How Chicago Med could have written out Ava Bekker

Chicago Med finished Ava Bekker’s storyline in its season finale, but there were other ways the series could have left Norma Kuhling’s character.

The Chicago Med season finale was also the swan song for Dr. Ava Bekker. More than a month in advance, producers had revealed that Norma Kuhling wasn’t being brought back in season 5 this fall, meaning that Ava’s complicated story had to be finished when the season was.

But after a season of plot twists and turbulence, Ava’s last scenes were kind of anticlimactic. She revealed to ex-boyfriend Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell) that she had, as he thought, killed his father in a twisted attempt to get him back.

When Connor unsurprisingly reiterated that they were over, Ava called him “ungrateful” and then walked out of the doctors’ lounge, presumably never to be seen again.

She wasn’t arrested or fired for her behavior—and audiences were left to assume, rather than be sure, that Ava had also done everything else that she had been accused of throughout the season.

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If we’re being brutally honest, Ava’s exit was the most thorny for the One Chicago writers to figure out—albeit because they painted her into a corner from which there was no return.

Ava had long since stopped being a sympathetic character to many One Chicago fans, as the show continued to suspect her of one thing or another. By the time the finale aired, it would have been a surprise if she hadn’t murdered Cornelius Rhodes, not that she did.

So really, the best ending for Ava would have been to change the beginning of this season—but since that wasn’t possible, Chicago Med had to lean into the character it had created. The problem is that it didn’t go far enough.

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Connor—and One Chicago fans—deserved the moment where he finally confronted her about all of her actions. If nothing else, it would have finally clarified what she did and didn’t do after all that speculation. And it would have also been cathartic, holding her accountable and providing that big emotional moment—perfect for a finale!

But, as had been the case when she got in trouble during other episodes, Chicago Med let her get away without consequence. It just felt like the show had built up all this drama around Ava and it petered out.

And then there’s this to consider: do you think a woman like Ava, who’s willing to kill in order to get her ex-boyfriend back, just calls him a name and leaves? Almost certainly not. In reality, she would slash Connor’s tires in the parking lot. Or break into his apartment. The finale established that she was crazy, but then she was surprisingly calm in the end.

Of the three One Chicago characters who were written out, Ava will be the least likely to get any kind of resolution, since it doesn’t really matter now given that Connor is gone, too. But it’d be nice if the season 5 premiere included a mention of something bad finally happening to her, instead of because of her.

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