Dr. Charles could have had a powerful story.
He spent the hour trying to find answers about a patient's suicide while her husband refused to let her go despite her irreversible coma. Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 10 offered a sad story, but it wasn't as emotional as it might have been because of how it was all resolved.
[Note: This review contains discussions of suicide that could be upsetting for some readers.]
The story started perfectly, with June's husband asking why his wife chose to end her life and blaming himself while Charles reassured him that it wasn't his fault.
Nathan: What if the problem was me? Bad husband, neglecting her... what if I"m ther season she jumped?
Charles: Nathan, no. The reasons people take their own lives are mysterious and complex and it's rarely any one thing or one person.
Charles' reassurance probably seemed like empty words to Nathan.
All he knew was that his wife killed herself for no apparent reason. Nathan thought her life was perfect -- except for his inattention because of his work -- and that the only reason she would want to end her life was because of his absence.
This was a perfect set-up for a moving mental health story in which Nathan grappled with the understanding that sometimes there are no answers. June might have seemed to have it all, but she still had severe enough depression that she decided that suicide was the only answer to her suffering.
Learning that June was depressed and secretly seeing a therapist, but it didn't work, would have hit Nathan hard. He would have questioned why she didn't tell him, but it also would have been a realistic, gripping story about suicide.
Charles could have spent the bulk of the hour offering Nathan support and helping him to let go of June even though she would never wake up to tell him why she had kept her suffering secret until it got to this point.
Unfortunately, Med decided not to go in that direction, instead making Charles question whether June had meant to kill herself. Once the story went in that direction, there were only two possibilities.
Either Nathan pushed June and then claimed she jumped, or she had been sleepwalking and accidentally fell off the balcony. Thankfully, it turned out to be the second option.
As disappointing as this story was, it would have been worse if Nathan became a killer. This would have been a terrible plot twist!
Chicago Med Missed an Opportunity to Explore Psychiatry's Dark Side Again
Chicago Med has been exploring psychiatry's dark side all season long, so it would have made more sense for June's death to result from substandard psychiatric care.
Dr. Charles could have been familiar with the psychiatrist in question, causing a conflict of interest. Ripley could have put in his two cents about whether psychiatry is any better now than it was when he was a teenager.
Instead, Ripley wasn't even there. What was up with that?
Chicago Med was probably rotating cast members because of budget cuts. Still, Ripley's absence was strange.
Not only has Ripley been the loudest voice speaking up against questionable psychiatric practices, but he's also refusing to settle Palvo's nonsensical lawsuit out of court.
This doesn't seem like the time for him to disappear!
Is Zola Gone Permanently?
Sharon gave Marcel a throwaway line about the board deciding to fire Zola, but it doesn't make sense for her to vanish permanently.
She'd only joined the Med team at the beginning of the season, so her disappearance seemed abrupt. Besides, how often was Will Halstead fired and rehired after breaking hospital rules?
Zola was often a pain in the butt, so losing her isn't a significant loss. Yet she seemed like a textbook case of an undiagnosed neurodivergent person, and Med had never had a neurodivergent doctor before.
The Good Doctor is ending, y'all, so we'll be left without any neurodivergent doctors on TV unless other medical dramas give us some. Zola learning she's neurodivergent could have been a fascinating story that would make her a more compelling character.
In any case, her firing deserved more than a "by-the-way" announcement from Sharon Goodwin as she walked down the hall, which is another reason there's likely more to this story.
Maggie and Loren's Story Was Predictable but Entertaining
Maggie and Loren's story was easy to guess. Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 10 spoilers suggested that Maggie and Loren would be involved in an accident and that Loren might die before he and Maggie could explore their relationship.
Loren didn't die, though he was hanging on by a thread for a bit, so this wasn't a depressing storyline.
Instead, Maggie had to MacGyver a surgery for him while they were stranded, and Loren finally confessed he loved her moments before passing out.
I wasn't sure whether Loren had survived enough for the search and rescue team to show up finally. Then I remembered this is Med, which loves these miracle rescues and cures.
Sure enough, after the commercial, Loren was OK and wheeled into the hospital, and everyone congratulated Maggie on her innovative intubation skills.
Yawn. But at least Loren didn't die, which would have been horrible. Maggie's been through enough without losing her new man the second they're ready to open their hearts to each other.
Maggie and Ben split for the sake of drama, but Loren is an acceptable alternative if she's not planning on reconciling with Ben. He's handsome, intelligent, and treats Maggie like ane qual.
That's a winning combination!
Archer's Story Took a Tragic Turn
Greg Sanders shooting Perry underscored why the hospital had that policy about not allowing guns on campus.
I'm not sure why Sanders got away with no charges. He was on the hospital grounds when he shot Perry, so he was violating the law about guns not being allowed at the hospital, which Archer had been sure to point out was a felony.
I guess everyone was supposed to have sympathy for him because he "now knew what it was like to shoot to kill." But he violated hospital rules even after Archer informed him he couldn't have a gun at the hospital.
This accident happened because Sanders had a gun instead of getting treatment for PTSD.
Perry's out-of-control behavior triggered Sanders' fear of the man who had mugged him, and he shot indiscriminately.
This is no different than some of the behavior people have accused cops of engaging in. Sanders wasn't a cop, but he was acting on pure adrenalin, and that's a problem.
This is why guns are not allowed on hospital grounds. There's too much potential for a misunderstanding to turn into a gunfight.
Still, all's well that ends well. Perry was fine and ready to accept treatment for his drug addiction, and Archer encouraged Perry to get help while Sanders asked the nurse to pass on his apologies for what he'd almost done.
Marcel's Scenes Bookended The Episode
Marcel beginning and ending the hour by thanking the organ donor and removing the organs was an effective and interesting way to frame the episode.
He finally got the lungs in the end, too, finally ending Carson's storyline. It was too convenient, but it got me in the feels, so I'll ignore how blatant the coincidence here was.
What did you think, Chicago Med fanatics?
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Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8/9c. New episodes stream the following day on Peacock.
What did you think, Chicago Med fanatics?