Chicago Med season 4 character review: Maggie Lockwood

What it means

Maggie is the Chicago Med character most likely to be underused, so while that really wasn’t fixed this season, it was still a relief to see that she got great stories when she was featured. The show allowed her to stretch her muscles, and that reminded everyone what Marlyne Barrett can bring to the ensemble, when she’s given the chance to.

Her character’s medical skills were tested this season, whether it was helping Connor in surgery with the hybrid OR or in the episode where she and Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto) had to deal with multiple patients after a street fair accident. Because Maggie spends so much screen time telling people what to do, where to go or what not to do, it’s easy to forget that she’s a great nurse, too—and that was proven again this season.

Personally, she had some big developments too, although the writing for those was a little bit more questionable. For example, the episode where Maggie decides to strong-arm her sister’s boyfriend and take Will along with her—she means well and she’s doing what every fan would want to do in that situation, but it’s not the smartest thing to do, either.

While it was great to see her compassion for Sydney, it wasn’t entirely explained why Maggie felt such a need to help her that she’d donate her own kidney and get herself in trouble. Was it just that Sydney was so down on her luck? Chicago Med explained that Sydney wasn’t even a friend of Maggie’s; she was someone Maggie knew but wasn’t close to. So that could have been better explained.

And the whole breast cancer reveal was incredibly random, and felt tacked on just to make the season finale that much more dramatic. But more on that on the next page.