In this episode, we continue to see the complex relationships of Chicago Med continue to develop in preparation for the big end of season cliffhanger…I am not sure about anyone else but I cannot wait!
Dr. Halstead, Dr. Asher, Dr. Marcel, Dr. Blake and Kat
Hannah asks Will about why he did not cash her rent cheque and he says it bounced and she said why didn’t he tell her and he says it is no big deal. She is clearly very angry as she says she is good for the money and he should have let her know right away.
Trini asks for Will and Hannah’s help to get a patients mother out of her room. Her mother seems to be very critical and the patient is clearly upset and says she is always a failure so Dr. Asher and Dr. Halstead politely ask the mother to wait outside while they examine the patient. Her name is Kat, she is 26 weeks pregnant and had been feeling dizzy and unwell for a while, and it got worse doing hot yoga that morning and she almost passed out. She thought everything she is having was normal pregnancy stuff, but they said they want to run some tests and figure things out to be sure.
Crockett and Pamela are doing post-op rounds and he realizes that she did not button a button on her top because she couldn’t. He tells her that she can’t operate like this, and that it is not safe. She reluctantly agrees and it is clear that the issue with her hand is possibly more serious than she is letting on.
Will and Hannah check Kat out and are concerned that her blood pressure is creeping up and her liver tests are elevated and she has a low blood glucose. She may have acute fatty liver of pregnancy and ask Marcel to do a biopsy. He initially is hesitant and asks about watching and waiting, but Hannah says there is a chance it could be too late and they could lose both of them. Will jumps in but Hannah gets upset at him and Marcel does agree to complete the biopsy to rule out AFLP because if Kat does have it, it means she needs to be delivered immediately.
Hannah tells Will he needs to stop trying to save her, and when he asks what she means she says not telling her about the cheque and what he just did with Crockett. He says he is trying to help and she is doing so well with her sobriety and she says that is her responsibility not his and he cannot keep trying to save her.
Kat starts bleeding severely after the biopsy, it shows what they feared, and they tell Kat that she has AFLP, which is an enzyme deficiency that causes rapid liver failure and they have to do an emergency c-section. They take her to the hybrid OR and deliver the baby but Kat’s liver is severely damaged and she is bleeding out. They speak to her mother, as Kat needs a liver transplant and her mother offers part of her liver as they have the same blood type and she does not want her to wait.
Crockett speaks to Pamela and while she cannot do the surgery she agrees that Crockett will do the transplant with her coaching from the scrub room. They run into some challenges with bleeding but the surgery is a success and he saves them both. Afterwards Kat and her mom bond over the new baby.
Will tells Hannah he has been trying to protect her and he is sorry and will stop, and Hannah says that she knows it was coming from a good place. She pays him the rent.
Dr. Blake finds Crockett on the balcony (cue terrible green screen) and tells him that she is going to do the surgery because she knows her patients will be in good hands. This was a very endearing scene because it show that she really does have confidence in Dr. Marcel and his surgical skills.
As Will is leaving the hospital, Jessa approaches him. She asks him to please not testify in the Vascom trial, and she says the company will do anything to protect themselves and he is going to ruin her life. She grabs onto his arm and security comes over as he is telling her to let go of him. She leaves the hospital quickly, leaving Will to yet again ponder his decision to testify.
Dr. Charles, Dr. Taylor, Lydia Reed and Maggie
At the beginning of the episode, Daniel is having coffee with Lonnie and discussing going out for dinner when Anna arrives to drop off his phone that he forgot. Lonnie asks him after she leaves if she does not know about them, and he says he has not had a chance to mention it, and she says that he has a habit of not being up front because he wants to protect the people he loves. I guess that is one downside of dating your former psychiatrist – they know all your tricks and idiosyncrasies.
Dr. Taylor is treating a motivational speaker, Lydia Reed, who had a choking episode on some cereal. She started a year and a half ago with an eye twitch and thought she was just tired, but her friend was diagnosed with ALS and she decided to get it checked out. She has been unwell for a while with exhaustion, coughing fits and stiffness and had tons of specialists see her but none of them are able to diagnose what this is. After her lab work and exam are all normal and Vanessa tells her they did not find anything, she gets very emotional and upset. Vanessa asks Dr. Charles to weigh in, and Dr. Charles examines her and says she does not seem to fit the pattern of someone who is malingering. He says that someone who is malingering is making up symptoms for secondary gain, but this does not seem to be the case with her. Vanessa does some additional tests including a psychiatric questionnaire.
Lydia refuses to complete the questionnaire and again, she has another emotional outburst and Dr. Charles is present for it and speaks with her about it. He then goes to do some research and watches one of her videos online. He then has her read some information from a card, and plays her the video of her doing the speech five years ago. Based on the changes to her voice, speech patterns and her outbursts, he and Dr. Taylor are able to diagnose her with Bulbar ALS, which is very rare. Lydia is sad but relieved to finally know what is going on. They set her up with Dr. Abrams for a full consultation and Dr. Charles says there is a lot that they could do for her. Vanessa asks why Daniel picked that talk to look at and he said it looked interesting.
When he gets home, Daniel goes in to speak to Anna but sees she is upset and he finds out she just broke up with her boyfriend and so he decides not to tell her about Lonnie right now.
Vanessa, Maggie, Ben and Goodwin
Vanessa asks Maggie is she has made any headway speaking to her birth father and she says no. Maggie shares what is going on with Sharon, and how she does not want to disrupt this man’s life. She asks Maggie if she has discussed the situation with Ben and she says no, as he was not wild about the idea of her contacting Vanessa to begin with.
Maggie also confesses to Sharon that she was so in love with Vanessa’s father, and is worried if there will be any feelings still there if she sees or speaks to him. Sharon says she wished that she could tell her what to do but she cannot, and that whatever she decided it will come from the heart, which is the best anyone can do.
Maggie eventually starts to look him up online, and is trying to decide if she will contact him. Ben comes in with good news and they leave for dinner.
Dr. Scott, Dr. Choi and Sam Deavers
At the start of the episode, Dylan and Milena are in a car together listening to a police radio and the calls that are happening. They hear that an officer is shot and Milena says she needs to go see what happened and leaves.
Dr. Scott and Dr. Choi take an ambulance that arrives with an injured police officer, Sam Deavers. The officers share with Dylan that it was a drug raid and they were waiting for them and ambushed them. They only see one entrance and exit wound, but there appears to be another bullet in the officer’s lung. His wife Alice arrives and is so worried and upset that he has been shot. He says he has never been shot before.
The bullet in the lung has caused a bleed and Dr. Scott sends Sam to Interventional Radiology for an embolization. He has a pseudo aneurysm in the pulmonary artery. They wonder if he was actually hit twice today and they watch the body cam footage, but it is clear he was only shot once.
They tell Sam that the embolization went well but the bullet had eroded into the vessel wall and with the injury today, it had caused the old bullet to move and begin to bleed severely. They find out he was shot in the past but his wife did not know and it was 50/50 of whether to remove the bullet and they decided to leave it in, and his wife overhears this and is very angry that he did not tell her.
Dr. Scott approaches one of the other officers to ask if there have been any other reported injuries from the shooting this morning and he says not that he knows of, but it is still dangerous out there.
Dr. Scott is called back in to help, and Sam is coding and bleeding out into his chest. They take him to the ICU to stabilize him. To treat the bleeding, his wife needs to choose whether or not to do a stent, which means a lifetime of blood thinners and he cannot go back into the field or a thoracotomy, which would be more invasive procedure but a less restrictive outcome after. She initially asks for the stent, but both Dr. Choi and Dr. Scott feel Sam would want the thoracotomy and so they speak with her again and show her the body camera footage that showed how much he loves her. After that, she agrees to the thoracotomy.
When Dylan is leaving, Milena is waiting for him, and tells him she may have been made. Dylan says he understands she needs to get off the grid and she cannot stay with him as it is not safe but says he has a friend who owns a building where she may be able to hide our and he goes over to speak with Will. She also tells him her real name is Jo, and he says they will get her safe.
At the end of the episode, Ethan goes to see Gerald, and sees a whole bunch of family photos on the mantle. Gerald tells Ethan he felt that they were all his family too and that for 50 years they had a life together but no one could know. He asks Ethan if he would like a drink, and he says yes. Gerald asks him if he would like to hear a funny story about him and his dad and a bottle of Scotch after the Gulf war, and Ethan says yes, he would like to hear it. This was such a lovely way to end the episode, and it is really wonderful for Ethan to finally be able to see a different side of his father, after how difficult their relationship was.
I can only imagine what the One Chicago Team has in store for the season finales which are up next, and I am sure we need to be prepared to hold on tight for a wild ride!
What did you think of this episode of Chicago Med? Share your thoughts in the comments below.