Chicago Med fall finale recap: Death Do Us Part

Chicago Med’s midseason finale involved a wedding day, a death and a cliffhanger. Here’s what happened in Chicago Med season 4, episode 9.

The Chicago Med fall finale did its job of tying together all the plotlines that the first half of season 4 had started—but did it wrap them up in the best way? Well, that’s the debacle. There was some resolution but not total, and all of it was pretty darn depressing.

Wednesday’s episode is called “Death Do Us Part,” in honor of Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) and Dr. Natalie Manning’s (Torrey DeVitto) impending wedding. Appropriately, it opens with Will teaching Natalie’s son Owen how to be the ringbearer. Will and Owen is the cutest thing ever.

The two head into the house, where Natalie is trying on her wedding dress, so there can be an adorable Manstead moment before drama inevitably comes along and ruins it. Will turns around and leaves again to pick up his tuxedo, but at the shop he’s surprised by Ray Price’s sons.

They say their father has gotten worse, and are pleading for his help, insisting it “won’t take long.” Will’s common sense is overridden by his medical ethics to save a patient in need.

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But there are other patients for Chicago Med to deal with, too. Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) brings in a victim who was stabbed while trying to break into a home. He’ll regret that decision—when he’s conscious, that is.

The woman who stabbed him comes in a short time later, and she’s not happy about any of this. ER boss Dr. James Lanik (recurring guest star Nate Santana) arrives for her but when Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett) looks at her phone, he realizes that the guy Amber stabbed is her own husband.

Wait, what? And why is she calling him “the burglar” if she’s married to him? So many questions!

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A third, as yet unidentified, patient is brought in and by process of elimination, becomes the next case for Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell). He’s been shot three times, twice in the head. Yeowch. Connor takes a look and realizes what the audience has figured out already: this guy needs the hybrid OR.

The only people Chicago Med hasn’t accounted for are Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) and Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt). Having heard about the stabbing, Goodwin comes down to get the 411 from Lanik. His expert diagnosis is that Amber is “a nutjob” and he passes the case on while Courtney continues to insist that’s not James.

James has no idea why his wife is saying that since they’ve been married for 30 years. He explains to Charles that she was diagnosed with a tumor recently, and Charles thinks a medication has now messed up her brain. Even if it’s the only thing that’s keeping the tumor in check.

"Charles: The longer a delusion lasts, the harder it is to break."

After a brief cutaway so the nurses can gossip about Choi bringing Vicki Glass (recurring guest star Cynthia Addai-Robinson) as his date to the Manstead wedding, Choi has moved on to a pregnant woman. He and April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) realize that Lisa’s baby is coming, and it’s arriving in the ED, upside down.

Back to Connor’s “trainwreck” of a patient. It’s no surprise when he pages Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) to help him out, because their stories are usually connected. While he waits for her, Will is checking on Ray Price, who is as cantankerous as ever. And Ray’s son found the bug in his house, and he blames Will for it.

When Will fails to return home, FBI agent Lee and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) are on the case. Cue Jay having to start ducking calls from Natalie, whose spider-sense is tingling.

It’s a jolt to go from Natalie to a screaming woman in labor. Choi and April are doing everything in their power to not only get the baby out, but turn it the proper direction. Finally the newborn pops out, but of course in true Chicago Med style, that’s not the end of it. The baby is not okay.

Charles is talking to Amber, who now recognizes her husband but can’t believe that he’s the one that she attacked. But of course, her case has a complication too, as she collapses onto the floor.

While every case inside the hospital gets worse, outside Will is insisting to Ray that he wasn’t a mole. Ray is holding him at gunpoint and the scene reveals that the man Connor is treating is Sean Corcoran, the member of his organization that the FBI flipped. They tried to have him killed. Cue Jay busting into the hybrid OR demanding to speak to him, much to Connor’s annoyance.

"Jay: Will is missing, and this guy’s our only lead to where he might be."

Connor is unenthused but acquiesces, which Ava can pick up on immediately. She questions him about it, saying “We’re supposed to be a team,” which is a bit ridiculous for the woman who hid a major secret from him for most of Chicago Med season 4 so far. Connor is not Ava, though, and decides to be honest with her from the start.

A panicked Amber insists to Charles that she wants surgery to remove her tumor no matter what, while April brings her patients upstairs to see their baby, whom they’ve named Esther. A specialist meets them and informs them that she has an inoperable condition. Chicago Med, the show that killed Santa last season and is now killing babies!

Someone who’s still alive is Ray Burke. After threatening Will he’s collapsed and once again, his sons think Dr. Halstead is some kind of medical MacGyver who can do everything himself. This is not true (for one, Will has better hair) but he has no choice except to try. His life depends on it.

As he improvises surgery at gunpoint (again) and brings Ray back to consciousness, his absence has made Natalie fear that she’s being stood up. While she gets emotional over the idea, Charles faces Amber’s angry husband who doesn’t want the surgery, no matter what she just said.

He also threatens legal action, which gets Goodwin involved again. She’s more concerned about the hospital getting sued than the patient’s wishes and vetoes the surgery. Goodwin is getting less and less likeable by the week.

When she’s next seen, April is finding her and Choi watching over baby Esther, because her mom and dad have decided to abandon her at the hospital rather than be there as she dies. While we all reach for more Kleenex, April decides that she’s going to stay with the newborn until the end.

"April: This isn’t right.Goodwin: No, but there’s nothing we can do."

The subplots wrap them up in the tragic ways One Chicago fans have come to expect: without the surgery, Amber goes back to being unable to recognize her husband, and the adorable new baby is dead but not alone. That clears the way for “Death Do Us Part” to focus its attention on the Will, Ray and Manstead saga.

After Connor is forced to lie to Sean Corcoran’s upset wife, he wakes the patient up so that Jay can interrogate him. Just as Ray Burke’s less crazy son is about to shoot Will, Jay busts in and kills him instead. A stunned Will just wants to make to his wedding but that’s not in the cards.

Sean is dead because of Connor’s choice to take him out of surgery, which also leaves Will as the FBI’s only lead in their case against Ray Price. An understandably frustrated Connor needs a hug and Ava actually does a very nice thing for once: she comforts him without getting snarky about it or making it about herself.

So while Will does get dropped off at the church, it’s only to tell a now very panicked Natalie that he’s being placed in witness protection. He climbs back into the SUV and is driven away without getting to tell her anything except that he has a lot to tell her.

And that’s where Chicago Med leaves its audience for the next month: with Natalie sobbing on the steps of the church, fearing that she’s never going to see him again. Well, that’s one way to get the fans tuning back in (and leave the Manstead fans upset)!

For the latest Chicago Med season 4 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Med category at One Chicago Center.