Cleo Finch

Cleo Finch
Michael Michele as Cleo Finch
First appearance	September 30, 1999 (Season 6, "Leave It to Weaver")
Last appearance	December 13, 2001 (Season 8, "I'll Be Home for Christmas")
Portrayed by	Michael Michele
Information
Occupation	Physician
Title	Pediatric Fellow (1999-2001)
Spouse(s)	Peter Benton (husband)
Children	Reese Benton (stepson)

Dr. Cleo Finch (married Benton) was a fictional doctor in the television series ER, from Seasons 6 through 8 (1999–2001). She was portrayed by actress Michael Michele.

Life at County

Dr. Finch was first introduced at the start of Season 6 as a skilled new pediatric fellow at County. She was portrayed as a hard working, no-nonsense doctor who often jogged to work. Dr. Finch took over most of the pediatric storylines left void by the departures of George Clooney and Maria Bello (pediatric doctors Doug Ross and Anna Del Amico, respectively) and was portrayed as a competent doctor. In the Season Six Episode “How the Finch Stole Christmas," she separated a young alcoholic patient from his alcoholic mother, who fed his addiction, during Christmastime. She later misdiagnosed a bratty young patient, resulting in the patient's death. When no surgeons were available to perform a laparotomy on a dying patient in the aftermath of a stabbing in the ER, Dr. Finch performed an emergency thoracotomy in the OR to stabilize the patient until a surgeon could be found. She was at first reprimanded by Dr. Peter Benton, her boyfriend at the time, but he later apologized, blaming the stress of performing surgery on his friend, Dr. John Carter, a victim of the stabbing.^[1] She seemed vaguely annoyed that Dr. Carter was welcomed back to County after he went to rehab for his prescription medication addiction between Seasons 6 and 7, but the characters had few interactions in Seasons 7 and 8 and those they had were cordial.

Relationships

During the course of Season 6, Cleo started a relationship with Dr. Peter Benton. She got along well with Peter’s deaf son Reese, impressing Peter with her knowledge of ASL. Cleo often clashed with Reese’s mother Carla, who saw Cleo as interfering in her family’s decisions. While under Cleo’s care, Reese accidentally injured his hand on a piano, leading Carla to claim she was untrustworthy and irresponsible. Cleo’s relationship with Peter was also put under strain when Peter felt that Cleo’s multi-racial background prevented her from understanding the medical and cultural needs of the African-American community. Despite their problems, Cleo and Peter stayed together, allowing Cleo to help Peter through a difficult child-custody battle with Carla. Cleo even took the stand to testify that she hoped to play an important role in both Peter and Reese’s lives.

Season 8 and Beyond

In Season 8, Cleo left County for a job at a private hospital just outside of Chicago. Later in the season, after winning his custody battle over Reese, Peter too departed the ER to work at the same hospital as Cleo. Their final appearance was the episode “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” in which they are shown helping Reese decorate a Christmas Tree.^[2]

Michael Michele reprised her role as Dr. Finch in the Season 8 episode "On the Beach," at Mark Greene’s funeral, along with Doctor Benton.^[3]

During the 15th and final season of ER, at the end of the episode "The Book of Abby", long-serving nurse Haleh Adams shows the departing Abby Lockhart a closet wall where all the past doctors and employees have put their locker name tags. Amongst them, the tag "Finch" can be seen.^[4]

Later appearances by Dr. Benton in Season 15 suggested that Cleo and Peter married and raised Reese together.

Notes

1. ^ "All in the Family". Lydia Woodward, Laura Innes. ER. NBC. 2.10.00. No. 127, season 6.
2. ^ "I’ll be Home for Christmas". Dee Johnson, Meredith Stiehm, Jonathan. ER. NBC. 12.13.01. No. 167, season 8.
3. ^ "On the Beach". John Wells. ER. NBC. 5.9.02. No. 178, season 8.
4. ^ "The Book of Abby". David Zobel, Christopher Chulack. ER. NBC. 10.16.08. No. 312, season 15.