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Lucy Knight was a fictional medical student in the television show ER. She was portrayed by Kellie Martin.

History[]

Season 5[]

At the beginning of the season, she was a third-year medical student, with Dr. John Carter being quickly assigned as her overseeing resident while she completed her emergency room rotation. Lucy and Carter varied between respectful and contentious interactions.

At the beginning of her rotation at County General, she was popular with the attendings and nurses, who often treated her as another colleague. Lucy does run into trouble with Carol Hathaway after she asks for help with an IV. Lucy, who was unable to start an IV, asks Carol for help, and doesn't own up to Carter that she couldn't start one by herself until they end up in a trauma where she admits the truth. Carter was furious at her for lying to him, and said if she ever did so again, she would be off his rotation permanently.

Lucy winds up in trouble with Carter again after a Halloween party at her med school gets out of control and two students nearly die. Angry about the work that has been thrown at him at the last minute, Carter leaves Lucy in charge of the party, even though, as RA, it was his responsibility. Carter blames Lucy for him losing his RA position, and they fight again when Carter overrules her on a case where Lucy's judgment was correct, with Lucy then making comments on her Palm Pilot that Carter accidentally hears that describe his condescending treatment of her.

Carter and Lucy eventually come to an agreement after the episode "The Good Fight", when the pair spend a day and evening searching for a little girl's father who has the same extremely rare blood type as she does, and is the only donor they can identify. Although the pair find the father, the girl's condition remains critical as the story ends, and it's not clear that the blood donation came in time to help save her. During this episode, Lucy reveals to Carter that she was brought up by her mother, and that she did not know her father. By the end of this episode, Carter and Lucy seem to have reconciled over the efforts they made.

During the episode "The Storm: Part 1", Lucy accidentally karate kicks Carter while performing a tae-bo work-out video in an exam room. As a result, Carter is knocked over and has to be put on a gurney and treated for the cut on his head. While Lucy was tending to his wound in the x-ray room, the sudden tension in the room lead the pair to making out, however nothing came from it, as Carter ended their brief relationship, as it is unethical for medical students and their residents to be romantically involved.

Lucy's rotation in the psych department goes exceptionally well, with the senior doctors there ending up audibly impressed with her successful results. It is strongly implied that Lucy will be an excellent doctor, but is simply not cut out for emergency medicine.

Near the end of the season, it is revealed that Lucy is on Ritalin and has been since high school. Carter urges her to quit and she eventually does. When her performance at County begins to suffer, Lucy goes back on the Ritalin without telling Carter.

Season 6[]

Lucy's role in the early episodes of season 6 are rather small, having only minor sub plots such as helping a young artist who was taking cocaine, or by urging Dr. Dave Malucci to come forward and admit his possible mistake when using a Bunsen Burner that was thought to have caused an explosion in the ER. The explosion was later proven to have nothing to do with the Bunsen Burner, which Dave, thanks to Lucy's urging, admitted to using.

Lucy clashed with nurse Carol Hathaway once more when they both made a plea for the last bed in a rehab clinic. The bed ultimately went to Carol's patient, which led to renewed friction between the pair when the patient didn't show up for treatment. Lucy also clashed with Dr. Cleo Finch, when Cleo undermined Lucy's judgment in regards to a case involving a young boy and his mother who both had alcohol abuse problems.

Lucy was finally able to come into her own and show her potential in the episode "How the Finch Stole Christmas", when patient Valerie Paige comes to the ER in desperate need of a heart transplant. Lucy goes above and beyond to ensure Valerie gets the life saving procedure she needs, even going as far as showing up at Dr. Romano's door in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Though he's initially angry with her because of her sudden demand, Romano agrees to do the operation after Lucy berates him for his seemingly flippant attitude towards the dying patient. Though she faces a reprimand from Romano, he seems to have more respect for her from then on.

Later, in the episode "The Domino Heart", Valerie dies from complications after another surgery, leaving Lucy devastated. This makes her ponder her time at County General, and prompts her to give a moving speech to Dr. Luka Kovač about it, "It's never been very easy for me to be here, sometimes I felt like I would never fit in. But at the beginning of every day I have been grateful that I'm walking in here of my own choosing and not being carried in here on some gurney and at the end of every day if I have helped just one person, it's been worth it. And that didn't happen today and it makes me sad...". Luka reminds her that her day is not yet over and that she may still help that one person. At that moment, another patient arrives near the ambulance bay, and Luka asks her to assist. The episode ends with them rushing the patient into the ER, and Luka teaching her procedures and asking her questions.

Death[]

On February 14, 2000, over the course of two episodes, "Be Still My Heart" and "All in the Family", Paul Sobriki, a man with schizophrenia, checks into the emergency room. Lucy picks up on his mental problems, but Carter noticeably dismisses her and refuses to contact the psych department on her behalf, leading her to angrily say "Just forget it, Carter!" and stop seeking his advice on the case.

While in a delusional state, Paul later acquires a knife that the staff planned to use to slice a Valentine's Day cake, and stabs Lucy multiple times; twice in the abdomen, once in the chest, and once in the neck, before lying in wait for Carter, who later enters the room. Upon seeing a Valentine for Lucy on the floor, Carter picks it up and looks over it, smiling, just as Paul emerges from the shadows and stabs him twice in his lower back. Carter falls into shock and hits the floor, gazing in surprise at the sight of Lucy lying in her own blood on the other side of the gurney. Pale and in shock, she soon passes out, with Carter passing out seconds later.

Dr. Kerry Weaver later discovers Carter and Lucy in the room, and the ER staff jump into action to save their injured colleagues. Although both Dr. Weaver and Dr. Corday are able to stabilize Lucy in the ER, and Corday and Romano are then able to repair her tissue damage, she soon develops complications, including a pulmonary embolism. Despite the heroic efforts of both Corday and Romano, Lucy dies while in the catheter lab awaiting a Greenfield filter; her time of death, as pronounced by Corday, is 02:56am.

Posthumous mentions[]

Season 6[]

Lucy's memorial service is not seen on-screen. In the episode "Be Patient", Carter asks Dr. Jing-Mei Chen how the funeral was, to which she replies that it was quite pleasant, but that it was strange to be attending a funeral for Lucy. That same day, Lucy's mother, Barbara Knight, arrives to clear out her locker. She eventually seeks Carter out, as her daughter spoke highly of him. Barbara asks Carter if being stabbed hurts, Carter lies and says that it didn't hurt at all in order to put her mind at ease. Carter later talks to a few others and says that Lucy was a better doctor than he gave her credit for. He also says in the Season 6 finale "May Day" that Lucy's death is "partly my fault."

In the episode "Match Made in Heaven", a letter for Lucy arrives from a med school. She had matched to County, and, had she lived, she would have been given a position as a psych resident.

Season 9[]

In the episode "Insurrection", Lucy is referenced during a protest of County General's lack of security in the emergency department. The protest followed an incident where an angered and drug-seeking patient held doctors of the ER at gunpoint. A frustrated Carter, trying to convince Dr. Susan Lewis that staff shouldn't have to risk their lives to work in the hospital, says, "We've already had a staff member murdered on duty," then "I got stabbed, Lucy got killed, and today Abby and Chen get a gun to their head."

Season 15[]

Eight years after Lucy's death, at the end of the episode "The Book of Abby", long-serving nurse Haleh Adams shows the departing Dr. Abby Lockhart a closet wall where all the past doctors and employees have put their locker name tags. Amongst them, the tag "Knight" can be seen. The same happens again during "Shifting Equilibrium", when Dr. Neela Rasgotra puts her own name tag on the wall.

Lucy is referenced once more in "T-Minus-6", when Carter is explaining to Dr. Catherine Banfield how he was stabbed and a "medical student was killed."

Behind the Scenes[]

Despite being popular with fans, Kelly Martin made the decision to leave the show, feeling that her character was not working. She was also feeling uncomfortable with the shows content due to real life medical problems within her family.

ER Characters
Characters Mark GreeneDoug RossSusan LewisJohn CarterCarol HathawayPeter BentonJeanie BouletKerry WeaverAnna Del AmicoElizabeth CordayLucy KnightLuka KovačAbby LockhartCleo FinchDave MalucciJing-Mei ChenMichael GallantGreg PrattNeela RasgotraSamantha TaggartRay BarnettArchie MorrisTony GatesSimon BrennerCate Banfield
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