One Chicago performer of the week: Colin Donnell, Chicago Med

Our One Chicago Performer of the Week for the week of January 9 is Chicago Med star Colin Donnell for his work in the episode Ties That Bind.

It’s time to name another One Chicago Performer of the Week, and the star who impressed us the most this past week was Chicago Med actor Colin Donnell.

We say this a lot on this site, but when the stakes are highest and the pressure is on, Colin Donnell is always able to deliver. That was the case again in Tuesday’s installment “Ties That Bind.”

Dr. Connor Rhodes got gut-checked in this episode, and even though Chicago Med fans all knew it was coming, that didn’t make Colin’s performance any less impactful.

The dramatic thrust of the episode’s primary subplot relied on Connor reaching his breaking point, and we saw Colin deliver that and then some.

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It was a pleasant surprise (dramatically speaking; we still can’t stand the character) to see Connor’s father Cornelius Rhodes (D.W. Moffett) show up to pour salt in the wound at the absolute worst moment. He was probably the worst person Connor could have had to deal with now, and it took about five seconds for him to come out swinging against his dad.

It’s always fun to see the confrontations between those two, at the same time that Colin made us so incredibly proud of Connor for standing up against his dad for the woman he loved. That’s one of those scenes that’s built on emotion, and Colin Donnell was right on point delivering everything the audience wanted to see in that moment.

“Ties That Bind” required him to pinball through a variety of emotions, though. Aside from dealing with his father, Connor also had to try and console Robin (Mekia Cox), deal with her father, and still consult on a case. That’s a lot of different things going for one character, and one actor, and Colin hit each note without getting any of them confused.

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What really won us over, though, was watching that last scene between Connor and Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt), when Connor confronted Dr. Charles about Robin’s departure.

At that moment, Chicago Med gave us a man having an utter meltdown. Colin wasn’t just playing a man who was upset and angry that his girlfriend had left him; you could feel the frustration and a little bit of desperation—he’d done everything he could do to help her, going back to last season, and it wasn’t supposed to end like this. He wasn’t going to let it end like this.

That scene was the culmination of a story arc harkening back to season 2, and it rested squarely on the shoulders of Colin Donnell saying everything that Connor was thinking and feeling and had to get out. And he absolutely drove it home, breaking our hearts along with Connor’s in the process. The only way it could have been any better was if Connor had actually gotten to say any last words to Robin, but alas.

And what makes this particularly interesting? Now we get to see what Colin does from here. It’s not just about a big moment that happens in a character’s life; it’s what you do with it and how it changes them. We saw Connor Rhodes break, and that was all the more impactful because we’re now excited to see how Colin Donnell has him recover from that.

This week Colin delivered the moment where the pressure reached breaking point, and it was all that we expected it to be. Not only that, but it made us want to know where the heck he’s going to go from here. That’s what makes him our standout performer this week.

Next: What's coming up next on Chicago Med?

Congratulations to Chicago Med‘s Colin Donnell for being our Performer of the Week! Which One Chicago actor stood out to you this week? Let us know in the comments.

Chicago Med airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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