Chicago Med season 4 character preview: Daniel Charles

What should happen

There were some real missed opportunities with Charles last season. He was the one who was shot, yet for a variety of reasons, Chicago Med made that more about Reese than him. And then his other primary storyline was with Reese’s father. Oliver Platt had a lot of screen time, but it felt like it was all about Sarah Reese in some way, and not so much about Daniel Charles.

Hopefully, Chicago Med will resolve the cliffhanger by telling us that Robert Haywood died of that heart attack and Charles doesn’t have to worry about him anymore (not to mention Reese, and the audience who’ve had to suffer through him as well). That storyline went on too long last season; it doesn’t need to be part of Chicago Med season 4.

But even after that, Charles needs a good, meaty storyline that’s about him. He’ll first have to tell Reese the truth about her father, which will ostensibly not go well. Maybe she gets upset with him and leaves for a while. Then we could see Charles having to be on his own for a while, which he’s not going to be used to anymore.

How would he function without his right-hand woman? Would he be upset that she’s upset with him? (Probably, since the show has built up a psuedo-familial relationship between them at this point.) How would it look to see Charles interacting more with other doctors?

As much as Reese looks up to Charles, Charles has come to lean on Reese, and it’s time to take that support away and let him stand on his own—both so he can have his own story and just to see what it looks like.