Chicago Med season 5, episode 13 takeaways: Pain Is For The Living

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CHICAGO MED — “The Ground Shifts Beneath Us” Episode 511 — Pictured: (l-r) Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood, Nick Gehlfuss as Will Halstead — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC) /

2. Does Chicago Med need some HR help?

The scene: Dr. Halstead calls for an OB/GYN consultation, and discovers that the doctor providing it is Dr. Hannah Asher (recurring guest star Jessy Schram), whom he had previously treated for an overdose in a prior episode. He confronts Hannah about her addiction, but she goes ahead with an operation on Will’s patient anyway, claiming that she’s sober now. And when Will threatens to tell hospital management about her regardless, Hannah blackmails him in return.

The takeaway: Chicago Med needs some serious help when it comes to vetting the doctors that it hires. First, we had Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling), who was revealed to be a sociopath and was responsible for several illegal deeds, including a fake kidnapping, before committing suicide in the hospital. Now we have Hannah Asher, who’s a recovering addict at best and a continuing addict at worst.

It just doesn’t jibe with the public face that Chicago Med, the show, wants to put out. It wants to have One Chicago viewers thinking of it as “here are the best doctors and nurses in Chicago who are selflessly helping people in need.” Instead, over the past season and a half, we’ve seen a shift where the hospital staff has included a sociopath, a drug addict, and a guy who thinks that he can use an ED bed and an IV to help himself after a long night out—yep, looking at you Dr. Crockett Marcel (Dominic Rains).

This is a different show in tone than it was in say, season 1 or season 2. These aren’t characters who are occasionally doing legally wrong or questionable things for good reasons. Instead, we are watching characters who do bad things just because they can. Marcel, at least, seems to have been toned down a bit since he was originally introduced. But it comes off like the hospital doesn’t pay close attention to who it hires anymore, or at least needs to look a little harder at how they’re behaving while at work. Somebody has to notice some of their odd behaviors eventually, right?

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