Charles' job at Chicago Med is officially on the line, but how worried should fans be?

Dr. Daniel Charles might have survived his brush with death and be committed to remaining at Gaffney, but his future as head of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center's psychiatry department is officially up in the air! 

After Charles’ stroke, Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald teased that tensions would soon be rising between Charles and Theo, hinting that Theo might be leveraging for Charles’ job after getting a taste for power. We saw this subtly hinted at in Charles’ first episode back after his stroke, only to further escalate in episode 19, in which the reality of the situation truly set in. 

Early in the episode, Charles observes a nurse preparing to discharge a psych patient only an hour after medications had been administered, as the protocol calls for a three-hour window to monitor the patients for reactions to the medications. Theo was quick to point out that side effects present in most cases within the first hour and that discharging patients after just one hour has helped with bed turnover rates. Charles tries to point out that he implemented the three-hour wait protocol specifically for the outlier cases to ensure no patient slips through the cracks, as Theo remarked about trying to make improvements in the hospital’s workflow. 

Later in the episode, tensions reached a boiling point when Charles questioned whether Theo was in the right line of work when he began pushing his computer program as the superior means for making difficult medical decisions. The conversation stemmed from a remark Theo made after the death of a woman who Charles deemed not suitable for a heart transplant due to her history with addiction and relapsing, with Theo suggesting that his program could make decisions more objectively. This was when Charles pushed back against the approach, noting that only a human can take those calls, as data doesn’t paint a full picture. 

If there was any doubt that Theo was looking to push Charles out of as head of the psychiatry department, those doubts were put to rest in the closing moments of the episode when Goodwin revealed that someone had flagged Charles’ fMRI scan results. Charles noted that it’s become clear Theo wants his job, to which Goodwin admitted they likely have a fight on their hands, as the board has already taken note of how the turnover for psychiatric patients rose sharply upon Theo stepping in as interim head of the psychiatry department. 

Is Charles’ job really in danger on Chicago Med? 

It’s clear that Theo has had a taste for power and is not wanting to turn the psychiatry department back over to Charles, and he’s making a strong case for why the Gaffney board should make him the permanent head of the department. But how worried should fans actually be about Charles losing his job to Theo? 

To be honest, it’s a very real threat, and fans should take it seriously. Chicago Med has proven that it’s not afraid of ruffling some feathers and shaking things up. We would not be surprised at all if the season ended with Theo being named the acting psychiatry department head, just as we would also not be surprised if the show decided to name Theo and Charles co-heads of the department. 

Either of these routes would set up some interesting storylines for season 11 and allow the show to further explore the dynamics of Charles and Theo’s relationship and unique approaches to medicine. As frustrating as it might be to see Charles demoted, it would certainly make for great television in exploring how he adjusts to this change after leading the psychiatry department for all of these years. This would give the show a variety of new storylines to explore with Charles, as would putting him in a place where he has to co-head the department. 

While in the past the buck stopped with him, it would be interesting to see how he juggles working as a team with Theo as his equal. Their varying approaches to medicine would surely lead to conflict on occasion, but that’s always healthy for a show – just look at Grey’s Anatomy as an example of how conflict between department heads can lead to some truly unforgettable and brilliant storylines. The thing that fans might also forget is that Charles and Theo’s varying approaches to medicine had actually worked in their favor on a number of occasions, and that’s something that could also be explored through a partnership in which they’re co-heads of the department. 

There’s also the chance that the show could resolve this storyline by the finale with Charles simply regaining his status as head of the psychiatry department and Theo potentially exiting the show as a result. However, we have to imagine there is a lot more meat on the bone for the show if it actually follows through with Charles either losing the job or becoming co-head of the psychiatry department with Theo.

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