morris' past catches up with him.

When Luka answers a call for help, he discovers not everyone is pleased. Will he honor his commitment, or ask a colleague to step in for him? Abby and Morris wrestle with the strange case of a car crash victim. Having made a change in her life, Sam finds herself enjoying a few new perks. Neela has unexpected visitors, with even more unexpected news.

Pratt departs for Africa with attitude to spare but makes contact with harsh reality before the plane lands. Abby senses something is not what is seems when she treats a precocious 12-year-old and her grandmother. A prisoner is brought to the ER with what everyone thinks is a fake case of appendicitis. Morris is dressed, and ready, to impress, but Albright's not. It's time for Kerry to return to work and Clemente doesn't know when it's time to leave.

Pratt gets to work in Darfur, but soon finds his eyes opened to the need all around him. Debbie attempts to persuade Dakarai to seek treatment for his illness. Carter, Pratt and Dakarai find themselves in the middle of the conflict when a man and his pregnant wife arrive at the camp needing treatment, with trouble not far behind. Events force Pratt and Dakarai to make a dangerous journey.

Clemente's behavior grows more and more erratic, forcing Luka to take a stand. Pratt returns from Africa, and works with Luka, Abby, and Sam on the case of a father and two sons who appear to have been beaten by gang members, but soon, Pratt learns the real story. Morris and Albright throw off some sparks. Dubenko has good news for Neela, but two visitors bring her something different.

A seemingly ordinary day with the usual collection of patients turns anything but when two prisoners intent on escape come to the ER for treatment. Aided by a conspirator posing as a patient, their desperate actions place a doctor in harm's way and force a nurse to become a tool in their plan. Soon, gunshots ring out, another doctor hits the floor, and a staff member's life is in jeopardy.