Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 20 delivered on the episode title of “Hell Breaks Loose,” because that’s exactly what happened when a prison fight led patients—both officers and inmates—overwhelming the ED.
Everyone was doing their best to navigate the sheer number of people relying on them, especially as tensions were at an all-time high for many reasons.
There was the elephant in the room between Caitlin Lennox and Mitch Ripley, as he found out about her positive prion diagnosis after a chat with her brother, and when he tried to talk it through with her, she snapped at him.
There were the lingering effects of John Frost’s altercation with his ailing father, after pulling out of the Nick of Time reboot, which he only agreed to join because he wanted to pay for his father’s treatment, when Ainsley, the woman who groomed him when he was just a kid, also joined the series.
And there was Theo’s decision to paint Dr. Charles as unstable while officially gunning for his job with a scheduled presentation to the board, highlighting his suggested desire to replace humans with machines to eliminate the human component from difficult decisions.
That’s not all, though, as Hannah Asher went into labor, but remained in denial that it was happening because she didn’t want to make a fuss over herself, while Dr. Archer remained too afraid to tell her that he was in love with her, despite his son advising him that things would only get more complicated once they welcomed a baby girl together… imminently.
And that was just the interpersonal dynamics and workings of Gaffney, without the added layer of a very dangerous convict, with alleged anger issues, who was doing life in prison for murder, escaping, and roaming the hospital halls with a gun and some kind of agenda.
The hospital went into lockdown, forcing Caitlin and Mitch into one room to finally confront the issue at hand, with Caitlin expressing that because of her terminal disease, she wanted to keep things fun, but he made that extremely difficult. She eventually confessed that she’d fallen in love with him. Human emotion has never been her strong suit, and knowing that she has an expiration date, she tried to keep the emotions out of it before surprising even herself. These two may just be my favorite couple on the show right now. Mitch has been rather confused by her impulsive behavior, but once he finally put together the pieces, it all began to make sense, and no one sees her more clearly now. Will she accept it, though? There’s nothing scarier than letting yourself be vulnerable.
Cailtin was also presented with a trial for her disease, and while she’s pretending to have accepted her fate, there’s no use in being a hero, as Dr. Abrams kindly suggested she change her mind and give it a shot.
Of course, the escaped murderer may have it out for Caitlin, as he took issue with how she was speaking to her team, calling her out for being mean. Is she his target? And will Caitlin act rashly due to her illness?
Meanwhile, Hannah’s decision to push aside the contractions worked against her. By the time she realized it was time to hang up the scrubs and be a mom, the hospital went into lockdown, and her patient was in active labor. Hannah was the only person who could deliver the baby, but her water also broke right there in the room with no other doctors present. Terrible timing, but that’s the thing about babies—they don’t care.
Johnathan finally got an apology from his mother about his childhood in Hollywood, and though his father knew about his relationship with Ainsley, his mother had no idea, as she assured him she would’ve stopped it and protected him. John’s anger and distrust of his parents are understandable, but his father’s illness puts him in a tough spot, especially as his mother tells him that he’s in hospice now, as the treatments weren’t working. It’s only a matter of time before his dad is no longer here, so he’ll have to make amends while he still can, even if he’s not ready to dole out forgiveness.
John also realized that the patient who was brought in initially for starting the fight in the prison wasn’t being treated fairly, and possibly even set up. He told Naomi (my second favorite coupling on the series) that the guy was in jail because of one bad decision that derailed his entire future—felony murder simply because he was in the car while his friends went to rob a house and ended up killing someone. There’s more to the story here, and Frost and Naomi may be the doctors to help find some justice for the silenced, even if it goes beyond the scope of their job.
Dr. Charles and Sharon Goodwin were ready to put up a fight against Theo Rabari, who seemed hellbent on destroying the long-tenured doctor, noting that he wasn’t objective in his decision-making. It’s not a secret that Dr. Charles has been through a lot this year, but he’s also a fantastic doctor with years of experience who genuinely cares about his patients and always tries to weigh all his options before making a decision. Oftentimes, the gig requires him to make the tough calls, which Theo believes a machine can make instead. Here’s the thing: I don’t disagree with either of them—I think there’s a happy medium where a machine and a human can work together to make the right call; however, Theo’s vendetta against Dr. Charles was personal, and he clocked that.
After Theo commented on being sick of dealing with doctors who misdiagnose, Dr. Charles began to do a little digging of his own, noticing there was nothing from med school or his residency, eventually diagnosing his antisocial personality disorder, which explains Theo’s behavior, including his lack of empathy.
It’s unclear how things between Dr. Charles and Theo will shake out, but I don’t believe Dr. Charles is planning on leaving Med anytime soon. In fact, he’s more determined than ever to stick around and do right by his patients, and as one of the only remaining stars that’s been here since the beginning, we definitely don’t want to lose him. We’ve really been able to dig into his character properly thanks to that longevity.
The penultimate episode set the scene for what’s sure to be an explosive season 11 finale of Chicago Med coming up. How do you think it will end? What’s been your favorite storyline so far? Do you like that they’ve managed to dig deep into all of these characters?