One Chicago follows an interesting pattern. Each season, the three interconnected shows seems to pick one character a piece and test them in absolutely every regard. We are forced to see people lose loved ones, get broken up with, or make crucial mistakes on the job. And Dr. Mitch Ripley has pulled a short straw in Chicago Med season 10.
The character has taken one hit after another this season, in both his personal and professional life. A quick recap of the last few Med episodes bears this out: he has lost his best friend, he's been broken up with by Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram), and been forced to take a leave of absence from work.
Dr. Mitch Ripley's life will be in danger
Luke Mitchell, the actor who plays Ripley, is very aware of the free fall that's transpiring. And he told Redwood News that there is more bumps to take on the way down to the bottom. That's right, he is not at the bottom yet.
"He’s not great. He’s not great at all," the actor conceded. "Yeah, it’s kind of a wild ride that he’s on at the moment. It just feels like after each episode that he’s just going further and further downward." It will end eventually, but Mitchell noted that the episode "Down In a Hole" will mark the official lowest point. It will even be literalized in the form of an abandoned well.
"I fear that he has to hit rock bottom, metaphorically, and maybe physically," the actor remarked. He also confirmed that Ripley is going to be in mortal danger as he attempts to reckon with this internal state of disarray.
The character on the brink of a breakthrough
"Ripley’s in all of the trouble," he admitted. "This is at least a near-death experience. I think it’s going to be something that shakes him and a lot of people up." A shake up sounds like the sort of thing he needs at the moment, however. Mitchell claimed that his character was not all that surprised to get broken up with in the episode "Acid Test," partially because his romance with Asher was something that served as an emotional crutch.
Asher recognized that the character was not helping himself, and Mitchell told CinemaBlend that the break up was painful but very much necessary. "At least on a subconscious level, he would have felt it coming as he's sliding down this dark path that he's on," the actor said. "But I think he's just so caught up in grieving and trying to figure himself."
We like Ripley. We don't want to see him hit rock bottom and stay there, and it's encouraging to know that both Mitchell and the Chicago Med writers have an endgame in sight with regard to his putting the pieces back together. He's due.