This episode picks up where "Orion in the Sky" left off.  Mark tells Carter to work on his jump shot and he heads home leaving him holding the ball.  Mark arrives home and heads upstairs and checks in on Rachel.  She is sleeping, but her radio is still on.  She was listening to "Crawling in the Dark", but Mark turns it off and heads back downstairs.  Elizabeth comes down and sees Mark sitting at the bar with a pen and some paper.  She asks him what he is doing and he tells her that he is feeling sorry for himself.  She asks if he would like her to put some drops in his eyes, but he tells her that he has already done it.  He tells her that he is making a list of things he always wanted to do, but never found the time for.  He reads her what he has on the list:

Mark stops to tell Elizabeth that he hasn't been a very good father.  He wasn't there when Rachel needed him.  He tells her that the last thing he put on his list is to fix Rachel.

Mark goes to pick Rachel up after she gets out of school.  He sees her with a girl and a guy and she is smoking a cigarette.  He gets out and hollers her name and she turns to see him.  She hands the cigarette to the girl and walks toward Mark.  Mark asks her if she would like a breath mint for the cigarette, but she tells him that she was just holding it for a friend.  He says, in your mouth?  He asks her if she needs to get anything from her locker that she may need for a while and she tells him no and hops into the car.  She asks him where they are going and he tells her honestly that he doesn't know.  Mark is in a plane and is all geared up.  He jumps out and parachutes down where Rachel is waiting and watching.  A boy asks Rachel if that is her dad and she tells him yes.  He then asks her if he is having a mid-life crisis and she replies, something like that.  Mark and Rachel are in Hawaii and they are staying at a nice hotel on the beach.  Mark wakes Rachel up a little before 8:00 AM and she is not happy about it.  He tells her that he is going to take her to a history lesson, his history.  Mark and Rachel are riding down the road and he is listening to "Hello It's Me" by Todd Rundgren.  Rachel wants to change the station, but Mark tells her no.  As they are driving, he shows her Battleship row and tells her about the things he use to do there as a teen.  He shows her where he lived for the three years that his family was there.  That was the longest time he had lived anywhere growing up.  He tells her how he use to get in trouble.  He hung out with the troublemakers.  He shows her where he had his first job at a pool as a junior janitor.  He use to spend his money on records and weed.  Rachel looks surprised at the thought that he use to smoke marijuana, but Mark acts as if she is surprised about what a record is.  He takes Rachel on board an old battle ship and tells her about her grandfather.  She learns that they did not get along very well when Mark was growing up.  Mark was mad at his dad for not ever being around.  He tells Rachel that his dad didn't like the music he listened to, the clothes he wore, Mark's long hair, and his views on politics.  Mark tells her not to act surprised about him having long hair down to his shoulders when he was younger.  Mark tells her that he would take back all the bad things between him and his father if he could, but he can't.  He knew that his father was worried about the choices Mark was making.  Down at the ocean, Mark teaches Rachel how to surf.  That night, Rachel sits on the floor listening to a music video and cries.  She gets up and goes to check on her father.  She checks to see if he is awake and he does not answer.  She goes to his room where his medicines are and she takes one out.  She pops it in her mouth and washes it down with some alcohol from the mini-bar.  Mark watches on without her knowing it.

Mark and Rachel are on the road again and he is listening to "Imagine", by John Lennon.  He asks Rachel if she knows the song, but she doesn't answer him.  They have left the hotel and go to a retreat house.  Upon arriving and checking out her room, she goes to speak to her dad.  She is upset to see that there is not a television anywhere.  There is also no pool.  Mark tells her that they had to leave the hotel because it was getting too expensive.  The mini bar charges alone were starting to add up.  She wants to know what there is to do there.  He tells her that she can swim, walk on the beach, and surf.  She walks off.  They have a quiet dinner and the next day he teaches Rachel how to drive a stick shift.  She has a hard time learning, but after listening to her father's advice, she finally gets it.  Rachel checks on her dad later in his room.  She finds him resting on his bed.  She asks him if he is okay and if he still has a headache.  He tells her that  he is okay.  She tells him that she is going to the beach and he tells her that he will be down there in a minute.  When he gets to the beach, he finds Rachel lying down listening to Linkin Park.  He comments on what a beautiful view it is, but she can't hear him.  He reaches over and turns her headset off.  He asks her when did she start getting high?  She tells him that she doesn't.  He then tells her that he was loaded most of the 8th grade.  He lets her know that he is missing three of his Vicodin from his medicine bottles.  She replies by telling him that maybe he took them and forgot.  She storms off telling him that he doesn't believe her.  Mark goes after her.  He tells her that he loves her and that he won't be around much longer to help her.  He tells her that he knows that she got a raw deal.  He talks to her about having to grow up without her father and all of the things she has had to go through, but she doesn't seem to care.  He asks her who is going to keep her from killing herself when he is gone?  Back at the house, Mark speaks with Elizabeth on the phone. He tells her that he is doing great and that things are fine.  Mark goes surfing and Rachel watches.  On there way back to the house, they discuss what they will eat for supper.  As Rachel is talking, Mark falls to the ground and has a seizure.  She turns back to see him and rushes to him, not knowing what to do.

Elizabeth and Ella arrive to the house in Hawaii.  She finds Mark upstairs lying on the bed sleeping.  He opens his eye and sees Elizabeth standing there with Ella in her arms.  He looks at them and smiles and says Hi.

Back at the house, Rachel finds Mark singing Ella a lullaby.  He is singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and rocking her.  He asks Rachel if she remembers when he use to sing her to sleep, but she doesn't.  He mentions other things about her childhood and she doesn't remember any of it.  She is getting tired of hearing about it all, so she tells her dad that she doesn't care about any of those things and to stop talking to her about it.  She heads outside and slams the door, waking Ella up.  Mark tells Elizabeth that he will go tend to Ella and Elizabeth goes out to speak with Rachel.  She tells Rachel that her father is not perfect, but he is trying.  She tells her that he is going to die very soon and that she will miss her time with him.  If she blows it, she will hate herself for the rest of her life.  Mark wakes up from a nap and is partially paralyzed on his right side.  He tries to stand up, but he falls down to the bed.  Mark is angry that this is happening.

Elizabeth helps Mark down to the beach.  He is coughing and she tells him that maybe he should go and see a doctor, it sounds like it could turn into pneumonia.  He tells her that it wouldn't be a bad way to go.  Mark asks her where Rachel is and she tells him that she is at Sunset with Kai.  She is concerned about what Rachel and Kai could be doing with all of this time together, but Mark isn't concerned at all; he thinks that it is great.  Mark tells Elizabeth that he wants her to do something for him.  He tells her that it might be hard, but he is not able to do it for himself.  He wants her to write letters for Rachel and Ella to open on special occasions, like graduation, college, weddings.  He isn't able to read his own writing now, so he needs her to do it for him.  He asks her if it is too morbid, and she tells him that they will cherish each and every one of them.  Later, Rachel comes in and sees Elizabeth doing the dishes.  She asks her if her dad is asleep and she tells Rachel yes.  Rachel tells her that he sleeps a lot now and that he is in a lot of pain.  Elizabeth replies that it won't be long now.  Rachel goes up to see him.  She stands and looks at him and he wakes up.  He tells her that he was just dreaming about her and how she use to love balloons.  She tells him that she doesn't remember that.  He tells her that he use to buy them for her and then she would let them go.  It use to drive her mother crazy.  He asks her to sit with him.  He tells her that he was trying to figure out what he already should have told her, but never had.  Something important.  Something every father should impart to his daughter.  He tells her he's got it; generosity.  Be generous with your time, with your love, with your life.  She tells him okay.  He tells her he is sorry and that he is so tired.  He tells her not to cry for him and she tells him that she won't.  He tells her to be generous always, she tells him that she will.  She tells him that she remembers the lullaby and how he use to sing it to her every night.  She remembers.  He opens his eye and smiles at her and then closes it again.  As in a dream, we see Elizabeth playing with Ella on the beach and Rachel and Kai playing in the water.  We see Mark looking down a long hallway in an empty ER.  We then see Mark back at the beach looking at his smiling wife and daughters.  He sees that they are all happy.  Elizabeth comes up to check on Mark.  She doesn't get a reaction, so she sits her coffee cup down and checks for a pulse.  She then sits beside him and kisses his hand, he has passed away.  We here a minister reading from John 11:25, 26 and Job 19: 25-27.  In the crowd of people, we see John Carter, Peter Benton, we see Kerry Weaver sitting and crying, we see Abby, Luka, a teary eyed Susan, Jing-Mei, and Haleh.  Michael Gallant is also there and he is dressed in his Army reserves uniform.  Cleo has come to pay her respects and we also see some faces that we have not seen in a while.  Dr. William Swift and Dr. Donald Anspaugh have come to pay their respects to their old colleague.  Frank is sitting beside them.  Dr. Romano has also come and looks saddened for the loss.  Jerry is fighting back the tears and we get to see Mark's ex-wife Jennifer there also.  The minister says the following prayer, "Accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant and grant him an entrance into the land of the light of joy and the fellowship of the saints who liveth and reigneth with thee in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen".  Rachel, Elizabeth and Jennifer are riding off in a car.  Rachel asks Elizabeth if she will be able to come see Ella during the summer and at Christmas.  Elizabeth tells her sure, she is your sister.  Rachel looks out the car window and she asks the driver to stop.  She gets out of the car and walks up to a sing in a yard with balloons on it.  Jennifer and Elizabeth get out of the car to see what is going on.  Rachel takes one of the balloons off of the sign and holds it up in the air and then she lets it go.  She is smiling and she watches the balloon soar up into the sky.

Reviewed by Tony Conner on May 10, 2002

Buy the song that was played in this episode, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", on the Facing Future CD.

Check out the Mark Greene Memorial.

NBC Review