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The most dramatic conclusion on television's top-rated hourlong drama has a Hawaiian ending certain to cause chicken skin from Maine to Maui. ‘ER’ episode shot here
Note: Do not read this if you want
gives chicken skin
the "ER" "On the Beach"
episode to be a surprise.
By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com"ER's" main character, Dr. Mark Greene, portrayed by Anthony Edwards, lies dying from a brain tumor in the bedroom of his North Shore beach house. His 14-year-old daughter, Rachel (Hallee Hirsh), comes to see him.
Greene says he's been dreaming about her as a young child when she loved balloons but always let them go when he handed them to her.
"You always said you were setting them free," he says.
Then Greene gives his daughter some last advice: Be generous with your time, love, life and joy.
Rachel, sensing the end is close, tearfully whispers that she remembers the lullaby he sang to her every night as a child. Earlier, in the episode called "On the Beach," the defiant teenager said she didn't remember the tune.
Her father is asleep, but Rachel reaches down to place her portable CD player's headphones over his ears and the player on the pillow.
"I remember," says Rachel, as she pushes play.
The music begins. It's Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The music grows louder for viewers to hear.
When his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston), brings ice water to him, she realizes he's passed away.
The Warner Bros. production, the most prestigious TV series to film in Hawaii in years, shot on Oahu for 10 days ending yesterday at a North Shore house.
The episode will air May 9, a week before the season finale. It begins in Chicago where a sickly Edwards decides he needs to get away to spend his last days with Rachel, the 14-year-old daughter from his first marriage. Greene lived in Hawaii for three years because his father served in the U.S. Navy.
Greene also teaches his daughter to surf in Waikiki and drive a four-wheel-drive jeep in Mokuleia. Along the way, Greene decides he wants to stay -- and die -- in Hawaii, refusing to do anything heroic to save his life, including taking stronger medication or undergoing more tests. However, he does drink daily an herb concoction of twigs, dirt and leaves suggested by a local Chinese woman. He regrets he never returned to live on the North Shore after becoming a doctor.
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