After knocking it out of the park last week, Chicago Med Season 9×12 “Get by With a Little Help From My Friends” settles back into some of the show’s old habits. There are some plot choices that are genuine head-scratchers, and a story that doesn’t get the screen time it deserves. But the things that the episode does right, it does very right.
The main plotline in the episode belongs to Dr. Crockett Marcel, and in the most painful way possible, it shows how far Crockett has come since his introduction. When Crockett’s nemesis Dr. Justin Morris calls him a “cowboy,” it’s laughable because that absolutely doesn’t describe him in Season 9—but it would have back in Season 5, when he was being flippant and just hanging out in the Emergency Department. While not all of Crockett’s storylines have worked (like the iffy choice to pair him up with Natalie), the character has developed way beyond being a pale imitation of Dr. Connor Rhodes into someone who has wisdom and authority… the latter of which bites him in the behind here.
Crockett is once again faced with a young transplant patient who’s in dire straits (see: Season 9, Episode 10, “You Just Might Find You Get What You Need”). This time, he has a liver for young Colin, but doesn’t know if he can actually perform the transplant because the kid develops an infection from an ingrown toenail. Crockett is at first insistent that he can treat the infection and get Colin the liver he needs, but naturally time runs out and he’s forced at a board meeting to decide whether to go ahead with the procedure or pass the organ to the next patient on the transplant list. It feels like just a bit of a cop-out that Chicago Med doesn’t actually show him making that call and the reaction of the other doctors, because that would have been something to see. It’s not until Crockett breaks the news to Colin’s father that audiences learn he gave up the transplant—a choice that other doctors on this show may not have made.
So much of every TV medical drama is the protagonists fighting for their patient at any cost, but rarely do audiences get storylines where they choose something that’s to their detriment. Crockett’s position in the hospital hierarchy allows for Med to go this route, and it says a lot about his character that he’d fall on his sword like that. He’d rather save one life than proceed with a risky transplant and possibly kill two patients. But he does have to face the consequences, and it is downright cringe-worthy when Colin—being taken out of the hospital since he won’t be having his surgery—asks Crockett if he’s going to die. Crockett can’t answer him and the show clearly wants the audience to feel a certain way. Based on the promo for Chicago Med‘s season finale, it’s likely that poor Colin isn’t long for this world. But damned if Dominic Rains doesn’t ride that emotional roller coaster very well.
Elsewhere, Chicago Med is giving us the continued adventures of Dr. Mitch Ripley and his childhood friend Sully, which took a major turn in Season 9, Episode 11, “I Think There Is Something You’re Not Telling Me” when Sully’s pregnant girlfriend Lynne was introduced. The good news is that Sully is starting chemotherapy; the bad news is that Lynne is delivering their baby early. Let’s take a second and appreciate that the show has created two genuinely interesting supporting characters who are actually worth following around for multiple episodes. Sully could’ve been a one and done stereotype simply added to screw up Ripley’s life, but instead the viewers are invested in him, Lynne and what they mean to and for Ripley.
This subplot means that Hannah and Ripley get to deliver a baby, albeit with some emergency medical intervention by the latter. In the midst of the drama, though, the actors work in some quirks that give this subplot its own unique personality. Ripley is insistent on supporting Lynne when he takes her down to see Hannah, but he’s also clearly a little uncomfortable when Lynne wants him to stay while Hannah does her examination, because he’s still a dude. And when Sully barges into the hybrid OR as Lynne is in labor, the script gives Ripley a very Ripley line, delivered absolutely perfectly by Luke Mitchell: “Sit down, shut up and hold her hand.”
Chicago Med uses all of this for Ripley to clear an important personal hurdle: he tells Hannah about his backstory, albeit just the basic facts. This is a huge step in the development of Ripley as a lead character, and the way it’s written is interesting in the sense that it’s obvious, but also makes sense. Ripley gets a speech from Sully about how “you’re not that kid anymore” and to take stock of what he’s done. It’s a little heavy-handed to monologue Ripley into self-realization, yet it carries weight because this positive reinforcement comes from Sully—the character who represents that negative past. Ripley is hearing that he’s the only one holding his past against him.
We’re not out of the woods yet, though. The show needs to treat this step forward in Ripley’s journey with the gravity it deserves and not simply use it as a plot point in his romance with Hannah. The finale promo also seems focused on them as a couple, and it’s important for Chicago Med to remember that Ripley has an individual journey to take that is completely separate from that. He shouldn’t be defined by his romantic entanglements, just like he shouldn’t be defined by his past (and neither is Hannah, for that matter). The ball is rolling, but if the finale just forgets all this and focuses on Ripley and Hannah hooking up, then this great character development will turn into an equally major disappointment.
Speaking of disappointments, “Get by With a Little Help From My Friends” has some of those, too. The Goodwin and Bert storyline continues on after Bert unknowingly starts a fire in his kitchen, allowing for some Chicago Fire cameo appearances by Joe Minoso and Hanako Greensmith. Goodwin originally plans for Bert to stay in Med’s convalescent ward, but when he begs to go home, she decides to move him in with her. Dr. Daniel Charles is right when he says this isn’t a long-term solution nor a good idea, and the only way this plot ends is in more angst for Goodwin. It’s a bit reminiscent of when Chicago Med reunited Charles with his ex-wife CeCe, only to kill her off. At least Paula Newsome is doing great work on CSI: Vegas.
And since actor John Earl Jelks was already guest-starring in the episode with Dr. Washington administering Sully’s chemo treatment, why didn’t Washington pop up at some point to check on Goodwin? Even if he didn’t get involved in the Bert of it all, one thinks Sharon’s boyfriend would’ve heard something, especially after she nearly fainted in the ED. Even a quick check-in or even a mention of him would’ve helped here.
That’s not as much a missed opportunity as what happens with Maggie, though. Chicago Med is lucky enough to land Justified and La Brea star Natalie Zea for a guest spot as nurse Jackie Nelson, comes up with a relevant plot about nurses being overworked and Jackie resorting to self-harm, and then doesn’t give it as much screen time as it deserves. There are one or two big moments, such as Jackie being literally pulled out of the ED when Charles decides to put her on a psychiatric hold. But Zea is such a fantastic actress, and this storyline could’ve been so much more, that what viewers get feels incomplete.
One of the problems that this show has is sometimes trying to cram too many stories into one 42-minute episode, and this is a casualty of that. The episode would’ve felt fine if it ditched the minor plot of Dr. Dean Archer getting scolded for being too hard on med student Naomi Howard—it’s time to admit that the med students haven’t been interesting on this show since Jeff Clarke—and devoted that screen time to Jackie, Charles and Maggie Lockwood.
Sure, that would’ve left Steven Weber without anything to do, but with how the One Chicago shows have been giving characters episodes off all season, an Archer-less episode wouldn’t have even fazed the audience. And on that note, can the series also get back to the Hannah and Archer friendship, which also seems to have gone by the wayside after the writers decided to pair up Hannah and Ripley? Archer and Asher were a pleasant surprise, particularly in Season 8, and it should be possible to follow more than one relationship for a character at a time.
Chicago Med Season 9, Episode 12 scores when it focuses on Marcel and Ripley’s characters, and lets their personalities shine through. It’s less successful with the stories that feel clearly developed to create angst, or that just aren’t fleshed out well enough. But if the finale can trust its characters and the actors who play them, rather than trying to overthink about what it has to be, Season 9 is going to end as one of the show’s better seasons in a long time. All of the potential is there and the flashes of brilliance are there; the writers simply have to act on it.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. This article is exclusive to Fangirlish and if reproduced or excerpted anywhere else, has been stolen without the author’s permission.
