While we all loved Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) long arc on ER, the ’90s medical drama had a bunch of other engaging characters, including Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin). We definitely need a refresher on her character since it’s (somehow) been 30 years since ER premiered (but the show doesn’t look a day over 20).
Maybe we used to wait for each new episode of ER each week… or we’ve seen it on streaming because we were too young at the time (but we totally get the obsession because it’s how we feel about Grey’s Anatomy, and want season 21 now). Either way, we might know Kellie Martin from the 1994 Lifetime movie Death of a Cheerleader, which also stars Tori Spelling, and is based on a horrific true story. But Martin was also part of the large cast of ER, and was great as eager student Lucy Knight. What should we remember about Lucy’s ER storyline? Look out, spoilers ensue.
Why did Lucy leave ER?
Lucy Knight left ER because she passed away in a shocking two-part storyline that aired in February 2000. In season 6 episodes 13 and 14, “Be Still My Heart” and “All in the Family,” Paul Sobriki (David Krumholtz) stabs Lucy and John Carter (Noah Wylie). Since we all know and love Krumholtz as nerdy Michael Eckman in 10 Things I Hate About You, seeing him in this violent situation is a bit jarring.
While Carter’s surgery is successful and he is fine (although of course this incident would stay with him for a long time), Lucy dies because of her serious injuries.
This is a complicated plotline since, looking back, it’s possible to say that ER was playing into harmful mental health stereotypes, and suggesting that someone with a certain condition will be violent. Lucy thought Paul was suffering from schizophrenia, but when she talked to Carter, he didn’t want to have a discussion about it. While this was an important part of the show, since it proved that a doctor with an ego might not listen to a student or intern (and of course that happens all the time), having a character with a mental health condition kill an employee of a hospital isn’t the best.
We’ll never stop thinking about the sad scene when we learned Lucy died on ER, and it sounds like other fans still are, too. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, David Krumholtz said fans tweet at him about the storyline, and Kellie Martin said fans “go ashen” if they meet her.
Martin also shared with EW that she wasn’t “comfortable” playing Lucy because the character felt like “a little bit of a mystery.” She added that while it made sense for her character to exit, “it felt like a little bit of an unfinished job maybe, because I just never really found her.” She continued, “It was definitely the right thing for me to leave that show at that time. But, it didn’t feel like it at the time, for sure.” Martin also said she was “taking it kind of personally that I was being stabbed and leaving the show” because she was in her early 20s at the time, but she would view it differently today.
While it’s not a perfect plotline, it’s impossible to argue against how memorable the conclusion of Lucy’s ER story was. She joined the show in season 5 as a smart (and perhaps a bit naive) student who wants to learn everything she can, and her romance with Carter is fun to watch. Since Lucy was on ER for such a short time, we’ll always wish she could have stayed on the popular show and become the doctor she dreamed of.