Chicago Med season 4, episode 21 recap: Forever Hold Your Peace

Charles

With Caroline doing better, Charles was shocked to hear that she was returning to Minnesota to accept a new teaching position. Instead of talking to Caroline about it, he asked Goodwin about the possibility of getting Caroline a job at the University of Chicago. “Why don’t you just tell her how you feel?” Goodwin asked.

But when Caroline heard that Charles was having dinner with the head of the university’s anthropology department, she could see through him immediately and pointed out that she didn’t want to stay in Chicago, before leaving in a huff.

Charles then decided he’d move to Minneapolis with Caroline instead! Or that was his plan, drafting his resignation from Chicago Med. Then he met Caroline and presented her with said letter, which confounded her yet again. “I want to go with you,” he insisted, before adding, “I want to marry you again.”

But Caroline had a surprise of her own: she had lied about the job offer! She’d only said that because she’d found out that her clinical trial wasn’t working and her cancer was progressing, and wanted to leave Chicago in order to spare him the pain of seeing her condition worsen.

Charles was undeterred, and he was serious about getting remarried. The two shared a kiss and a hug, and let’s hope their wedding goes better than Will and Natalie’s attempt at one.

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Connor

Connor was celebrating his birthday in this Chicago Med episode, while also planning to have dinner with his ex-girlfriend Robin Charles (Mekia Cox). But of course, he still had to deal with his father Cornelius (recurring guest star D.W. Moffett).

Dad actually remembered Connor’s birthday from his hospital bed, but then killed his son’s good mood by saying one of Connor’s favorite childhood memories actually didn’t involve his mother at all. That caused another fight between them.

Connor moved on to treat an injured skateboarder, but noticed that the kid’s father was severely intoxicated, causing him to question the cause of the accident. He suspected child abuse, and asked nurse Monique to get a tox screen when Matt’s medication didn’t seem to be working. The tox screen revealed Matt had never taken the pain pills he’d insisted on getting.

Our hero checked databases and found that Matt’s father had been designated as a “frequent flier” in the system, which made him directly accuse the man of taking the drugs himself. But Matt had just hidden them instead of taking them, and admitted he had hurt himself on purpose—to help his father? Wait, how did that make sense?

Dad explained that he had a back injury because of a car accident a decade earlier, and wasn’t able to get any medication for it because of new government regulations. He’d turned to drinking to deal with the pain. His son had noticed and tried something insane to try and get him pain pills. Goodwin referred Matt’s dad to a doctor in another city, while Connor apologized for jumping to conclusions, even though he’d only been looking at evidence in front of him.

The situation made Connor think he may also have misjudged his father. He visited his former nanny Carlotta, and old family photos they pulled out proved that Cornelius’ version of events was correct. But when Connor returned to the hospital, he found Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling) trying to save his father’s life.

It was too late: despite Connor’s desperate chest compressions, his father died, becoming the third One Chicago dad to be killed off this season alone. An emotional Connor found solace in Robin, explaining how his father wasn’t really the bad guy all along. “What else am I inventing?” he wondered, in what sounded like a Chicago Med retcon. Rest in peace, Cornelius Rhodes.

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