Chicago Med season 11 episode 14 recap: Frost faces his past as Lenox makes a major decision

Last week on Chicago Med, the men and women of Gaffney were thrust into the center of the crossover action alongside their colleagues from Chicago Fire and Chicago Med. While there might not be a mass casualty event to tend to this week, Chicago Med season 11, episode 14 keeps the doctors and nurses just as busy on both the personal and professional fronts. 

As the episode opens, Frost goes to a hotel to meet with his parents, who are traveling in an RV after selling their house. They’re preparing to take off and invite him to join them on their road trip, but Frost declines the offer, as he suggests hiking might not be the best for his father with his illness. His parents seem to remember his past very differently than the reality as Frost rehashes the trauma they put him through during his time as an actor.

On his way out, he injures his hand on the door, and Naomi helps to patch him up at Med as Doris arrives to pull him aside to assist with a young woman named Emily with schizophrenia. As Frost performs an exam of the patient, Charles speaks with the woman from the care facility. Emily is being treated as an in-care patient. She injured herself while trying to stop an itching as Frost orders some medication to help treat the rash.

To Frost’s surprise, when checking in on Emily, she’s a completely different person, as she’s now coherent and no longer hearing any voices. Charles wonders if perhaps there is some underlying issue with her immune system that could be impacting her brain. He wants to run some scans, but is optimistic that perhaps she does not suffer from schizophrenia. 

It turns out that Emily has a form of lupus, which is an autoimmune disease that damages the central nervous system. Charles suspects that it’s behind the mental issues she’s faced over the years and that there are treatments that could help manage the symptoms. It could also lead to her finally being released from the care facility after years, which gives her hope for her future. 

Emily asks if Charles can remove her restraints, and he agrees, much to the displeasure of Emily’s inpatient facility. It turns out Emily is under a conservatorship, and they’d need permission from her sister to facilitate the release. 

Charles calls in Emily’s sister, Paige, and explains their findings. He and Frost admit that she never had schizophrenia and apologize for what she would have gone through. Her sister recalls how Emily tried to stab her mother’s boyfriend, and their mom left with him, leaving her to take care of Emily and her little brother. As Paige asks if they can guarantee the treatment will work, Frost interjects that there is no guarantee, and her sister turns down the plan Frost has outlined.

After the conversation, Charles comes to see Frost, and he notes he was just being honest with Paige. He needed to recognize and acknowledge the pain Paige went through in the past. Charles notes it’s not their job to advocate for Paige; it’s their job to advocate for Emily, who deserves a chance to regain her life. He notes that the power of forgiveness is not alien to Frost as he questions what’s going on. Rather than answering, Frost storms off, but we know it’s his parent’s return that led him to take Paige’s side in things. 

As Paige prepares to leave, Frost goes to see her and tells her about how he cut himself having breakfast with his parents as their behavior triggered them. He spent all morning blaming the door latch, but it got him thinking it was the universe’s way of telling him he’s been holding onto his anger. Paige suggests that the best thing for them both to do is not look back, but Frost asks her why that doesn’t feel right either.

Charles goes to see Emily and talks through some steps she can take as Frost shows up with Paige. The sisters embrace as Paige apologizes for abandoning her as Emily apologizes for scaring her. 

After seeing the sisters' makeup, Frost decides to take his parents up on that road trip and heads off with them, choosing to let go of the past so as not to let it impact his future. 

Elsewhere in the episode...

Lenox begins her day getting a new badge after losing her old one. As she enters the elevator, she bumps into Ripley and asks for thoughts. He flirts back, asking if she’s ever taken a bad photo as she moves in on him before pulling away when the elevator doors open. It seems the pair are sneaking around at the moment and hope to keep their relationship under wraps from their colleagues. They arrive as Doris prepares the staff for a busy day with the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. 

Lenox and Archer team up to treat a pair of friends named Glenn and Tim, who are injured during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations while looking to check off a box from Tim’s bucket list. It turns out Tim has brain cancer, and Glenn has been helping him to check off items on his bucket list. We learn the pair went to high school together but reconnected a year ago. 

Ripley treats a woman named Maddie with blood in her vomit and with dark and bloody stools; Ripley suggests it could be an ulcer. That’s when her soon-to-be ex-husband Grant arrives, and Ripley deduces that this is likely the stress that has caused her ulcer. The good news is that her test comes back clear, so they perform more tests. Hannah then arrives to tell her the test shows she’s pregnant, which throws the woman off as she hasn't had sex in the last year.

Later, an EMT comes in to return Lenox’s lost badge, which was found in the back of their ambulance, and that’s not the only thing she found. The EMT pulls out a pair of underwear, which Lenox says are not hers. Archer enters to catch the tail end of the conversation but doesn’t press her for details. 

Tim’s scans come back and show no signs of cancer, as Lenox and Archer discover he’s been in remission for years now. When they approach Tim, he admits that he had lied to Glenn and that he doesn’t want to come clean, as he worries that Tim will no longer want to be friends. Archer strongly encourages Tim to come clean to his friend as Lenox pulls him away. 

Hannah performs an ultrasound, and it shows she is indeed pregnant. She admits that she’s started taking a sleeping pill to help her sleep, which totally knocks her out for hours. Her boyfriend questions whether Grant could have perhaps assaulted her while she was sleeping, but she says it couldn’t be possible as he questions whether she’s in denial.

Maddie reveals to her ex that she’s pregnant as he questions whether the child is hers. He tells them about a night a few weeks back in which she came into his room and jumped his bones. They had sex, but she doesn’t remember a thing about the night. Ripley goes to pull him aside as he says he can prove he’s telling the truth. He shows them all footage from their home security cameras, which confirms his story. Ripley suggests it could be an instance of sexsomnia and a side effect of the sleeping pills. 

After his outburst, Lenox pushes back on Archer’s actions earlier, as he seems to call to point that maybe she'd have felt differently if her test results had come back positive. The conversation is interrupted as Doris comes in to notify them that Glenn is crashing.

Sadly, Glenn did not survive, as he had a fatal hypoxia. The news shakes Tim as he questions whether this would never have happened had he just told him the truth as Lenox and Archer excuse themselves. When Lenox goes to check on Tim, his belt is missing and he’s gone to the bathroom alone. She pulls Archer aside and they find him in the bathroom trying to hang himself. 

Maddie is struggling with the reality of things and wondering if it was the medicine that caused her to sleep with her soon-to-be ex or if it was her subconscious telling her not to give up. She admits that she always feels something when she’s with him, and it’s not the same with her boyfriend, as Hannah notes that sometimes surprises can have silver linings. In the end, Maddie seems to choose to give her ex a second chance. 

After saving Tim’s life, Archer tells him to honor Glenn in his life by finishing the bucket list. As they walk, Archer reflects on how it’s tragic that some people have to land on death’s door before they decide to really live. Following the conversation, Lenox pulls Ripley aside and takes him to Goodwin’s office, where she informs her that the pair have been seeing one another. Goodwin assures them that as long as there are no sexual relationships happening on the premise, they’re good as she excuses them. 

Ripley feels a bit blindsided as she notes she was trying to be romantic. As they enter the elevator, she admits he’s right. She’s been trying to chase adrenaline for a while, and perhaps it’s time to chase something more meaningful. Rather than replying, he pulls her in for a kiss, which turns into more.