- Linda deletes some important files and spends the day trying to recover them or cover up what she's done. Some out-of-town friends have come to see John but he's nowhere to be seen so Chris must entertain them, to the annoyance and embarrassment of all concerned. John is trying to get home on the subway but a little old lady needs help in getting to her destination. John stops to help her, but she needs to be helped again and again. And when he finally gets her to the station she's heading for, Chambers Street, why doesn't she want to go up to the street?—Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>
- Doctor John Becker (Ted Danson) meets an older woman on the subway who's on her way to Ground Zero. Elsewhere, Chris Connor (Nancy Travis) entertains the doctor's out-of-town friends with whom he is supposed to have dinner. Also, Linda (Shawnee Smith) causes havoc when she accidentally deletes some important insurance files.
- Becker meets an old friend and his wife, Dicky and Donna, who are passing through the Bronx while waiting for a transfer flight to Paris. Meanwhile Jake asks Becker for a favour to pick up two tickets for himself and his girlfriend to attend a Stevie Wonder concert. While travelling on the subway into town to collect the tickets, Becker runs into a senior woman ( Frances Sternhagen, who incidentally played Cliff's' mother on Cheers.) Becker learns the woman is lost when she asks directions. Becker kindly escorts the woman to her destination, but she takes a seat within the subway refusing to proceed to her above ground destination. Becker sits beside the woman as she begins to elaborate on her reluctance to leave the subway. On close scrutiny of Frances Sternhagen's soliloquy, reading between the lines, it's revealed her son perished in the terror attacks on the twin towers on 11/09/2001. For those who consider Becker to be insensitive and uncaring, this episode is a poignantly respectful and somber tribute to all the unfortunate victims of the Twin Tower attacks. This episode is by and large a tastefully respectful anecdotal insight into the human face of innocent lives extinguished so cruelly and inhumanely in the attacks . The final scene of Subway story depicts Frances Sternhagen resting her head non Beckers chest as it pans out to the everyday goings on of fellow subway patrons with Becker and Sternhagen remaining the central focus solidifying the underlying gravity of the Twin Towers event. This episode not only tries to accomplish the cruelly tragic face of innocent lives cut short, but it also illustrates many aspects of Becker's complicated personality from his skeptical rationalist logical bent to that of his capacity to genuinely display his genuine humanist aspects of genuine compassion which makes for a tasteful tribute in remembrance of the three thousand plus victims of the 11/09/2001. Subway Story is an absolute must for those who want to gain greater insight into the dynamics of the John Becker character. Another great example of Becker's generosity, altruism and deeply empathetic values are demonstrated in the pilot episode where he opts out of buying a much needed car in order to personally fund specialist treatment for an eight year old child, M.J. as he comes from an extremely poor family. When you dig a bit deeper under Becker's gruff and frustrated attitude towards the morons in the world, you consistently find a man of great medical skills and wisdom whose only flaw is he refuses to suffer fools.
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