Chicago Med – Look Closely and You Might Hear the Truth – Review

As our friends at Gaffney try to navigate the turbulent waters of their new majority stock holder Jack Dayton, we see some differences in opinions around what would be the best future for the hospital. We also continue to see them navigate love and personal challenges with the love and support of their team members.

Dr. Charles, Liliana, Maggie, Sandy and Aidan

Lilliana is really excited that she has bought a house and invites Daniel to celebrate and have dinner with her and her brother. Dr. Hudgins comes to get Dr. Charles and asks him to see his patient, who is deaf and was clipped by a motorcycle. They asked to see a psychiatrist. Sandy, his sister, is interpreting, and tells Dr. Charles that her brother Aidan is hearing voices.

Aidan was not born deaf. He says that the voices he hears are kind, and he is excited to be able to hear again. Dr. Charles runs some tests to rule out anything neurological, and everything comes back normal, so he feels that likely this is early onset schizophrenia. Dr. Charles warns Aidan that the voices could become unpleasant in the future, and with his sister translating, he agrees to treatment.

Aidan becomes highly agitated, and is upset that they took away the voices, and they have to restrain and sedate him. Dr. Charles is concerned that his sister is not translating the correct information so he takes Maggie with him who signs, and she tells him the sister is not giving Aidan the correct information.

Maggie goes in to speak to Aidan and Sandy realizes she is caught. Sandy is angry that he won’t do something about the voices and leaves. Daniel goes to speak to Sandy, and she shares with him that she has had her own mental health struggles and he encourages her to share her experiences with him. Sandy and Aidan speak and begin to work things out.

Daniel has dinner with Liliana and her brother, and her brother is a bit rough around the edges, and Daniel is concerned he does not like him.

This was such a wonderful storyline, with Daniel being aware and astute to the needs of his patient and also the concerns that the patient is able to give informed consent. I also love seeing his relationship with Liliana blooming, and he so deserves to have things work out for him in the love department. He is such a kind and giving person as a professional, and it is wonderful to see someone returning that love and care on a personal level.

Dr. Archer, Sean, Dr. Asher, Kimberley and Kiera

Sean stops by to see Dean and offers to donate a kidney to him. Dean is angry at Hannah for telling him, when they ask him to see a patient. Dr. Archer goes to see a patient, Kimberley, who has a stem cell disease and who has been feeling unwell. Her daughter Keira is with her, and suddenly Kiera passes out. Kimberley has a pneumonia and Dr. Archer is treating her and she is asking about Kiera. He lets her know Dr. Asher is taking care of her.

Dr. Asher goes to care for Kiera, and they discuss she is pregnant, and she says she does not want her mother to know. She sends Kiera for an MRI and it turns out she is having an abdominal pregnancy and needs surgery to remove the baby, and Kiera begs to wait a few weeks longer as she is hoping the baby can be a stem cell donor for her mother, and she wants it to be viable.

Dr. Archer is upset and wants to tell Kimberley, but Dr. Asher reminds him that Kiera now has medical emancipation because she is pregnant. Suddenly Kiera suffers significant pain and they have to rush her to the OR. Dr. Archer tells Kimberley what is going on.

Kimberley comes to see Kiera and tells her they will get through this together and that everything will be okay if they are brave. Hannah says that Kimberley is lucky that she has a daughter willing to make such a generous act of love. Dean goes to see Sean and says that he is willing to accept his kidney if he wants to donate and is a match, and Sean says he needs to do this.

The dynamic between Dr. Asher and Archer has been one to watch ever since Hannah returned to the department. Dare we say it, they have become friends and it is clear that they care about each other, albeit in very different ways, with Hannah being kind and expressing her concerns, and Dean getting grumpy and upset if he is concerned or laughing it off. Regardless, it is clear that their friendship has grown out of mutual respect that was hard one by Hannah, and that he looks to her expertise to help his son to remain sober. It will be interesting to see how this relationship continues to develop over the seasons to come.

Sharon Goodwin, Dr. George Thomas, Dr. Halstead, Dr. Abrams, Dr. Song and Vernon

Dr. Halstead and Dr. Song discuss the benefits and problems with a hospital becoming for-profit. George and Sharon are meeting with a Board Member, Vernon, who could be the deciding vote to keep Jack from getting the 2/3 majority he needs to turn Chicago Med into a for profit hospital. Vernon says he is with them, when he suddenly complains of a headache and almost passes out.

Dr. Halstead is checking Vernon out in the ED when suddenly he has a grand mal seizure. They do a CT scan and he has a brain tumor. Dr. Abrams speaks to his wife, and she decides she wants to treat the condition more cautiously. Vernon is intubated and they are having trouble controlling his seizures. Dr. Halstead takes the images to Dr. Song and asks if the OR 2.0 mapping technology would help Dr. Abrams resect the tumor, and Phyllis (his wife) consents to the craniotomy using the OR 2.0.

They are able to completely resect the tumor and Jack wants to know when Vernon will be extubated. Grace accuses Will of acting like a cowboy and he says he came out of concern for the patient. Vernon wakes up and seems to be fine, and he asks to go to the board meeting via videoconference, and they agree.

Maggie goes to speak to Goodwin and tells her she lied to her and earlier that day she was meeting with a headhunter because with all the changes, she wanted to see what was out there because she has a bad feeling about the direction Jack is taking the hospital.

Jack was able to get his vote to pass and the hospital is now going to be a for-profit organization. Vernon flipped at the last minute because he was so impressed with OR 2.0 and wanted to support the hospital bringing in any new technology of this sort.

There were so many layers to this story line, that it is hard to select just one to focus on. Grace and Will are moving along nicely on the romantic front, but will their opposing ideas about what is right for Gaffney create friction and ultimately destroy what they are building? George and Sharon seem to be growing closer…will we get to see Goodwin have some romance finally? Maggie and several team members are very wary of the future of Med with Dayton at the helm – will we lose more of our favorite characters? And what will happen to Med under the control of Jack Dayton – will our favorite hospital be ruined as they become a for-profit hospital?

Dr. Marcel, Dr. Tanaka-Reid and Brendan

They welcome back Kai after his recovery and the residents are teasing him about what happened when he passed out in the OR. A patient, Brendan, comes in by ambulance after he tried to stop a bank robbery and was shot. Dr. Marcel and Dr. Tanaka-Reid examine him and clearly Dr. Tanaka-Reid is having confidence issues after what has happened. Dr. Marcel reminds him with how he lorded over others in the past of course they would try to knock him down a peg if they had the chance and to not let it get to him, but he is clearly upset and unwilling to admit it.

They take Brendan to the OR. As Dr. Tanaka-Reid and Dr. Marcel are operating, Dr. Marcel is called out of the OR. He tells Kai to take over the anastomosis until he returns, and tells the team he can handle it. The surgery goes fine, and Kai says he knows he is lying to him but is appreciative nonetheless.

This shows Crockett’s amazing ability to have compassion for others and be supportive as a mentor/teacher, even if that person may not particularly deserve it. Crockett has such a big heart, and considering what a cowboy he was when he joined Med several years ago, perhaps he sees a bit of himself in Kai. Whatever the reason, Kai is lucky to have a supervisor who cares and believes in his skills.

With only a few weeks left of the season and the fate of Gaffney hanging in the balance, I am sure our Wolf writing team has some exciting twists and turns and cliff hangers to keep us coming back for more.

What did you think of this episode of Chicago Med? Share your thoughts in the comments below.