I had to infiltrate a Carby board to track this down. Apparently those Carbies are at least good for spoiler news...
From the first thread I found:“The War Comes Home” is likely 14-1 since, as I mentioned, it begins the same day as “The Honeymoon’s Over.” The NBC promo says we will be seeing "6 episodes in a row," which takes us to episode 13.23 and May 17th. Being the 17th is the last Thursday in sweeps, it seems 13.23 will be the last of this season. So thank you again, Pat, for starting a season 14 thread. I hope I didn't make you do it for nothing, but I am indeed sticking with this being 14-1 for now.
The backdrop of the episode is terrible explosion that took place at a peace rally in the park. Neela is there and is hurt very badly. Once again, there is no sign of Luka and there is no sign of Ray.
We meet a new intern, Paul Grady, who is nice looking, pleasant and affable. We learn that he had some “trouble last spring” that caused him to start his internship almost a year late, though he is a month earlier than the upcoming crop. Grady meets Moretti, who recognizes Grady is new; Grady doesn’t hesitate to point out that Moretti just began on this same day, too.
Sam takes a radio call for a multi-victim incident involving crowd trampling. It seems the peace rally referenced in The Honeymoon’s Over has taken place and resulted in tragedy. We ultimately learn that there was an explosion during the peace rally—someone set a bomb. Sam accepts the standard four patients but Moretti preferred two and we get the impression that he is concerned. Grady is ready to pitch in.
Abby sits with Morris and Pratt at Ike Ryan’s, where they plot how they will handle Moretti’s new regime (Morris suggests they signal each other if they don’t agree with Moretti), when they are paged to return to the ER. Abby is drinking coke but Pratt and Morris have beers.
There are many injured patients that make their way through the ER in the episode. Arriving patients include a man who had a heart attack running to get away. Moretti is impressed that Sam is so knowledable of hospital procedures and advises Grady to "stick with the nurse" as they go through the protocol to treat the man.
There is a teenage girl hurt badly when a public address system fell on her. She is accompanied by her grandfather who wears a "Peace Now!" button.
It seems Moretti might be overwhelmed by the flood of patients. Abby asks Frank to call Lutheran and Rush—other hospitals—presumably to see if they can take more patients. But Moretti hears and suggests that they just focus on treating the patients they have already. Chuny calls him to help with a procedure, and we see Moretti’s hand trembling a bit as he lifts his coffee cup.
Gates and Abby treat Aaron, who has a partially collapsed lung. He is there with his worried mother, Reina. Her other son Eddie is in the army in Iraq. They were at the rally to show support for the troops—she worries about deployed soldiers hearing people say we shouldn’t be in Iraq. Moretti wants Abby to put in Aaron’s chest tube, apparently stepping over Gates. Aaron tells Gates he thinks Moretti doesn’t like him. At some point, Moretti “reassigns” Gates.
Later, Aaron is doing better and asks Gates to snap a photo of him in the ER bed with his mom’s cell phone for the kids at school. But Aaron soon takes a turn for the worse that turns out to be a distended bladder. When he is helped by a catheter, Aaron wants another picture.
Later, Moretti surprises Abby by informing her that Pratt and Morris will no longer be working that day--it is “just you and me,” he says. It seems they were not allowed to work because they had been drinking.
Poor Neela is brought to the hospital by ambulance. It appears she attended the rally and was trampled badly. At first, Moretti, Abby and Sam treat her. Gates holds back but wants to help.
There is a standoff at one point in the room where Neela is treated. Dubenko seems to want to push Neela’s gurney out of the room, but Moretti blocks the way, and Dubenko threatens to call security. However, soon after they do take Neela to surgery, and Abby wants to go up with her. In the OR, Dubenko and Crenshaw clash on how to proceed with Neela. Abby jumps in and mediates, agreeing with Dubenko. But she appeals to him to let Crenshaw do the procedure, as Dubenko seems too close to the situation. Later, Gates goes to visit Neela in recovery. He doesn't find her, but we hear Dubenko talking off screen. We do not know any more than that.
Morris and Gates treat Russell, a young man who lost fingers in a lawn-mowing accident. Moretti says they both are not supposed to be working—Moretti has reassigned Gate and Morris should be off duty because of the drinking. But Morris shows him lab results of his alcohol level and Pratt’s—Moretti’s “two favorite attendings,”Morris says. Morris notes they let pilots fly with alcohol levels like theirs. Moretti doesn’t argue.
Gates is suspicious of Russell because his address is nowhere near the hospital, he lives in an apartment where it is unlikely there is a lawn, and he doesn’t think his clothing smells like gasoline you’d find in a lawnmower. Gates is convinced he set the bomb at the rally. He tackles Russell as he tries to leave and drags him past all the victims of the blast. He fights the instinct to kill him, the notes say.
Sam’s police officer friend Litchman enters and gets Sam’s attention with Jimbo, a 67-year-old man high and hallucinating on mushrooms. Litchman asks about Neela and says “we’re all thinking about her.” Later Morris find Jimbo chipping in and casting another patient’s wrist. Turns out the “old stoner” is the chair of orthopedics at another hospital.
After the worst of it, Abby sees some of the patients she treated earlier. A man injured when he simply walked past the park laments that it was always a peaceful place. Abby says it will be again tomorrow. A man with a dislocated hip is surprised that Abby fixed it while “he slept through the whole thing.” He says she sounds like his wife, and Abby says the wife must be a strong woman.
Abby comes upon Moretti looking overwhelmed, and they talk. He second-guesses his ability to handle mass-casualty situations, and Abby reassures him, implying that it is not bad to have an Achilles heal and reassuring him that most days aren’t as chaotic. Moretti says that every war has taught us something else, and they wonder what we will learn from the war in Iraq. They are interrupted by the grief-stricken grandfather of the girl hurt by the P.A. system, who later apparently dies from her injuries. He attacks Russell, the man Gates identified as the bomber, and despite efforts to pull him off of Russell, the grandfather kills him. Nonetheless, Abby and Moretti go through the motions of resuscitating him.
From the second thread I found: Moretti is relieved when the "cavalry" (Abby, Pratt and Morris) show up after being paged. They arrive as a rig containing Gates pulls up with 10-year-old Aaron, who has been impaled by a wooden spike—it was a piece of a protest sign. Gates tells Pratt he was at the peace rally and shouts across the bay to another rig to find out who transported Neela to the hospital, but the crew doesn't know.
Inside, Gates and Abby begin to treat Aaron while they place a speakerphone call to the paramedic dispatcher for help in locating Neela. Moretti stops in and wonders quietly to Gates that he thought he was off-duty. Gates tells him he resuscitated Aaron in the field. Meanwhile, the dispatcher tells them that there were women Neela’s age transported to several area hospitals, including Mercy, Northwestern, Rush, and Lutheran. Moretti hangs up the speakerphone on them and make them focus on Aaron.
(Note: This additional information changes the interpretation of some lines in the earlier material. It now appears that when Abby suggests calling those other hospitals, it was for the purpose of locating Neela and not to suggest they handle more patients. Nevertheless, Moretti tells them to focus on the patients they have.)
Candace, the 16-year-old injured by the falling public address system, is in extraordinary pain, and Morris orders more morphine, but Moretti objects because it’ll decrease her respiratory drive. He suggests an epidural, which he has credentials to perform. Candace is with her grandfather because her parents are on an Alaskan cruise. Her grandfather said he took her to the rally to see democracy in action. Candace tells how Grandpa was tear-gassed at the ’68 democratic convention.
As Moretti, Pratt and Morris huddle over Candace’s x-ray, Moretti smells alcohol on their breath. Pratt says it was less than 1/2 a beer, but Moretti orders them off duty for the day, citing liability issues. Abby interrupts with news that a young critical woman is en route and they all wonder if it is Neela.
As Candace’s treatment progresses, Pratt can’t stay away—he disobeys Moretti and heads back in to treat Candace. Later, Moretti gives him a pass, explaining Morris gave him their alcohol test results. However, he also tells Pratt is wasting his time treating the critical injuries of Candace. Her grandfather hears and gets angry.
Abby is allowed to observe as Crenshaw and Dubenko operate on Neela. Neela is bleeding a lot but survives. Later, Abby tells Gates, Pratt and Sam that Neela should be okay after her surgery, though they are all clearly concerned. Nevertheless, Sam tells Abby that Moretti wants her back on the floor, and Sam hands her a pile of charts.