Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber) was pushed to the absolute brink on the latest episode of Chicago Med. He was tasked with so much that the episode, "The Book of Archer," was even named after him. The character was forced to juggle of increasingly intense emergency room situations with the news that his ex-wife died offscreen.
The former proved taxing from a physical perspective, but the latter devastated Archer so much that he broke down during a rare moment of silence in the Gaffney elevator. We'd consider it a bottoming out moment for the character, because he closed out the episode with a new outlook on life and what he should be prioritizing.
The character's loss has fueled his new outlook
Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) has been telling Archer to make a change in his life for multiple episodes (and frankly, seasons) now, and he has been reticent to take her advice. He's an old dog who's afraid to attempt new tricks. Something shifted in that elevator, though. Asher shows up at Archer's house at the end of his self-titled episode, and instead of sending her home or making a flippant remark about not needing help, he let her in.
This is pretty huge for anyone familiar with Archer. He's not prone to letting people in, even if he's softened somewhat in the last couple years. His decision to fully let Asher in, his greatest confidante and someone with whom he's had an underlying connection, is the most encouraging thing we've seen the character do in arguably the entire show.
Asher and Archer's burgeoning romance is something that fans have gone back and forth on, especially given the relationship that the latter recently had with Dr. Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell). There's something undeniable about Asher and Archer together, however, which Steven Weber articulated during an interview with Screen Rant.
Dr. Archer has finally decided to "change"
"It would be easy for an audience to say, 'Oh, look at these two characters. They get along. Oh, they're reasonably attractive, although he looks like an old bag of laundry, but hey, let's get 'em together. Let's do that,'" the actor conceded. "[But] I think the writers are smarter than that. Not smarter because it's not that it's dumb, but they're trying to do something else with it."
We see his point. By sidestepping romance, the characters have been able to support each other in situations they may not have been able to otherwise. Chicago Med writers have really been leaning in to Archer and Asher as a pair in Ripley's absence, however, leading us to believe there's even more to come in season 10.
Regardless of what comes next, "The Book of Archer" has closed one chapter in the character's life, and set up another, healthier chapter.