After a quick detour in the season in the form of the One Chicago crossover event, Chicago Med settled back into its normal pacing this week with an episode shifting the attention back exclusively onto the men and women of Med. And just because the crossover action is over does not mean things aren’t still more than a little hectic in the E.D. this week!
As the episode opens, Ripley and Hannah go out with Ripley’s friends to remember Sully for a celebration at a bar. Both have to be at work the following morning, so Hannah heads out and Ripley assures her he’ll be heading out shortly after. Fast forward to the next day, Hannah finds Ripley at the hospital and we learn he didn’t go home and slept at the hospital instead. She suggests taking a personal day but he assures her he’s good as he heads out to start his day.
Ripley is tasked with treating a young girl brought into the E.D. and the parents are worried it could be her appendix, so he orders some tests to rule things out. The labs come back clear and he asks Doris to discharge as he prepares to leave for an hour for lunch. When he returns the young girl has taken a turn and the parents make it clear they want him off the case.
Ripley talks through his confusion on the case and Hannah tries to talk through things to see if he missed anything as he gets defensive feeling as though she’s questioning whether he’s truly at his best. As he sees Lennox stroll by, he races out to ask if her CT has come through which it has and it was normal. Ripley asks if he could be meningitis which is what Lennox’s next thought was as well and she lets him know she ordered additional tests.
Before the girl’s test results come back, Lennox confronts Doris about not giving a patient the right medication, which is when Doris realizes she gave the young girl eight milligrams of morphine intended for another patient. This is what has caused her symptoms to worsen as the dosage was too much for her body. As she dismisses Doris and races to the young girl’s room to administer the treatment to reverse the effects of the medication, Lennox tells Maggie this was a never-can-happen event and that Doris has to go. Maggie must fire her or she’ll take it up the chain.
Maggie goes to find Doris who is crying in a supply closet. Doris tells Maggie she’s never made a mistake such as that in her career and she doesn’t know what happened which is when Maggie tells her it’s because she was juggling too much. Maggies recognizes that when Doris told her she was juggling too many tasks, she should have listened to her. Doris tells her she knows she has to let her go, but Maggie pushes back making it clear she’ll go to battle with Lennox to try to save Doris’s job.
Maggie tells Lennox if Doris goes, she'll walk too. Nurses are being asked to perform duties outside their duties and pushed to the limits. Lennox says she cannot afford to lose two senior members of the staff and she promises to go to battle to help get the resources needed to take the pressure off the nurses.
Ripley’s patient's parents aren’t going to sue. He apologizes to Hannah for making her worry. She proposes a cozy night in as he says he’s going out for a drink with the guys, which worries her as that’s what he’s said many nights in a week. She says her fear is that he’s trying to numb the pain with alcohol and he snaps back that that’s what she’s thinking of. It’s a low blow that sends Hannah running out and makes us wonder whether the pair can weather this storm.
While out with the guys, Ripley steps out to take a walk and bumps into some guy who takes a swing at him. Rather than just walking away, Ripley starts wailing on the guy as the episode ends.
Goodwin's attack is still haunting her
While Goodwin jumped into action without a second thought in the crossover, we learn this week that she's struggling to get back past her attack.
Dr. Abrams refers Goodwin to a physiatrist to be seen, but she's not sold on the idea. However, after she breaks a glass during a meeting with Peter Kalmick due to the visions she's seeing, Goodwin caves and goes to see the therapist Sam referred her to, who we learn happens to be his aunt by marriage.
Goodwin mentions her vision seems off lately, almost as if a distortion. The therapist asks Goodwin if she’s seeing something that’s not there which is when Goodwin admits she’s seeing her attacker. She tells Goodwin she believes she's dealing with PTSI (post-traumatic stress injury) which can develop after a trauma and wants to refer her to another doctor for long-term therapy.
Goodwin brushes this off and instead begins looking at other offices, assuming a change of scenery will be enough. She seems optimistic about a new office space, only to then see her attacker again. It's clear that Goodwin has some things to work through but it's going to be interesting to see when and how she'll go about it.