Chicago Med
Chicago Med Review – Paging the New Chief of the ED, Ethan Choi (6×02)
Chicago Med delivered its final powerful episode of 2020.
That’s right, the Dick Wolf series is following in the footsteps of This Is Us and returning in the new year on January 6, 2021.
“Those Things Hidden in Plain Sight” once again tackled COVID without overwhelming viewers. Now, if you’re one of those people who doesn’t want to see the pandemic playing out on your TV screen, you’re going to have to bite the bullet because the series doesn’t seem like it’s letting up on COVID-related storylines just yet.
However, to make up for it, it’s also offering other cases and escalating tensions between characters, so there’s still something to look forward to.
April remained in the COVID unit, and though her heart is in this fight, she’s learning that it’s a losing battle.
She did her best to care for Yesenia, a minor, but she didn’t manage to reunite her with her mother even after getting permission from Choi.
Not long after Yesenia went into respiratory failure, Alejandra was brought in after testing positive for COVID. It’s unclear if both these women, who only had each other, will lose their battles with the novel virus or if we’ll see them again, but it’s a situation that April is seeing all too often.
People come into the hospital hoping that they’ll be healed, but they reach a point where there’s nothing else doctors and nurses can do for them.
“It’s never enough,” a defeated April told Choi, which seems to be a sentiment shared by all of those working on COVID’s frontlines currently as cases surge.
Ethan Choi leveled up as he accepted the position of Chief of ED following Lanik’s departure (can’t say that he’ll be missed).
This obviously didn’t sit well with Will Halstead, who was misguided in his thinking that he somehow deserved this because he’d been at Med longer than Choi.
It’s important to note that being at a job longer doesn’t automatically make you more qualified. Choi and Halstead are very different people and approach medicine in a very different way.
It didn’t even seem like Will wanted the position until Maggie and the other nurses began gassing him up, which should tell you everything. Having just gotten out of a relationship and trying to find his footing, Will was the least likely to be considered for the role.
It’s almost as if the nurses wanted Will to get jealous that he wasn’t promoted so that he’d start a fight with Ethan.
The duo butted heads over the treatment of Will’s patient, and when Ethan was wrong in his diagnosis, Will figured this was the perfect time to confront Sharon Goodwin about not being chosen for the role.
It’s never been more satisfying to see someone put Will in his place.
Will, the hot-headed and impulsive doctor, somehow thought that he deserved to be the one getting promoted to a position where he’d be responsible for calling the shots. Oh, sweet Will.
Goodwin didn’t mince words when she made it clear that he was never even considered because of how reckless he is.
However, Choi wasn’t a great fit either.
He’s been just as impulsive as Will, he’s unreasonable, opinionated, and wants to exert his beliefs and code on others, which we’ve seen in previous seasons.
They’re both equally as unqualified. Goodwin should have gone with someone outside of the ED for this one.
It was expected that they’d get into it over their patient’s course of treatment, but now, with Choi as his boss, Will can’t really stand his ground. The truth is, they both have negative qualities and ones that make them great at their jobs, so hopefully, moving forward, they learn to listen to each other and work together.
Ideally, Halstead’s skills could be better used in a different role. Perhaps he’ll find his calling (and love) by helping Dr. Virani with the clinical trial?
April attempted to use her former relationship and closeness with Choi to get her way several times during the episode. The writers either need to let this go or get them back together, but I don’t want to see April getting preferential treatment because she previously dated Choi.
Choi was right when he rejected bringing in the mother to say goodbye to her dying daughter. With COVID, you can never be too careful.
The protocol made sense in Choi’s situation, but it wasn’t as black-and-white with Natalie’s pregnant patient from Cook County Jail.
Things took an ugly turn when Natalie witnessed first hand how differently she was treated for committing the same crime a Black woman did.
Both Aisha and Natalie pushed an officer — Aisha said she did it to protect her cousin, while Natalie did it to protect Aisha when the cop wanted to take her baby.
Natalie got off with a slap on the wrist, but Aisha faced an uphill battle of going back to jail and being separated from her child all because her hearing kept getting postponed due to COVID delays.
It showed just how flawed the system is and how it doesn’t prioritize the health and wellbeing of inmates. Aisha was a victim, but her daughter was the one who would suffer the most as a result.
It was nice to see Natalie, Goodwin, and the OBGYN try their best to help Aisha, but sadly, even their hands were tied here.
Dr. Charles’ ex-wife was brought to Med after she threw up a significant amount of blood, but the storyline was pretty weak aside from the revelation that she was planning on moving her and Anna to Arizona.
My guess is that Anna has bonded so significantly with her father that she’s going to want to stick around. Otherwise, Dr. Charles will be forced to say goodbye to another daughter, and who knows if he can handle that!
And then there’s Dr. Marcel who refuses to get help and masks his problems and depression with wit and charm. I hope Dr. Charles doesn’t give up trying to get through to him because Marcel could use someone to help him work through all the grief that he’s bottled up inside.
What did you think of the episode?
We’ll see you in 2020, Chihards!
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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