Chicago Med season 4, episode 2 takeaways: When To Let Go
What should fans take away from the latest Chicago Med? Learn more about this week’s episode with our Chicago Med season 4, episode 2 review.
What did One Chicago fans learn from this week’s Chicago Med episode? Here’s what we took away from this week’s installment, “When To Let Go.”
“When To Let Go” saw Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell) undertake risky surgery to save the life of a firefighter, while Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) had to deal with the fact that his father Pat (Louis Herthum) was braindead after the fire.
If you missed any of last night’s episode, or just want a refresher on the events that we’re going to discuss, you can catch up with our Chicago Med recap.
Below are our takeaways from this week’s episode:
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1) It’s tough to be One Chicago family
The big lesson from “When To Let Go” is that One Chicago’s family members are being used more as plot devices, rather than our characters’ loved ones.
Pat Halstead was stuck in a fire, declared braindead and it’s implied he was taken off life support at some point in this episode.
Last year, also on Chicago Med? Lexi Olinsky was stuck in a fire and then killed off.
Nicole Burgess was raped. The Atwater siblings were sent away to Texas. Sharon Goodwin’s (S. Epatha Merkerson) ex-husband tried to commit suicide last season.
There are exceptions, like Christopher Herrmann’s (David Eigenberg) family, who are awesome, but we don’t see enough of those.
The majority of family characters in this fandom are somehow difficult to live with, or they wind up not living. That’s an unfortunate trend that deserves to change. These people are important to our characters, so they should be more important to the shows, too.
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2) Gwen is beyond redemption
We had hoped that Gwen Garrett would be developed into a three-dimensional character, but that hope went clearly out the window with her appearance in “When To Let Go.”
Yes, Gwen is supposed to be an antagonist for Chicago Med who puts money above patient care. But as Will points out to Goodwin in this episode, what Gwen does here is not just disagreeable; it’s morally reprehensible. And then it’s made worse knowing she did it to one of the hospital’s own staff members.
To act so sympathetic toward Will and his brother Jay (Jesse Lee Soffer), just to get better stats for the hospital? The rest of Chicago Med season 4 could tell us Gwen rescues puppies and donates a million dollars to charity, and we still wouldn’t like her. She intentionally manipulated two people in their grief, for better business. Wanting good business for the hospital is far different than using a human life to pad your stats.
It’s a shame, too, because Heather Headley is a brilliant actress the show is lucky to have. But she deserves better material than this, which makes Gwen look like the Carl Grissom of Chicago Med.
3) Is PTSD over-referenced?
A subplot in “When To Let Go” had Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt) suggesting that Otis (Yuri Sardarov) has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after everything he’s seen on the job, most recently a mother and child burned alive in an elevator. Not only did this B-story feel like just giving them something to do so they weren’t left out, it was something we’ve heard a few times before.
PTSD is a serious issue, and something that a lot of people suffer from. But One Chicago has used the term quite a few times. It was said that Sarah Reese had it after Charles was shot. There was talk of Jay Halstead having it during the last season of Chicago PD. Now there’s Otis. Is that going to a very serious well too many times?
It’s starting to feel like One Chicago is applying the term to any character who has a traumatic experience. Doing a PTSD storyline makes sense when it’s appropriate and can be done right, but let’s not overuse it, either.
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What are your thoughts about this week’s episode of Chicago Med? Let us know what you took away from this episode in the comments.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.