Chicago Med 7×22 “And Now We Come To The End” was, overall, a decent season finale. Even with a few big moments and some important lessons about how trying to protect the people we love can backfire, it didn’t attempt to be too flashy or too much of an Event™.
Or. Eh. At least the heavy shocks came toward the end instead of, you know, forcing them. Basically, the finale didn’t give the “trying too hard” vibe that’s been on trend for far too many years.
[kofi]
That’s not to say that nothing mattered, or that the seventh season finale didn’t leave us in a “wtf, what’s next” kind of place heading into next season. This is, after all, Dick Wolf Entertainment. It’s One Chicago, even, so that means we have to get that extra kick in the throat to end the hour.
Was the episode without its problems? No. But did it fit with where we’ve been and give us a logical idea of we’re going next? Yes. At this point, especially with a series that’s been kind of up and down—and kind of…”disappear one blonde, just to replace her with another” or whatever—we call that a win.
So, let’s discuss Chicago Med 7×22 “And Now We Come To The End” in detail. And then, we’ll do that thing we do where we whine about hiatus all summer. As one does.
Faith, restored
We were worried about Dr. Charles there for a minute, but honestly, we should have known better. There was, of course, never really a time when we had much of a doubt in his abilities to take care of patients. Even in Chicago Med 7×22, he was out here, doing consultations when he wasn’t even supposed to be working.
Because that’s what he does—that’s who he is. And that’s what dedication looks like in a profession like this. It is, if you watch certain other medical dramas, the exact opposite of the (poor) example of (feckless) leadership we were recently subjected to there. Enough of that other guy, though.
Obviously, the ongoing problem with Dr. Charles has been that he…actually pursued a relationship with Lonnie. As in, his therapist, Dr. Lonnie Richardson. We’ve said plenty of times that it was a terrible idea for a lot of reasons. Thankfully, Dr. Charles didn’t need anything in his life to fall apart for him to realize the relationship was inappropriate.
In fact, everything seemed just fine on the surface. He was worried about telling Anna, but Anna was basically like, “eh, that’s weird. But if you’re happy, I’m happy.” And then, Dr. Charles was like, “hey, self. This actually is weird, and we’re not ok with it.” If there was ever any doubt, the way Lonnie put on her “Dr. Richardson” hat and started shrinking him about his intimacy issues—when, again, the problem was that dating your therapist, former or otherwise, is just a bad idea—pretty much removed all such doubt.
But speaking of mental health, though…WTF
So. Maggie and Dr. Scott had a patient, Donna, who was dying. But no, she wasn’t dying of liver disease—not really. She was dying of alcoholism. A very real, debilitating mental illness. Without her addiction, her liver probably would have been fine. I’m not sure why that even needs to be explained to anyone at all, but someone at Chicago Med seems to not understand that alcoholism, or really addiction in any form, is a very serious, deadly disease.
Then again, maybe it’s someone higher up at Dick Wolf Entertainment who doesn’t understand that concept, considering. Remember the absolutely unforgivable misrepresentation of what an alcoholic in recovery looks like that SVU 23×21 force-fed us? It aired, on the same network, just 13 days prior to Chicago Med 7×22. And. Um. This writer remembers—will never forget, in fact.
So, yeah. Maybe it’s not just one show; maybe it’s a problem across the board. Except…Mental illness was treated with care, portrayed as legitimate, and its effects on loved ones were handled beautifully, when it came to the situation between Stevie Hammer and her mom. Or, it was right up until the point where they seemed to have come to some sort of peace before Stevie…disappeared.
So, let addicts rot alone…but exercise care with other mental illnesses???? Ok.
By the time Donna—who, again, was on her deathbed—actually had a family member show up for her, she was unconscious. So, her daughter came to the hospital, asked if dear ol’ Mom could hear her in her nearly-dead state, and then…
Well.
“If you’re expecting forgiveness or compassion, it’s not coming. You don’t deserve it…”
Girl, what? This is literally how you should talk to someone who purposely preyed on women, then tried to manipulate them with excuses while faking amends, a la that guy in the aforementioned SVU episode. It…your dying mom, though? Yikes. Did the scripts get mixed up or something???
And before anyone starts: Yeah, I know what it is to have to separate yourself from a parent whose mental illness has made them unrecognizable, to the point where you don’t know who they are—the person you loved is, like, basically dead—so. Then again, that parent, for me, isn’t an addict. So. These shows probably would’ve written me coming to her bedside and sobbing if she were about to die, which um. Exactly.
Anyway. Back to the Chicago Med and away from my baggage…
“You’re already dead. You died for me a long time ago.”
…and that was just part of it. I’m not even saying the daughter was wrong to be upset, or that she didn’t need to “get it out,” as Dr. Charles put it. We don’t owe the people who hurt us anything. Especially when they were supposed to be the ones to love and protect us.
However.
There is a very delicate line between letting the daughters of addicts tell our truths, however painful and fueled with anger they may be…and allowing media to demonize people who are sick.
Oddly enough, this daughter loved her “already dead to me” mother and did come back to say a proper goodbye. Viewers just…didn’t get to see it. We did see Maggie’s shock over the situation, and how it led her to finally arranging the meet-up between Vanessa and her biological father, though. Which was good!
But then, there’s Dr. Scott’s line about “no matter how bad the parent is,” and like…Again. I guess Stevie’s mom’s mental illness was worth recognizing for what it was. But in this universe, addiction is just people being shit.
Cool. Thanks. I hate it.
Gratitude is not love
Chicago Med 7×22 really threw all the problems with Hannah and Will’s relationship, such as it was, back in their faces. And, of course, it did it through them disagreeing on how best to treat a patient. As this series does.
For the record, Hannah was right: It was wrong for Owen to basically con Julia into saving his life. If he wanted to break up with her, he should’ve broken up with her instead of stringing her along and waiting for a kidney. The whole relationship was just…not good. And Owen knew that—he just needed a gentle nudge in the right direction, which Hannah gave to him when he started the conversation in the gift shop.
Will just wanted to save a life, regardless. Which. Ok. Will’s gonna Will or whatever. It just…ick, in this case.
Lucky for Owen, April really loved him…because, for as upset as she was, she still wanted to donate her kidney—even after he came clean and dumped her. Basically, if you look at this finale as a message on anything, it’s all about loving people, wanting to protect or save them, and making choices—right or wrong, usually wrong—accordingly.
But we said the Hannah and Will of it all tied back into the addiction conversation, which the kidney dilemma did not. Instead, the personal moment Hannah and Will had at the end of the episode made all the difference. Yes, it is “all a little weird, Will,” and yes, it was the “worst meet cute in history,” Hannah. And then, from there, it just. got. worse.
Because Will did Will things, Hannah was not in a good place with her addiction, and mixing all of that together created a complete disaster. Weirdly, Chicago Med hasn’t shown Hannah the same utter disrespect since her return as it did to Dr. Scott’s patient in this finale. Or, see also, she’s kind of kicked recovery ass since she’s been back, whereas she was decidedly not doing well (she was in active addiction) when we, and Dr. Halstead, first met her.
Is it possible for them to have a fresh start? Jury’s out. But if they’re ever going to get out of their unhealthy pattern from before, they certainly needed to at least acknowledge that their original beginning was…not great.
Don’t leave us?
Look: We just don’t want Sarah Rafferty to leave us, ok? Dr. Pamela Blake is good for Dr. Marcel. And, except when he’s making decisions that are…right for him, as a physician, and for him, as someone who doesn’t want to see someone he cares about die…Dr. Crockett Marcel is also good for Pamela Blake.
But we pretty much called it, the second Dr. Blake put her faith in Dr. Marcel at the beginning of Chicago Med 7×22, that him being able to make medical decisions on her behalf would not end well. They couldn’t. Crockett knows too much as a fellow surgeon. And for as much mutual vulnerability and trust he and Pamela have built in such a a short amount of time, he was never going to know what her wishes would be as well as her own daughter would. It just…no.
When your entire life has been spent working toward a single goal, the thought of not being able to do that thing you love anymore — that thing you’re so good at — is, sometimes, much scarier than death. There’s probably a bit of a toxic message in there, in terms of “I’m only worthy because of my work” or “if I’m not able, why live.” But Dr. Blake has internalized that, as too many of us do. So, “surgeon” is her identity —her life — for better or worse. Being a badass surgeon is who she is.
Her fear of not being able to do surgery anymore was what made her put off having the surgery she needed in the first place. Somewhere in all of his own fear, and in all of his typical “I know what’s best” Chicago Med characterization, he lost track of that.
We can’t even completely fault him for that. When you care, you care. Even when you do stupid shit because of it. We can fault him for a lot, like being criminally pretty. But we’ll never fault Dr. Marcel for caring, for using everything he’s learned to try to save a life…even if he did it in a big, dumb way.
We’ll also never fault Dominic Rains’ performance through the episode—from Crockett’s wonder at getting that piece of paper, to his awkward AF conversation with Avery, to his anxious backseat doctoring that got him thrown out of the operating theater.
But we will fault Chicago Med if they don’t find a way to give us more Sarah Rafferty. Because nobody does it like her. And we just don’t want to see Dr. Criminally Pretty living through all that guilt for too long. Let him process it, let her be pissed at him and frustrated as she works her way back to top doctoring shape —or even if she doesn’t — for a while…
…but then, in the end, let them both have peace.
Just let us all have peace, ok???
And now we come to the end of our Chicago Med 7×22 thoughts
- Hot Ethan, in dress uniform, handing over his dad’s flag to the man he just found out his dad loved, who loved his dad back. 100/10. Zero notes.
- …ok just one note: Sobbing.
- There is a fire. As a cliffhanger…Premiere crossover event? Except…Stellaride has, um, each other to do. So. Squad 3 and Truck 81 are each down a body. Not sorry.
- “Care to join me for a cup of ramen, neighbor?” Shut up. I know better than to get invested!
- “How could you do this to me?” “Your life was on the line.” Ok but the angst.
- I’m with Anna on the whole “never having a baby” thing. Good thing Dr. Charles prefaced his “right person” nonsense with “sometimes,” too, because like. When someone tells you they don’t want kids? That’s their decision. Don’t try to change their mind. Full stop.
- Bubbe Sharon. Yes, please. And she got to deliver the kid! With minimal TV “wrong place and time” drama instead of “omg someone’s got to die” drama. A win!
- Vanessa’s bio dad asked for consent before that hug instead of just expecting it. The right way to do it.
- “Despite all the pain and grief, she came back.” Me at my shows.
- “Sometimes, our parents say things and do things that make us angry, that we don’t understand until we can stand back a little and look at it differently.” Yup.
- “I never knew which version of you I was going to get: Paranoid and ranting Mom. Passed out on the floor mom…What the hell was wrong with you? Do you have any idea what you did to me? The misery you put me through?” The daughter gets to have this rant. Outsiders don’t get to judge. Fight me.
- “Sometimes, the urge to protect can do more harm than good.” Archer with legit advice since when.
- It was giving EO kidney scene vibes…until it wasn’t.
- “It all points to some dirty cop with sticky fingers.” So, Hank Voight?
- “You think I’d abandon you in the home stretch? Uh uh. We’re seeing this through together.” Also me at my shows. And on that note, we’ll see y’all next season.
Thoughts on Chicago Med 7×22 “And Now We Come To The End”? Drop us a comment!
Chicago Med returns to NBC this fall.
Do you know where I can find more pics from the scene at Ethan’s dad’s service? Looking for some with Dr. Archer in his uniform.