Chicago Med season 3, episode 13 takeaways: Best Laid Plans
Did Chicago Med push Dr. Connor Rhodes over the line? Was Dr. Will Halstead hypocritical? Here are our Chicago Med season 3, episode 13 takeaways.
This week’s Chicago Med was a challenge for several characters, so who rose to the occasion and who stumbled? What can this episode teach us about the rest of the season?
Tuesday’s episode was called “Best Laid Plans” and saw Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell) stop at nothing to get his patient a donor heart, while Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) was again dealing with a patient who purportedly wanted to end his life—but this one couldn’t tell him that.
If you missed any of this Chicago Med episode or just want a refresher on the events we’re talking about, you can catch up with our “Best Laid Plans” recap.
Here are our Chicago Med season 3, episode 13 takeaways:
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1) Did Connor go too far?
Dr. Connor Rhodes is a fighter, both for his patients and his loved ones. But “Best Laid Plans” pushed him hard, and left Chicago Med fans questioning whether or not he pushed too hard himself.
Connor won a donor heart for his patient away from Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) by proving that Dan was a better candidate for transplant. Ava accused Connor of making Dan look better than he really was, thus suggesting Connor manipulated his patient’s situation.
There was really no right answer to this plotline, as there were two patients in genuine need and only one heart, but there’s no denying that it brought out the worst in both Connor and Ava. They were fighting for good reasons, and the important part was that it never came off as them doing it to get back at each other—they cared that much about their patients.
But did that make it okay for Connor to get a little sneaky? And Ava wasn’t exactly innocent either, but we expect her to be competitive. Connor’s integrity is one of the things we love about him, so it felt weird to imply he was crossing a moral line, even if it was for the most noble of reasons.
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2) Was Will being a hypocrite?
Will was vehemently against letting a patient die this week, even though as April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) pointed out, he had enabled another patient’s death in the previous week’s episode.
April bringing that up suggests she thinks he’s a little hypocritical, or why would she mention it? And Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto) definitely made her position known when she unloaded on Will, accusing him of forcing their patient’s family into a decision.
But as Will shot back at Natalie, the two cases couldn’t really be compared. The patient last week was able to make clear what his wishes were; this week’s patient was in a vegetative state and could not do that. The only idea of his wishes was what the patient’s mother told them, and that’s a slippery slope to go down.
Plus, there was something surprising about Natalie attacking Will, because Natalie is the Med character most likely to express her opinion to a patient or patient’s family. She has what she thinks is right and can get pushy about it, whether it’s calling the authorities herself or how she recently chewed out a patient’s dad.
So was she the right person to argue with Will, when one could say if she’s right about him, he’s not standing by his opinion any less than she usually does?
But at least they had a real, honest to goodness argument this week. Too often this season it’s felt like the cuteness of Manstead has taken the air out of any conflict between Will and Natalie. Now we’re seeing the first cracks in what’s been a pretty put together team all season. And that’s a lot more interesting.
3) Is Reese finally getting the hint about her dad?
For all the fighting, the most infuriating story in “Best Laid Plans” was the continuing saga of Dr. Sarah Reese (Rachel DiPillo) and her father. If you had any doubt that Dad (guest star Michel Gill) was a manipulative jerk, it came when he was confronted by Charles (Oliver Platt).
Robert’s response to that was to feed Sarah lies about how Charles had “threatened” him and was “blackmailing” him, causing Reese to angrily confront her mentor. First of all, did anyone else find it weird that Reese was so quick to believe the father who just walked back into her life—the one she knows she doesn’t have the true story about—over the mentor who’s been here for her every step of the way? It makes her seem very naive, even if you concede that she’s cutting her dad some slack.
Secondly, can Robert either get out now or get out soon after he receives the comeuppance he so badly deserves? We’re already tired of this character. Maybe we can sic Dr. Stanley Stohl (Eddie Jemison) on him.
Next: Read our interview with Chicago Med's Norma Kuhling
What did you take away from this week’s Chicago Med episode? Leave your thoughts on “Best Laid Plans” in the comments.
Chicago Med airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.