Chicago Med 7×07 Review: “A Square Peg In A Round Hole” commits to the one storyline this show has really, really pushed in the early part of season 7 – that of Stevie Hammer and her mother, to the show’s great benefit. If you’d told me before the season started Chicago Med could put the emotional weight of an episode in season 7 on two characters who only had a handful of episodes and not even that many interactions together, and that it would work, I would have laughed.
But it works. It really, really does.
Part of the reason is that the two characters, Stevie and Dylan, have been very well developed so far. The rest, of course is that the pieces around these two work very well – Ethan Choi is back, Will is using his Will-ness for good these days, and Dr. Charles is still what Iggy from New Amsterdam would love to be. And that’s without even going into how Sarah Rafferty is just out there fully channeling Donna Paulsen on my TV in the year of our Lord 2021.
However, the thing that tugs at our heartstrings, the character we’re rooting for above all things right now …is Stevie Hammer.
And we’re doing it because we understand her. Because yes, she’s made some wrong choices, but they’ve all felt like the kind of wrong choices we’d make, for the right reasons. A little like what Chicago P.D. attempts to do with Hank Voight, except without all the problematic part. Because the only person Stevie is hurting in this scenario is …herself.
Her mother is an adult. And boy, it sucks to say that, especially as what comes next is me saying …an adult who can make her own decisions. And yes, those decisions can be the wrong ones. They probably will be. But they are still hers to make, as hard as that is for Stevie to understand.
It’s an impossible situation, really, and I’m not sure I would handle it better if I were in her shoes. What do you do? Do you just give up? Can you fully trust someone like Stevie’s mom to take care of herself? Can Stevie even turn off the part of her brain that has been, in many ways, the parent for most of her life?
The answer is probably no. And that’s what makes it compelling television. There are no right answers, and this is not a regular story that we see on TV all the time. But that doesn’t mean it’s not real. That doesn’t mean there aren’t people going through similar stuff who deserve our understanding, our support and sometimes, yes …our forgiveness.
Not that it’s ours to give or take away. Not that it changes anything. But some things you cannot forgive yourself for, and occasionally, you need someone to tell you that it’s okay to put yourself first. No, not okay. It is, in fact, the only way to truly live.
Things I think I think:
- No, but someone needs to give Stevie a hug. Please.
- ETHAN!!
- We can’t say any of us agree with your sentiments about Dr. Archer, Ethan.
- This thing with Crocket is just leading to bad decisions all around, isn’t it?
- Dr. Charles seeing RIGHT THROUGH Vanessa isn’t what I expected.
- Goodwin with the nuclear option.
- LOOK, I LOVE STEVIE HAMMER, OKAY?
- Stevie and Dylan were killing me this episode.
- Even if – especially because – Stevie’s judgment was perhaps compromised.
- Casually doing drugs in the bathroom, CASUALLY. Like, I thought Dr. Cooper was bad before, you do realize that show?
- Dylan having Stevie’s back is my jam.
- Ethan and Will working together like they’re BFFs, funny.
- THE DONNA PAULSEN LOOK.
- I’m not saying no to Dylan and Stevie grabbing a beer, okay? I have my preferences from what they’ve given me so far, but I can let this play out.
- I’LL GRAB A BEER WITH YOU, DYLAN.
- Stevie coming clean was good, for her. But the reaction …well, it was kind of easy to see it coming, at least from the outside.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago Med 7×07 “A Square Peg In A Round Hole”? Share with us in the comments below!
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays on NBC.
