Chicago Med
Chicago Med Midseason Finale Review – Secret Santa Has a Gift for You (7×09)
Will Halstead and Sharon Goodwin blew the door on their VASCOM investigation wide open on the Chicago Med Season 7 midseason finale.
The storyline has been building all season long, and Will finally got the smoking gun when Jess invited him out for a little holiday date night before offering him the same deal that the company previously gave Matt Cooper.
She thought Will could be trusted to spearhead the whole fraudulent operation because of his financial woes, but little did she know that Will is a man of integrity that refused to sell out in exchange for some kickbacks!
You go, Will!
Honestly, it’s impressive how that man continues to make enemies in the ED.
Upon finding out, the board decided to fire Matt and sweep it under the rug because, you know, optics. When Will fought back, Sharon advised him to let it go and get back to doing his job as a doctor.
It was strange because she was the one that roped him into this whole mess in the first place, so she likely wouldn’t have been this spooked by the board.
But in a surprising twist, Sharon ignored the board’s advice and tipped off the FBI instead.
It was the only course of action that made sense despite the blowback that’s inevitably coming their way.
Sharon couldn’t just look the other way on such behavior even if it did attract bad press and retaliation from all those whose pockets just got hit.
If you play dirty games, you need to be prepared to pay the price.
It was also hard to believe that Will listened to her advice and sat this one out since he’s always so determined to break the rules and throw himself under the bus.
Will Sharon get fired for doing the right thing? Her job is to keep the hospital’s best interests at heart, and I think she’s doing just that by bringing attention to the fraud. Just imagine how bad it would have been if the truth got out and people found out that she knew and never reported it. Med would lose all credibility.
CHICAGO MED — “Secret Santa Has A Gift For You” Episode 709 — Pictured: (l-r) Dominic Rains as Crockett Marcel, Sarah Rafferty as Dr. Pamela Blake — (Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)
Speaking of honesty, Vanessa finally came clean about the fact that Maggie is her biological mom. It was a strange admission to make during a Christmas party for the hospital’s children, but at least this big lie is no longer weighing on her chest.
Maggie was the most thrilled because it means she’s finally making progress with Vanessa.
Since her arrival at Med, the two have been through a lot. Vanessa realized that Maggie is a good person that will help her regardless of the consequences. She didn’t want to ruin their relationship by being forced to constantly lie.
Dr. Charles made great strides with Dean when it came to mental health.
Dean’s attitude towards psychology and psychiatry has been deeply unsettling this season, but it seems to be a classic case of fearing what you don’t understand.
Dean saw mental illness as a weakness, which is why he has struggled to accept his own flaws and PTSD, however, Dr. Charles found a way to show him that it’s actually a strength to have the courage to lead a normal life while suffering internally.
His patients are all very brave to tackle their responsibilities when it would be just as easy, if not easier, to just give in.
More importantly, those who are suffering need someone in their corner. Imagine if they were just pushed upstairs to the mental health ward every single time instead of having someone who advocated for them and wanted to find them the right medication to help get them back on track.
Quite frankly, Dr. Charles is one of the most important people in the ED.
Hopefully, his breakthrough with Dean means that he’ll be a better boss and colleague all around. In other words, he needs to get that stick out of his behind.
Dr. Marcel’s personal life is meshing with his professional life, and it’s not going to end well for him.
Especially because he seems to be romancing a mom and her daughter at the same time.
Marcel!
While the handsome doc seems to be interested in Avery, he locked lips with her mom, and his boss, Dr. Pamela, first.
I guess we’ll blame it on the champagne and mistletoe? Yes, let’s do that.
Pamela said she wanted to keep things “casual,” but I feel like she’ll be singing a different tune when she finds out he is also flirting it up with her daughter.
Who are you rooting for? Pam or Avery?
Romance aside, Pam and Dr. Marcel made a good team as they advocated for Ruben, a man clinging onto his last shred of hope and in dire need of a kidney transplant.
Though things may have seemed bleak for Ruben, he survived the operation thanks to his talented team of doctors.
Meanwhile, Stevie and Vanessa helped a woman who was very ill because of a tick bite from an infected rat. The woman wasn’t homeless, but she was spending a lot of time in a storage unit after losing her job and not wanting to admit it to her husband.
The storyline is a clear example of what it means to put too much stock into your career. We are so much more than our jobs, yet we continue to define ourselves and our success by the positions we hold in the corporate world too eager to chew us up and spit us out.
She was so embarrassed to admit that her company let her go because she thought she was less of a person without her job title.
It’s such a ridiculous and dangerous reality.
What did you think of the episode? Are you glad the VASCOM storyline finally made it front and center?
Was this a worthy midseason finale for Chicago Med?
New episodes will return in early 2022, so we’ll see you soon, Cravers!
Nobody Wants This Season 3 dropped on Netflix on Oct. 22.
While the season featured familiar faces like Kristen Bell as Joanne, Adam Brody as Noah, Justine Lupe as Morgan and Timothy Simons as Sasha, a newcomer was also introduced as Esther (Jackie Tohn) gets back out into the dating world.
After separating from Sasha, Esther gets her real estate license and meets Julian while showing him a property with an incredible view of the city.
Julian may look familiar to some audiences, especially fans of the One Chicago shows, as he’s played by Steven Weber, who has portrayed Dr. Archer on Chicago Med for several seasons.
During the house tour, Julian informs Esther that he has a chef who can whip them up a dinner while they wait for sunset to see the view in the evening. They share their first kiss, as he becomes her romantic prospect for the season.
At one point, Esther thinks Julian is seeing other people, but later learns that’s not the case when she tries to end things with him, as he informs her that he wants to be with her, and they declare each other boyfriend and girlfriend.
Of course, Sasha and Esther may be separated, but they end up falling into old habits and sleep together while she’s already involved with Julian.
Things are complicated—but one thing is for sure: Julian will likely return in Nobody Wants This Season 4.
Where Have You Seen Steven Weber Before? Here’s Why He Looks So Familiar
In addition to Chicago Med, he has appeared in The Shining, Single White Female, Hamburger Hill, 13 Reasons Why, NCIS: New Orleans, iZombie, 2 Broke Girls and Chasing Life.
Chicago Med returned for its 12th season with major changes on the horizon for all of the doctors at Gaffney.
And it wasted absolutely no time throwing us all back into the chaos of the E.D. with a mass shooting situation at a wedding that initially seemed random, before the bride revealed her jealous ex-boyfriend, Henry, was responsible.
The victims began overwhelming the E.D., which was already understaffed thanks to Sharon Goodwin’s (hopefully temporary) replacement, Ms. Sloane, who cut plenty of the staff due to budget constraints.
Since Goodwin was the heart and soul of Gaffney, it’s no surprise that not a single soul has taken kindly to Sloane’s arrival.
Audiences learn that Goodwin willingly stepped down after being accused of leaking Dr. Rabari’s medical records, though she’s not pleased about any of it, as a fight between her and Miranda heats up. Goodwin is encouraged to take a sizable payout with the promise that the hospital won’t press charges, but she assures them she’s not guilty, despite Miranda claiming to have evidence. We don’t know what that evidence is just yet, but she seems pretty confident that it’ll incriminate Goodwin, who also seems kind of nervous about everything. At first, I thought maybe that was an admission of guilt, but I think it’s just that everything she’s ever worked for is on the line, and she doesn’t have anyone from leadership in her corner.
The final few moments of the episode reveal Doris showing up at Sharon’s door and admitting that she was the one who leaked the records, which is a plot twist I didn’t see coming. Sweet Doris?! Of course, we know Sharon will always protect her own, so it’s possible she’ll take the plea deal to prevent this going to trial—or she’ll find another way out of it, since she, of all people, knows how to work the system in her favor. I know Sharon will not go down without a fight, and Miranda is absolutely naive to think otherwise.
And obviously, the hospital functions more smoothly when she’s in charge.
The mass shooting event ensured that it was an all-hands-on-deck situation, with Hannah even coming out of her maternity leave early to help the bride, who was 23 weeks pregnant and had a bullet lodged in her uterus. Thankfully, she was able to successfully remove it without having to deliver the baby early.
We also got to see Hannah and Archer’s baby girl, Mabel, as Doris asked the question we all wanted to know—are they “co-parents with benefits?” Obviously, new parents are extremely tired, but that is the elephant in the room after Archer declared his love for Hannah after Mabel was born. By the way they look at each other, there’s clearly something more there, even if she hasn’t admitted it yet.
The bride’s situation was taken straight out of a soap opera, as it was revealed that her fiancé, Dexter, didn’t know about the baby. And they couldn’t find him after the shooting, leaving her to believe the worst. On top of all of that, her ex was responsible for this disaster, and her soon-to-be mother-in-law was adamant that she was only marrying her son for money, which prompted Dexter to get cold feet and not even show up to the church where the tragedy occurred, ultimately saving his life but potentially putting his marriage in jeopardy.
When he finally got wind of what happened, he arrived at the hospital full of regret. Dr. Charles told him the best course of action was to apologize and come clean to Tamar. Dexter realized the root of all his problems was his mother, so he finally did the right thing and put his family—along with the unborn child he just found out about—ahead of whatever it is his mother was trying to do.
Their wedding day didn’t pan out as they expected it to, and came with plenty of hurt and loss, but the couple still managed to find a semblance of a happy ending.
The most heartbreaking plot, however, was with the flower girl, Dakota, who came to the hospital with a head wound after her mother pushed her under the pews when the shooting erupted. She couldn’t find her mom in the aftermath, but the wedding’s guitar player, Bruno, stayed by her side to make sure she was okay, and they formed a sweet little bond. The trauma of the day led to Dakota losing her eyesight temporarily, while everyone else searched for her mother, Edith.
Dr. Frost’s reaction to learning that both Edith and Bruno were dead mirrored mine because how could they put this little girl through so much pain? The nerve!
Not only do they have to tell her that her mom died, but Bruno, who survived a mass shooting event and walked away barely unscathed, was then killed while he was being discharged by the shooter as he drove his car through the reception area?
And this whole time, the shooter survived? Ripley was in sheer disbelief as Bruno’s body flew through the air on impact. And honestly, same.
CHICAGO MED — “Shots Fired” Episode 1201 — Pictured: (l-r) Luke Mitchell as Dr. Mitch Ripley, Michael Alix as Bruno — (Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)
It’s a reminder that not only is life super fragile and unexpected, but it’s also completely unfair. Thankfully, Mitch Ripley later revealed that they got their wires crossed and Edith was actually alive, so at least the little girl didn’t have to grow up without a mother, and this tragic day didn’t put a permanent stain on her life. And she’ll always have Bruno as her guardian angel!
Ripley had a tough day, no doubt, as he also had to lay down the law with a new 4th-year resident, Anna Wu, who Archer described as “smart, cocky and a pain in the ass.” Sound familiar?
Why do I feel like those are the personality traits they give every single new character? There have been so many Wus throughout the years.
Ripley was pissed that she undermined his call with a patient, accusing her of deliberately making the shooter suffer, which she said wasn’t the case, as she did what she had to do to keep the patient alive. However, she then made another bold move and called Ripley out for projecting onto her, suggesting that maybe he enjoyed seeing him suffer after all the pain he’d caused.
Doctors take an oath, but they’re still human, and watching innocent people die all around you while the person responsible survives could take a toll on anyone, even if it’s only subconsciously.
Either way—it seems like Ripley and Wu are off to a rocky start, which may set a precedent for their working environment moving forward.
As for Caitlin Lennox’s absence, she’s on a “3-month sabbatical” for a drug trial for her prion disease, which will hopefully buy her some extra time, though, as Ripley noted, nothing is ever guaranteed, even with a clean bill of health.
What did you think of the premiere episode? Do you think Chicago Med has started veering too much into soap territory, or do you enjoy the overly dramatic storylines?
Chicago
One Chicago Shows Finally Get 2026 Fall Premiere Dates—Here’s When ‘Chicago Fire,’ ‘Chicago P.D.’, and ‘Chicago Med’ Return
Summer may have just started a few days ago, but NBC is already looking to the fall, specifically, its fall premieres.
On Wed, June 24, the network set return dates for its fan-favorite shows, including all of the One Chicago franchises.
When Will Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med Return for Fall 2026/2027
One Chicago will stick with its Wednesday night time slots, which is great for fans who have gotten used to the schedule.
The 2026/2027 Fall TV schedule will see all One Chicago shows returning with new seasons on Oct. 7, 2026.
Chicago Fire will return for Season 15, Chicago P.D. will kick off Season 14 and Chicago Med will be back for Season 12!
Full NBC Fall 2026/2027 Schedule
Wednesday, September 9
7-8:20 P.M. – Football Night In America
8:20-11:30 P.M. – NFL Kickoff Game (New England at Seattle)
Sunday, September 13
7-8:20 P.M. – Football Night In America
8:20-11:30 P.M. – Sunday Night Football (Dallas at N.Y. Giants)
Thursday, September 17
8-10 p.m. – THE TRAITORS: NEW BLOOD
Monday, September 21
8-10 p.m. – The Voice
10-11 p.m. – LINE OF FIRE
Tuesday, September 22
8-9 p.m. – The Voice
9-11 p.m. – America’s Got Talent
Wednesday, September 23
8-9 p.m. – The Voice
9-11 p.m. – America’s Got Talent season finale
Friday, September 25
9-11 p.m. – Dateline NBC
Wednesday, October 7
8-9 p.m. – Chicago Med
9-10 p.m. – Chicago Fire
10-11 p.m. – Chicago P.D.
Thursday, October 8
9-10 p.m. – Law & Order: SVU
10-11 p.m. – Law & Order
Friday, October 23
8-8:30 p.m. – Happy’s Place
8:30-9 p.m. – NEWLYWEDS
Monday, November 2
8-8:30 p.m. – St. Denis Medical
8:30-9 p.m. – The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
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