Dr. Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell) is going through it. He did an excellent job of putting his personal drama to the side and focusing on the task at hand during the One Chicago crossover. If not for him, it remains to be seen if Chicago PD's Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) would have lived to fight another day.
Ripley has a lot going on internally, though, and the rest of Chicago Med season 10 will work to unpack it. The character suffered the loss of a friend, Sully (Daniel Dorr), in the episode right before the crossover. We even see Ripley returning from Sully's funeral at the beginning of the crossover.
Mitch Ripley is still processing Sully's death
Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) claimed that Ripley was actually grateful to have a reason to leave the funeral, and focus on work instead of his dead friend. The comment, however innocent, says a lot about where Ripley is emotionally, and Med showrunner Allen MacDonald confirmed that there is a lot more to come in season 10,
MacDonald told One Chicago Center that Dr. Ripley has had impulse control problems stemming from his childhood, and the death of a friend like Sully is going to force the character to confront his own shortcomings, perhaps for the first time.
"I think that coming into this season that we wanted to bring that impulse control into the present and that he had basically kind of stabilized," the showrunner explained. "But if we shook up his life a little bit with Sully's sickness... Ripley's [struggles are] not over. He's spiraling." The spiral has not only had a toll on Ripley's personal life, but his relationship with his coworkers.
The character will be the focus of episode 1015
"It would really challenge his relationships with Hannah specifically, most specifically, and then, you know, his co-workers," MacDonald added. There is still plenty the character will have to contend with, but it's not something that's going to be resolved within an episode or two.
The showrunner noted that Ripley's issues run deep, and date back to his rough upbringing, so there is going to need to be time for him to unpack everything, and sort of rebuild his relationships from a healthier place. The endgame is not in sight for MacDonald or the Med writers, but the former did say that an upcoming episode will be crucial in this process.
"[Ripley is] spiraling right now and that spiraling will hit a crescendo," MacDonald revealed. "In episode 15." We cannot wait to get there, and see how the character will go about healing.