As Chicago Med season 10, episode 12 came to a close, Ripley’s spiral continued to worsen following the death of Sully as he picked a fight with a man outside a bar while getting some air outside.
While the previous episode of Med ended with Ripley picking a fight and it seemed like the other guy was taking the worst of it, the episode opened with a twist in that Ripley was on the ground after the other man having turned the table on him. Jump ahead to the following day, Hannah notices Ripley has a busted lip and all signs point to him having clearly gotten into a fight. He shuts her out again, continuing to push her away as he walks out.
When we next catch up with him, he’s teaming up with Frost to treat a man brought into the ED who began having difficulty breathing and whose wife is worried he got into a fight the night before when he was out drinking. Turns out the man is the same man who picked a fight with Ripley the night before. While his kidneys look normal, Ripley is wondering if there could be a bleed not showing up on the scan so they order a CT as Ripley exits.
Ripley was right that there is a slow bleed and Frost is trying to book an OR to remove his kidney. Frost is surprised that Ripley wants to play it so safely and questions whether something is off, at which point Ripley pulls rank and tells him they’ll take a more cautious approach first.
The embolization failed to stop the bleeding so they have to open him up in the E.D. and Frost begins to prep when Ripley pushes him aside and says he needs to treat him. Frost has clearly picked up on something not being right and questions what is going on which is when Ripley explodes and announces that he needs to save him because he did this to him. Putting two-and-two together, Frost forces Ripley out of the room so he can oversee the procedure.
While the man is in surgery and looks like he’s going to pull through, Goodwin tells Ripley the man’s wife is going to sue the hospital. She has no choice but to suspend Ripley without pay effective immediately. He immediately owns up to his shortcomings and tells Goodwin he won’t fight the board or her decision to which she replies to him that her recommendation will be termination as she tells him to grab his belongings and head home.
Later, Hannah finds Ripley getting dressed in the locker room, his body covered in bruises. Ripley tries to tell her he wasn’t looking for a fight to which she points out to him the irony is that a few months ago he was falsely accused of assaulting Pablo. Now he’s back in the same place only this time, he was responsible and he nearly killed a man.
She bluntly tells him she’s unsure why he’s so hellbent on throwing his life away as the episode comes to a close and Ripley’s fate is left up in the air.
Lenox's mentoring skills are put to a test
Lenox, Archer, and Howard work together on a unique case in which a patient’s exposed lungs. After coming to their initial diagnosis, Archer is worried Lenox is getting into Howard’s head too much, but Lenox says that’s what she wants as she wants her to be able to match soon.
They call in Dr. Hayes for a consult and he wants to prioritize the heart, but Lenox wants to prioritize the lungs. Howard proposes a risky alternative which Lenox disagrees with but Hayes goes for it and invites Howard to join them in the ER.
When Lenox questions whether Howard truly thought things out and decides to withdraw herself from the case. She does however choose to remain in the gallery watching on as the surgery goes which is when Archer arrives and assumes she was benched. Lenox tells him about her fear the surgery will backfire, but when she tried to throw her a lifeline she was disrespectful. Archer reminds her that with mentoring, med students eventually become the competition and that he loves that feeling because it means they succeed as mentors.
After the surgery, Hayes compliments Lenox on her mentorship skills and her integrity. The two engage in some fun banter which ends in him asking to buy her dinner, to which she turns down as she walks out but judging by the smile on her face as she leaves the room we have a feeling something fun is building between the pair.
Lenox later catches up with Howard to praise her for the successful surgery. Howard recalls the first time she saw Lenox practicing medicine and how she knew right away she wanted to learn from her. The pair share a really sweet moment as Lenox offers to help study.
Charles puts his feelings aside to help Jackie
Early in the episode. Goodwin and Charles bump into Jackie at the hospital cafe and things get awkward as she rushes off. Goodwin picks up on the weirdness but he brushes it off
Later, Charles tells Jackie he wants to make sure they’re okay after their near kiss and the pair awkwardly glaze over the moment as they begin talking about Jackie’s battle with her ex over custody. She’s worried about her ex trying to throw everything she can and feelings being out of control.
Charles makes his way to the courthouse as Jackie’s ex is on the stand testifying about his fears that Jackie could again try hurting herself. It seemed he was just there for support, but when the Gaffney psychology member originally slated to appear to testify for Jackie's ex doesn't rise up upon being called upon, Charles offers to speak on Jackie’s behalf instead.
While on the stand, Charles tells the court he believed Jackie was suffering from PTSD and once they broke through Jackie threw herself into her recovery and is doing everything she should be doing. He tells the court she is no more a threat to her child than her or anyone else.
Her husband’s lawyer then begins to press about his relationship with Dr. Charles and presses him on whether he has a bias and asks whether they’ve ever been romantically involved to which he tells the judge he does not.
Back at Med, Jackie arrives to tell Charles that the judge granted her joint custody. Charles says he’s glad they sorted out the awkwardness to which Jackie tells him that she was lying earlier as she has feelings for him, to which he confesses he has feelings too which is why he showed up at court to protect her. He tries to say he doesn’t know how to turn off the shrink in him to which she says she thinks he does, that he just uses it as a shield as she walks out.
Maggie helps a transgender patient find themselves again
Maggie is treating a man who has been brought into the E.D. after a fit at his care facility when one of the nurses turned off his TV. He's underweight, hasn’t been bathed and his meds are all over the place. She’s concerned patient neglect is going on at the care facility where the man is being treated. As Maggie mentions to Goodwin, she doesn’t want to sound the alarm prematurely but she’s worried the dementia patient is trying to tell her something and that something is going on.
Goodwin recommends looking for some tells as dementia patients often have little signs that they use to try to communicate when they're unable to use their words. This tip helps Maggie immensely as she realizes the patient wasn't upset when his TV was turned off, but because he didn't recognize his own reflection.
Upon further investigation, Maggie finds out that the patient is a transgender woman who doesn’t recognize her appearance as she was unable to keep up with her transition treatment when her dementia began and has been wrongly identified as a man and treated as such by the care facility. Goodwin offers to help get her into a LGBTQ+ facility who might be able to help with her treatment and Maggie gets an idea to help the woman reclaim her identity.
With help from the care facility nurse, Maggie helps the patient with a makeover that helps her to finally see herself in the reflection on the mirror. It was a really beautiful moment getting to see the patient regain her identity and a reminder why we love Maggie so much, because she always goes the extra mile to help her patients.