Chicago Med season 3, episode 16 takeaways: An Inconvenient Truth

Did Chicago Med let Ava Bekker off too easy or not easy enough? What about Reese’s dad? Here are our Chicago Med season 3, episode 16 takeaways.

Last night’s Chicago Med episode saw one doctor in trouble but not for long, so was it really that bad? And how bad was Will Halstead’s misstep? Let’s break down what we just saw.

Tuesday’s episode was called “An Inconvenient Truth” and featured Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) leaving a medical instrument inside her most critical patient. Meanwhile, things with Dr. Sarah Reese (Rachel DiPillo) came to a head when her father’s heart finally gave out.

If you missed any of this Chicago Med episode or just want a refresher on the events that we’re discussing, you can catch up with our “An Inconvenient Truth” recap.

Here are our Chicago Med season 3, episode 16 takeaways:

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1) Ava got off too easily

What is it about Dr. Ava Bekker that Chicago Med wants us to like her so much? In the first part of the season, the show was obviously trying to get fans into the idea of a romantic relationship between Ava and Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell).

Now in the second half, even though she makes a major mistake and behaves like a complete child, she faces no real consequences. She cries and that makes a previously angry Connor not only console her but he’s willing to get in trouble for her.

We get that Ava’s frustration stems from fear that she could’ve killed the patient. That’s normal and it’s okay. But it would’ve also been okay for Ava to drop her ego and ask for help, or at least offer an apology for her attitude—and then go and take the deserved punishment for her mishap. In fact, we would’ve respected her more for owning up.

And Connor is a great guy, as we’ve said a lot of times here, but why is he protecting her at his own expense? It’s not because he loves her; they slept together once and the idea hasn’t been brought back around since. Is he sympathetic to her fear? Sure, but understanding and being willing to risk your own behind for someone are two vastly different things.

Ava needed to sit in the penalty box this week, and she didn’t. So what will she learn? What did we learn?

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2) Will’s an idiot, but it’s not all his fault

Even Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) would agree that he’s a moron based on the events of this week’s episode. He got drunk, went home with another woman, made out with her and might have slept with her if he hadn’t been that drunk.

But we can’t really blame Will entirely here. You have to blame the writers, too.

We knew that at some point, there would be drama to mess up the Manstead relationship. As they say, happy things on TV are boring, so Med was not going to let them just cuddle forever. But there were so many better ways that the story could’ve gone. Even if you concede the “being drunk makes you stupid” excuse, that only allows so much stupid.

Will felt so despondent over Natalie asking for a break (a break, not a break-up) that the alcohol makes him open to Frisch’s out of nowhere flirting? Even if he was inebriated, we’d like to think he cares so strongly for Natalie that he’d be able to have some sense, especially with a woman he just met.

If there were someone else he genuinely connected with, that’d be one thing, but Will going home with a woman even we as fans hardly know feels hollow. Let’s hope he avoids drinking for a long, long time.

3) Did Goodwin make the right call?

The biggest dilemma in “An Inconvenient Truth” was Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) doing what was morally right, convincing her godson to admit fault in a fatal accident, over the financial security of the hospital. So why did it feel like she was being looked down upon for doing it?

Carter’s mother in particular looks incredibly selfish here; again, it’s not that we don’t understand the why, but understanding and acceptance are two different things. Maybe she’ll change her mind when her son tells her that it actually is his fault, which we didn’t see. And then there’s Peter Kalmick (Marc Grapey), who seems more upset that the hospital will lose funding. Hey, dude, there are more important things than money.

We’re still not sure Goodwin won’t be in job trouble by the end of the season, so we’ll see if this has consequences past this week. But we’ve never felt so bad about seeing one of our characters do a good thing.

Next: Chicago Med's most stressed character

What did you take away from this week’s Chicago Med episode? Leave your thoughts about “An Inconvenient Truth” in the comments.

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