SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago Med Season 12, Episode 4.
Chicago Med Season 12, Episode 4 is full of stuff we’re going to talk about later. “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is a fitting title for an hour of television that is largely setting up plot points for the rest of the season. That doesn’t make it less entertaining, though, because the NBC series runs the gamut of emotions in 42 minutes.
The main plotline is intriguing because it gives fans a glimpse into the life of one of the show’s longest-tenured supporting characters. Dr. Sam Abrams is surprised when his ex-wife Cynthia, who has multiple sclerosis, is brought into the ED. Abrams, as played by Brennan Brown, is one of the recurring players who helps the world of Chicago Med feel complete—but he’s often just stopping by to help with someone else’s story.
It’s nice to have a plot that allows the audience to learn more about him and his family, with the usual dose of snarkiness that Abrams always brings. And while it’s revealed that his daughter Lucy has severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and needs inpatient care, the storyline doesn’t feel like a loss. It feels like it’ll be hard, but the family will find a way through.
And there needs to be some hope, because Chicago Med hands Dr. Hannah Asher (and the audience) a whopper. Asher has to perform an emergency cesarean section for her patient Jessa, only for the baby to pass away shortly after delivery. That would be terrible enough, but to make it even worse, Jessa’s husband reveals that she suffered two miscarriages before this pregnancy. And oh, she’s also now experiencing temporary amnesia, so she doesn’t remember anymore that her baby’s dead. This all kind of feels like piling on, both on Jessa and on viewers.
At least it allows Jessy Schram to give a great performance—because now that she has become a mother, it’s even harder for Hannah to face the loss of a child. Both Schram and Steven Weber are excellent here as Archer comforts Hannah while also being honest with her, as a parent himself. And the final scene of the two of them together, while surrounded by potential Halloween costumes for Mabel, is truly heartwarming. (It’s also another nice reminder that the Chicago Med writing staff isn’t going to forget about Mabel any time soon.)
On the hate side of the spectrum, there’s more one-sided hospital infighting. If anyone needed another reason to dislike Annie Wu after her treatment of Sharon Goodwin and the shenanigans she pulled with Dr. Mitch Ripley, they get it here with how she treats Dr. John Frost. When Frost mentions that he’s applying to be chief resident, it couldn’t be more obvious that Annie is trying to talk him out of it for her own benefit if she were standing under a neon sign.
Later on, she takes the credit for his idea in front of Archer. The only good thing about this plotline is that Frost overhears Annie saying she was “running unopposed” for the chief resident position and decides to put his application in after all. But it will be a great day when Chicago Med gets to the episode where she’s knocked down a peg.
Plus, Ripley Watch continues as Miranda—through her right-hand woman Mallory—announces that Ripley will be Archer’s replacement as chief of the Emergency Department. This is news to Ripley, and it’ll be incredibly fun and interesting to see how he handles it. Not only in terms of his ongoing personal development as a character, but in terms of what that will mean for his relationship with Dr. Caitlin Lenox, and it doesn’t have to necessarily be in a negative way.
Obviously, he’s going to tell Lenox about this involuntary promotion, and she might give him some valuable input. And when she comes back, it’ll be exciting to see how she thinks he did in her job. But also, will becoming interim chief of the ED unwittingly put Ripley in the crossfire of what’s going on between Goodwin and Miranda? Because he probably won’t handle that much better than Archer.
Goodwin gets a bit of a personal subplot here when her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Dennis Washington, returns to the hospital because he’s the oncologist for Ripley’s patient. While he tells Goodwin that he misses her, she doesn’t get a chance to respond, and they ultimately part as friends. At the same time, his reappearance is a reminder of what else Miranda has taken from Goodwin—who learns from lawyer Peter Kalmick that her nemesis had a secret meeting, plotting to make herself the hospital’s next CEO.
From a fan point of view, the question is what’s going to make this plotline different from the other times hospital bigwigs have tried to cause trouble? But at least there’s clarity now on where the Miranda vs. Goodwin storyline will be going.
There’s so much in “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” that’s clear foreshadowing. Whether it’s Miranda’s master plan, Annie and Frost now in a battle for chief resident, Ripley suddenly getting another promotion, or even the continued growth in Hannah and Archer’s relationship—this is an episode that’s more about laying long-term groundwork than immediate entertainment. Those kinds of episodes often fall flat, because they’re so focused on looking ahead that less effort is given to what’s happening in the moment.
But Chicago Med Season 12, Episode 4 avoids that pitfall because it gives the audience reasons to get excited about the foreshadowing, and it uses its other time to shine a spotlight on a character who normally isn’t at center stage. Plus, the actors on this show are still so good. This may not be the most thrilling episode on its own, but it generates a lot more momentum for an already intriguing season.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.
