Chicago Med season 4 midseason report: Connor Rhodes

What it means

The biggest development for Connor Rhodes in this season of Chicago Med has been the whole hybrid OR concept, both professionally and personally. Professionally, he’s taken on his third role at the hospital in four seasons!

And it’s been great to see one of the doctors identify a need, find a solution and have it implemented—even if it was through slightly sneaky circumstances. We’ve only seen that happen once before, when Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) came up with that new emergency protocol last season, and that didn’t involve writing proposals and board meetings and all the other things we saw in Connor’s story.

The dramatic tension between Connor and Ava over how the new OR was funded was a huge misfire. It could’ve easily been an explosive scene, or even played out over more than one episode. But instead, the show had Ava collapse in the same installment, so Connor stopped being mad at her and was kissing her instead.

It’s clear that ship is bulletproof, at least for the time being. That’s a shame, because it’s keeping the relationship from being fully developed. The show spent a large part of last season with Ava and Connor arguing, so it’s clear it’s willing to write that; why not actually let them dig into their relationship concerns? They don’t have to be perfect for the audience to get behind them.

What’s been the most entertaining so far is once again watching Connor Rhodes assert himself when necessary. He’s the toughest character on Chicago Med, too, not taking flak from anybody and we’ve seen him stand up for himself and for others so far in the fourth season. We’ll just have to see how many bridges he ends up burning by the end of it.