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Rachel DiPillo’s birthday: Why we love Chicago Med’s Sarah Reese

By Billy Lineberger

CHICAGO MED -- "Lemons and Lemonade" Episode 308 -- Pictured: Rachel DiPillo as Sarah Reese -- (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)
CHICAGO MED -- "Lemons and Lemonade" Episode 308 -- Pictured: Rachel DiPillo as Sarah Reese -- (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC) /
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Today we’re saying happy birthday to Chicago Med star Rachel DiPillo by looking back at why we love her and her character, psych resident Dr. Sarah Reese.

Friday is the birthday of Chicago Med‘s own Rachel DiPillo, who plays our favorite psychiatric resident, Dr. Sarah Reese.

Reese is the character we entered the Chicago Med world with, in a sense, because the show’s first episode was also her first day on the job. So two and a half seasons later, we’ve gotten to watch her grow.

Yet that growth has been probably more up and down than any other character on the show, and most of the characters in the whole One Chicago universe.

In the first season, we watched Sarah Reese the naive, somewhat fumbling rookie who was just trying to get to match day. But when she did get her match in Pathology, she decided that wasn’t what she wanted after all.

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So when we met her in the second season she was a barista at a coffee shop—until Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt) literally rolled in and brought her into the world of psychiatry.

It’s been interesting watching Reese navigate her new profession, because it’s not just a story of a new doctor, but it’s really about how she’s been growing up as a person through her work.

Particularly in Chicago Med season 3, we’re seeing a Reese who has found her voice and isn’t afraid to be vocal when she disagrees. Unfortunately, she’s gone a bit too far in that respect thanks to the anxiety and PTSD she’s dealing with after Dr. Charles’ shooting, but even that has been worth watching just to see Rachel DiPillo sink her teeth into the bigger and more complicated scenes that provides.

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Rachel has taken Reese on a real roller coaster ride, where we’ve gotten to see her play everything from righteous indignation to total confusion to being emotionally vulnerable. She’s seemingly hit all across the emotional spectrum in just a handful of episodes, and allowed us to see a character who has all these different things happening with her and can’t quite figure out where they all go.

Perhaps the best part of her performance is the sense that we haven’t seen the best of her yet. We know that Sarah Reese is going to continue to grow and learn as a psychiatrist, and there’s the sense that someday, she’ll make a pretty good teacher herself. And we also know that even as she has given her best-ever performances this season, Rachel DiPillo is going to get even better as the show keeps giving her more to do.

Both the character and the actress have so much more that’s ahead of them, and watching both of them take that journey has been rewarding. We’re glad to have Rachel in our One Chicago team and we’re excited to see where she takes Reese by the end of the season!

Next: What's up with Chicago Med's Connor Rhodes?

Join us in wishing Rachel DiPillo a happy birthday in the comments and on Twitter! What’s your favorite Reese moment? Let us know in the comments below.

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