Chicago Med tackled cryogenics during In The Valley of the Shadows. Find out what happened in our Chicago Med season 5, episode 3 recap.
This week’s Chicago Med was an episode that mixed up the show’s usual pairings, to varying degrees of success.
Wednesday’s episode “In The Valley of the Shadows” saw Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) go head to head with Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt) over a young man who wanted to intentionally kill himself so that he could be cryogenically frozen in order to find a cure for his disease in the future.
Meanwhile, Choi’s usual partner April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) ended up working with the new arrival Dr. Crockett Marcel (Dominic Rains) and those two also butted heads, although their case was surprisingly even creepier than the Choi and Charles storyline.
Click through this slideshow to find out what happened in the latest Chicago Med episode for each of your favorite characters, starting with:
Charles and Choi
Choi goes off to deal with a patient who wants to be cryogenically frozen because of his terminal condition. Of course, to do that, he has to be declared legally dead first. And to do that, he’s been giving himself a cocktail of drugs. Choi is not playing that game and orders a stomach pump immediately, but Maggie stops him since legally, he can’t force treatment without having this genius declared mentally unfit.
Time to call in Charles, who is asked to evaluate Shep’s mental state in the 40 minutes before he actually dies. The guy thinks he’s “sending myself to a better hospital…in the future.” Charles points out Shep doesn’t know if there will be a cure for his condition in the future either. But then the guy compares himself to the Apollo astronauts. Yep, he’s truly delusional, but not legally insane. And Choi is not happy about that.
A rep from the cryogenics company shows up to start the freezing procedure, and gives way too many details about it, like how they replace blood with antifreeze. But before they can get started, Shep’s parents appeal to Charles to stop the circus. With crash alarms going off in the background, Charles runs them through every question that could prove their son mentally unfit. As soon as they say “yes” to one of them, Choi rushes in to stabilize Shep.
Shep’s father isn’t happy what he sees as Charles being judgmental about their decision to save their son. He and his wife eventually decide to take Shep off life support and honor his desire to be cryogenically frozen. Choi declares him dead, allowing the corporate people to enter the room and begin their work while Charles looks on. But what made them change their minds? It’s never explained.