Kerry Weaver manages to offend just about everyone in her first day as chief resident. Carol goes on a ride-along with paramedics Shep and Raul, sharing a ferris wheel ride with Shep. Peter and Jeanie's secret relationship comes to a head. Susan is stuck caring for Little Susie while Chloe attends school. Dr. Ross has his hands full with a young pyromaniac. Carter shows interest in med student Harper Tracy.

Carol and Jeanie try to find a home for a schizophrenic architect. Carter signs Benton up for an interview with Vucelich for a prestigious study. Carter and Harper try to find a place to make out. Jenn and Rachel are involved in a car accident; Mark is thrown for a loop when he learns that Jenn has been having an affair with a coworker. Doug dines with his mother. Susan receives $3000 in the mail from Chloe.

The ER staffers are in decidedly unfestive moods as Christmas arrives. Carol's spirits are lifted by a Santa-like patient. Mark is outraged when Jenn decides to stay in Milwaukee over Christmas. Benton and Carter score points with Vucelich when Carter convinces an older gentleman, Ruby, to include his wife in Vucelich's study. Mark gives a deposition in the O'Brien case. The death of a priest threatens to start a gang war. Weaver receives a surprise visit from an African friend. A Holocaust survivor, the victim of a carjacking, brings Chanukah to the ER.

Ross and Hathaway's jobs are in jeopardy after their unauthorized treatment of a drug-addicted 7-month-old boy is discovered. Corday loses her sponsorship. Carter suspects Del Amico's boyfriend when drugs are stolen.

Romano forces Benton to choose between the trauma and cardiothoracic fellowships. Carol worries that she may have lost her child. Corday and Greene bond on the way to a medical conference. Carter mentors an aspiring teenager. Lucy, on a psychiatry rotation, treats an overmedicated foster child. Jeanie finds her faith while treating a reverend.

The hospital suffers through a series of power outages. Carol's decision to send Doug a fax about her pregnancy is thwarted by the power outages. The staff is on alert after a raped and beaten patient is found in a hallway. Romano begs Corday to stay in trauma. Carter and Roxanne break up. Carter and Lucy treat a pheromone saleswoman.

A prank in a high school science class goes terribly awry, injuring a teacher and several students. Hathaway discovers Meg's drug addiction. Weaver and Greene notice Lawrence gets easily confused.

In order to get her paitient to tell her the location of a missing body, Corday agrees to grant him a fatal wish. Kovac befriends two brothers. He tells Weaver that his wife and children died in the Bosnian war. Former medical student Deb Chen returns to County General as a resident, using her Chinese name, Jing-Mei Chen.

The police question Drs. Pratt and Gallant about a rampage at the diner across from the ER. Dr. Lewis befriends her teen admirer, a cancer patient.

Dr. Weaver bends the rules and treats the Alderman's lover for syphilis. Dr. Kovac's patient claims she was sexually abused at a boot camp for troubled youth. Dr. Carter treats a women with a nasty personality.

The rainy night brings in diverse patients including a mother involved in a car accident with her baby, a man with a satisfaction facilitator, and a comatose patient who suddenly wakes up. Also, Sam steps up to Eve and her strict ways and Jerry gets struck by lightening!

Abby is back from rehab and finds herself the object of scrutiny. She confesses to Pratt that Luka might stay in Croatia longer than planned. Harold seems to have won over Neela's cousin. Multiple victims from a fire fill the ER.

Morris tries to help a girl who was hit while riding her bike; Gates can't get over his feelings for Sam; Neela is flustered when Dr. Brenner returns from Australia.