Chicago Med season 5 midseason report: Ethan Choi

What it means

Much like we discussed with April, Choi has become the male lead of Chicago Med season 5, with how the focus has shifted from Manstead to Chexton (in the absence of Manstead), and how Choi has also been the doctor for some of the season’s most prominent cases.

In Choi’s situation, though, he’s been angry more often than not this season, unless he’s being shown romantically with April. We’ve had Choi fighting with Marcel, Choi frustrated with patients who are being unreasonable, Choi disagreeing with Dr. Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt) because being a social media celebrity wasn’t reason for a psych hold, and eventually tension between Choi and April. Choi seems like he just hasn’t been in a good mood most of the time.

That would have been fine in a few cases—some of his patients really have been infuriating, and seeing Choi call out an arrogant and lackadaisical Marcel was definitely justified. But it feels like the real Choi is getting lost a little bit. Between his short temper and the way he went incredibly overboard about April’s possible pregnancy, it’s like the writers are swinging him between two extremes.

That’d be weird for any character, but particularly for someone as measured and level-headed as Ethan Choi, it stands out even more. Were the writers just making Choi crankier to justify April’s sudden attraction to Marcel? Or is Choi this way because he’s got something he needs to work on that we don’t know yet? Or are they just confused as to what they want to do with him?

We’ve been getting more of Choi this season, but Chicago Med isn’t necessarily giving us better Choi. It’s as if, with Chexton now firmly in the spotlight, the writers felt they had to up the drama in Choi’s life to the levels we normally see with Manstead. And it’s only going to get more intense from here.