St. Elsewhere: Season 5
Season 5 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of St. Elsewhere Season 4.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 5 Progress Shield
Where There's Hope, There's Crosby
Sep 24, 1986
A depressed Father Joseph McCabe returns to St. Eligius; Morrison receives a visitor from Seattle; Dr. Craig seeks help for his injured hand from an old classmate; one of Axelrod's
When You Wish Upon a Scar
Oct 1, 1986
Wade tries to get a grip on her marital problems; Fiscus throws an engagement party for Morrison; Rosenthal figures out the self-serving Griffin; and John Doe #6 returns.
A Room With a View
Oct 8, 1986
Dr. Craig behaves boorishly to his replacement, Dr. Paulette Kiem; Birch finds a radioactive patient; Papandrao claims Ehrlich as an escort to a family birthday party; a friend of
Brand New Bag
Oct 15, 1986
The Craigs try out yet another new maid; fellow employees stab Luther in the back; Axelrod is embarrassed and rude about a patient's colostomy; and Fiscus helps Mr. Ewell's daughte
You Beta Your Life
Oct 29, 1986
Dr. Westphall helps a terminally ill teenager reach his parents; Griffin plays Birch and Novino off against each other to escape blame in a patient's death; Morrison calls Chandler
Not My Type
Nov 5, 1986
Dr. Turner faces a dilemma as she performs surgery on a Jehovah's Witness, who has forbidden any blood transfusions; Griffin takes positive steps to blame Birch for the patient's d
Up and Down
Nov 12, 1986
Lizzie gets involved with Griffin; a man falls while trying to scale the hospital; Luther befriends a bag lady with Tourette's Syndrome; and John Doe #6 disappears with Dr. Craig's
Nothing Up My Sleeve
Nov 19, 1986
Mandatory drug testing causes a deep division of opinion; Morrison is haunted by his day at the prison; Axelrod is assigned to guide a 14-year-old medical student around; Griffin g
After Life
Nov 26, 1986
Dr. Fiscus is shot. Afterwards, he experiences the afterlife and meets some old friends. Such people include old patients who died in the hospital, a few in limbo and a couple in h
Once Upon a Mattress
Dec 3, 1986
Fiscus awakens but is deeply depressed, despite a visit from his father; Dr. Craig returns to work and his office, disregarding Dr. Kiem's feelings; Dr. Westphall decides to stop s
Lost Weekend
Dec 10, 1986
Dr. Westphall tries to help an alcoholic poet he once admired; Dr. Craig puts his usual worst foot forward as he tries to persuade the Soviets to release Masha's husband; Rosenthal
Cold War
Jan 7, 1987
Dr. Turner finds her confidence shaken when she learns her new patient, about to undergo a risky transfusion procedure, has a malpractice suit pending at another hospital; Dr. Pelt
Russian Roulette
Jan 14, 1987
Dr. Craig becomes jealous when Dr. Peltrovich is finally allowed to pursue his work with lasers; Fiscus experiences an emotional rollercoaster as he returns to work with a critical
Visiting Daze
Jan 21, 1987
Axelrod allows Novino and Griffin to override his judgement; Dr. Kiem worries about her long distance marriage as she tries to help an inseparable couple make a final farewell; Lut
Getting Ahead
Jan 28, 1987
Novino uncovers a pathologist selling body parts when one of her patients dies; Dr. Westphall learns that Lizzie is pregnant; Chandler and a visiting private practitioner learn som
Jose, Can You See?
Feb 4, 1987
Novino tangles again with Chandler about admitting a blind street person who's not really sick; Dr. Auschlander learns he has a son he never knew; the Craigs face their grief all o
Schwarzwald
Feb 11, 1987
Rosenthal tries to help her obese daughter cope with her problems; Axelrod's father brings a dog to the hospital for chemotherapy; Dr. Turner reluctantly reveals the ultrasound res
You Again?
Feb 18, 1987
Morrison testifies at Nick Moat's parole hearing; Dr. Kiem buries herself in work when she learns her son has taken off from home and is missing; Fiscus diagnoses multiple sclerosi
Rites of Passage
Feb 25, 1987
Fiscus waits for a woman artificially inseminated with his sperm to give birth; three young men explore life and the hospital to relieve the boredom of their stay; Dr. Westphall re
Women Unchained
Mar 4, 1987
Shirley Daniels returns to the hospital as a patient; Mrs. Craig offers Griffin a place to stay; Chandler and Novino compete to see who can correctly diagnose a difficult patient;
Good Vibrations
May 13, 1987
The representative of a foreign medical group interested in the hospital visits to absorb the psychic `aura' of the place (via flashbacks) but collapses from a heart attack before
Slip Sliding Away
May 20, 1987
Luther turns sleuth to find out who is responsible for the mercy-killings; Dr. Turner takes a chance doing experimental fetal heart surgery; Axelrod gets back at Novino and Griffin
Last Dance at the Wrecker's Ball
May 27, 1987
Auschlander tries to stop the demolition of St. Eligius.