Chicago Med season 4, episode 8 recap: Play By My Rules

Chicago Med’s doctors faced confrontation this week, so what was the fallout? Here’s what happened in Chicago Med season 4, episode 8.

With tensions at an all-time high around Chicago Med, it’s no wonder that certain relationships boiled over this week. But what were the consequences?

“Play By My Rules” begins as Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) is getting chewed out by the FBI again, because apparently being in the hospital during a chemical scare didn’t go over well with Ray Burke.

The FBI tells Will that he has to leave Ray alone, which Will doesn’t like either because he’s seen Ray’s test results and is convinced the other man is at risk for a stroke.

Before Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto) can ask too many questions about who was just giving her fiance a piece of their mind, the duo are called in to help a two-year-old named Abigail. It’s odd how Natalie keeps just missing finding out the truth, isn’t it?

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Once Abigail is stabilized, Will moves on to treat her father. But Dad has his “do not resuscitate” order literally tattooed on his chest. That’s an interesting way to communicate one’s medical directives.

It leaves Will staring into space as the baby is wheeled upstairs for further treatment, and Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) comes downstairs to ask what the heck is going on. The hospital isn’t sure if having a DNR order tattooed on your chest actually counts, and has brought in the lawyers to find out.

Yay.

Elsewhere, Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) is back at work after his chemical scare, helping his ex-girlfriend Vicki Glass (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) with a patient who has a persistent scalp itch—to the point where she’s clawing into her own head.

You know who’s not happy to see Vicki? April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta), who’s lurking in the background and deadpans about this being “the only hospital in Chicago.” But when she gets called on it, she won’t directly address the issue. She’s got to also snark Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett) about taking over as the new charge nurse.

And that brings Chicago Med to Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell). He’s not happy to find out that Goodwin is opening up his hybrid OR to everyone, so the hospital can make extra money. He points out that bringing non-trauma patients into the hybrid OR could mean it’s not available for a trauma case.

Goodwin gives him a bureaucratic brush-off, and Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) encourages him to let it go, so obviously he’s not going to. That’s not the Connor Rhodes audiences know and love.

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“Play By My Rules” goes back to Abigail and her father. It turns out they’re in this position because someone blew a red light while texting and hit their car. The father is now paralyzed, while Abigail gets the grim face of doom from neurosurgeon Dr. Sam Abrams (Brennan Brown). Natalie and Will are going to need a few moments, and she tries to find a silver lining.

"Natalie: There are so few pediatric donors in comparison to the thousands of children in need."

But that would require the consent of her father, who is himself still unconscious. Natalie thinks it’s time to respect that DNR tattoo, which would enable Abigail’s organs to be donated. But Will wants more evidence of his wishes than just some body ink. He has a point.

Abrams goes downstairs to look at Choi and Charles’ patient; he recommends surgery, but that isn’t what Charles wants to do. Abrams doesn’t want his input, and Choi agrees with Abrams.

Connor takes a break from being annoyed to help a patient badly injured in a fall, and enlists Ava for help. But of course, as he predicted, he can’t get into the hybrid OR because Dr. Lanik (guest star Nate Santana) is in there. Ava tells him to take James upstairs to a regular OR; Connor sees no reason to when it’s faster to get his patient across the hall.

Welcome to Connor vs. Lanik, round two. Which is bad when he then has to call Lanik to help save his patient.

Charles is so determined to prove that Choi’s patient doesn’t need surgery that he sets up a Mr. Wizard-style experiment in his office. It puts enough reasonable doubt in Choi’s head that he runs to stop the surgery. And Abrams is only the third most cranky person in this episode!

Lanik walks into the hybrid OR, mostly to give Connor a piece of his mind. He points out the irony of kicking him out of the room only to drag him back in (which is fair) and then calls Connor a prick (which is not). These two won’t be wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving.

Having failed to persuade Will, Natalie takes her organ donation argument to Goodwin. Goodwin then goes to Will, telling him that an ethics committee has just decided to honor the dad’s DNR. Will knows exactly who convened that committee meeting, and rightfully gives Natalie an even bigger piece of his mind.

"Will: You betrayed me. How can I ever trust you?"

That’s great for two people who are about to get married. Will watches the father officially being declared dead, and when Natalie just happens to pop up behind him, turns around and declares, “You won.”

Chicago Med winds “Play By My Rules” down with Maggie finding out April went a little overboard with authority while she was in charge, and April taking offense at being chastized (even if the two make up one scene later). At least Choi’s patient doesn’t need surgery anymore, and that puts him in a good enough mood to ask Vicki out. Of course, April sees that, too.

Connor gets chewed out again by Goodwin, who warns that the board is already wanting to close the hybrid OR they just opened a few episodes ago. She threatens to fire him if he stands in the way of her new business plan again.

Connor is still not caring, but apparently the mechanism to make everyone forget in the One Chicago universe is sleeping with somebody, because he goes and gets handsy with Ava in the next room. Um, okay? At least we now officially know that they got back together after their much ado about nothing.

The episode concludes with Natalie offering Will his engagement ring back. She’s about to cry, and Will’s about to cry saying he still wants to marry her. But they don’t actually discuss their problem, so let’s hope they deal with it before they get to the altar.

Next. Chicago Med casts someone close to Natalie. dark

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