Heading into Chicago Med season 11, episode 16, we knew it was going to be a big episode for Oliver Platt with the show dedicating the hour to his character, Dr. Daniel Charles. Right out of the gate, the tone for the episode was set in a manner that certainly caught our attention.
The episode opens with Charles in an elevator at Med stumbling through the hall, his vision blurring, as we hear a phone ringing in the background. It seems like Charles is having a panic attack, but we’ll have to wait to find out if that’s the case as the episode rolls back the clock to 24 hours earlier.
We see Charles in a cubicle working at the Greater Chicago Lifeline suicide prevention center as a call comes through from a man who tells Charles he wants to die. The man tells him how all he can think about is dying; he can’t eat or sleep. The man, Gio, tells Charles there was an accident that was all his fault; he killed his girlfriend as Charles asks him to walk him through what happened.
Gio explains that they went to a holiday party, and at the end of the night, his girlfriend was pretty drunk. He was driving fast as she was feeling very sick, and he didn’t want her to throw up in the car. When the light turned yellow, he gunned it, but then a woman stepped into the crosswalk early, and he tried to steer around her, but the car slid out of control and crashed into a traffic pole on the passenger side. When he looked over, his girlfriend’s eyes were open, but she was gone.
The moment is like a never-ending tape loop in his brain and he just wants it to stop. Charles explains that the cruelest thing about an accident that happens quickly is how after the fact our brains begin to slow them way down and start to play them over and over again, which creates an illusion that we could have created a different outcome when the truth is that would never happen. As the conversation continues, Gio informs Charles that he has a gun with him in his hand. Charles asks him to put the gun somewhere where he can’t see it for now and asks if he’d like to talk about his girlfriend for a bit.
Gio shares that her name was Darby, but before sharing anything else, he notes that Charles can’t possibly understand, and he can’t do this anymore. Charles tries to talk him back from the ledge, but Gio hangs up, and the number goes to voicemail when Charles attempts to call it back.
Anna Charles returns as Dr. Charles's day goes from bad to worse
We jump ahead to the morning after as Charles lies in bed, Gio’s voice from the call running through his head. He heads downstairs and finds his daughter Anna sitting at the table eating cereal and gives her a long hug as she asks if all is okay. He assures her all is well as he goes to prepare breakfast, knocking over her bag by accident.
To his surprise, inside the bag is a pair of men’s boxers, and she claims they’re hers as Charles stops himself from speaking. She pushes for him to finish his thought, and he questions whether it’s wise for her to have a boyfriend right now. She assures him she doesn’t have a boyfriend and turns things back around on him and how he is always projecting when something is on in his life. She suggests they forget the conversation took place as he heads to work.
At Gaffney, Charles and Goodwin talk about his call with Gio as she asks whether his supervisor could trace the call using the phone number. It turns out only emergency services is able to do that, and once they make that move to escalate things, there is no follow-up allowed. They aren’t able to find out what happened one way or another. Goodwin assures him he did all he could and that he can’t save everybody.
Just then, Ripley pulls Charles aside to help with a patient, Travis, who said he fell and hit his head, but it looks like he might have been sexually assaulted. Charles goes to see the man, who is adamant he simply fell and hit his head. Ripley attempts to connect to Travis by talking about the stigma that men are supposed to be tough and brush everything off, but the conversation proves useless as Travis essentially tells both doctors to screw off and go fuss over someone else.
Afterward, Doris finds Charles creeping through Anna’s social media, and he gets cold when she remarks about his actions, telling her to mind her own business. As Doris apologizes, she informs Charles that Anna moved to Instagram a few months back as he admits he’s worried about Anna having a new boyfriend — news that surprises Doris and has Charles wondering how many new boyfriends his daughter has had.
Before he can put more thought into it, Lenox pulls him aside for a consult for a woman named Sage who is complaining of abdominal pain and demanding exploratory surgery. The thing is that every test has come up clear, which makes her worry it could be a case of hypochondria.
Charles sits down and asks Sage about the pain she’s experienced. She notes it always starts minor before getting worse, and he asks if there is anything stressful going on in her life. She quickly takes offense to the line of questions and how he thinks she’s either drug-seeking or it’s all in her head. She gets a sharp pain that results in her doubling over as she notes that nothing in her life has emotionally triggered her and how she’s used to men discounting her physical pain.
Sage explains that she’s heard far too many stories about how a woman’s pain was discounted only to later discover she had cancer, and by then too much time had been wasted. He asks if she’s concerned it could be cancer, and she admits she doesn’t know; all she knows is that her stomach feels like it’s being ripped apart by a chainsaw and no one seems to care. She asks him to find someone who does or who can help prep her for surgery.
Frost realizes he's not over Naomi as Charles discovers a piece of the puzzle about Sage's history
In the break room, Charles pours himself a cup of coffee as he continues to replay the call with Gio through his head. Frost has gotten schooled by Naomi in Wordle as she enters the room to have some fun rubbing it in that she solved the puzzle so quickly. She admits she’s a big astrology fan and mentions missing being able to see the stars in the city as she heads out.
He observes how Frost and Naomi’s playful banter is and assumes something is going on between the pair, but Frost makes it clear they’re strictly friends as Naomi has a boyfriend. Frost admits that there has been some bad timing between them, but next time he won’t miss his chance, as Charles reminds him next times aren’t guaranteed.
Charles is summoned to Goodwin’s office, and she informs him he was called from Porter University of Medicine asking for a reference. He explains that Howie is retiring and trying to get him to take the job as he assures her he’s not going anywhere. Goodwin asks about Sage as he explains she seems to be suffering, just not in the way she believes.
As Charles returns to the ED, Travis is leaving against medical advice. Charles comments about how Ripley almost moved the needle with his comments and asks if he’s in therapy, to which Ripley admits he is. He admits that Hannah and Sadie dumping him for the same reason helped make him realize he needed to make a change. Charles shares how proud he is of how far Ripley has come as Doris pulls him aside.
It turns out Doris did a little digging and found Anna’s new boyfriend, a man named Jake who is a theatre major. He asks if there is a way to tell how long they’ve been dating, but Doris mentions he’s still listed as single, and she jumps to the assumption that perhaps they aren’t exclusive. It turns out that Jake hasn’t posted in over a month and has been in and out of rehab, making her worry if he relapsed.
Charles brings in Sage’s sister in hopes of getting more background, and she reveals they haven’t spoken in the last five years. Before he can even tell her the reason for why he’s called her in, Sage’s sister asks if this has to do with unexplained stomach pain and her persisting for surgery to be performed. She explains they grew up in foster care; when she aged out of the situation, she had emergency surgery for an injury, which led to the doctors and nurses showering her in attention. Ever since, it’s like she’s been chasing that same level of attention, which leads Charles to believe she has Munchausen syndrome.
Sage calls out Dr. Charles in a shocking exchange
Following his conversation with Sage's sister, Charles goes to meet yet another new patient, a young boy named Slater who has been vomiting from eating cat food for the last three days. As his mom, Lee, explains, Slater has been pretending to be a cat since their cat died. Once confirming that the boy is pretending to be a cat to try to make his mom feel better after the death of their cat, the boy confesses it was his fault as the cat got a hold of chocolates he had left on the floor. Charles assures Slater that his mom will forgive him and helps him to tell his mom the truth.
After helping Slater, Charles meets with Atwater, who he reached out to for help in trying to find information on Gio. Atwater reveals that he tracked the phone and found it was purchased at a 7-Eleven. The phone pinged downtown, but it was in such a dense area that it’s a needle in the haystack. Charles thanks him for looking into things for him.
Charles sits down with Sage and explains his diagnosis, but she’s not thrilled with the suggestion that this is all in her head. She lays into Charles, calling him full of it and suggests that fixing sick people like her is how he feels important. She suggests that he needs patients like her to feel better about himself, as the truth is he’s a useless fraud and everybody but him knows it.
Charles uncovers Lenox and Ripley's secret
Before he can even process what Sage said, Anna arrives and confronts Doris about how she requested to follow her boyfriend today. Charles admits Doris was snooping on his behalf, and Anna pulls him aside to talk. He admits he was freaked out about their conversation and points out that the program discourages relationships for recovering addicts. She pushes back as Charles lashes out, asking her to cut him some slack about this topic, as he thought he was going to lose her when Goodwin called about the accident.
He steps away to get some air and wanders into a room where he finds Lenox and Ripley exiting the on-call room. Ripley asks if he’s okay, and he quips about being fine but clearly not as good as them, as he excuses himself. The cat is out of the bag, and we're going to have to wait to see how the pair react to others knowing about their hidden relationship.
After leaving Lenox and Ripley, Charles ends up wandering into the locker room where he finds Frost waiting to surprise Naomi, and Charles breaks it to him that she already left. Frost admits he was taking Naomi’s advice and was trying to make her day with a sweet gesture. Charles gets a call from Goodwin asking where he is and asking him to come up to her office right away. She mentions they have a situation and tells him to come right away.
Dr. Charles's live hangs in the balance
When we return from break, Charles is in Goodwin’s office and we can hear her voice faintly in the background as Charles again replays Gio’s conversation, this time hearing a gunshot in his head. She informs him that Sage has filed an official complaint against him alleging that he verbally abused her a few hours ago and accused her of faking her pain for attention. Charles assures her nothing happened, but Goodwin informs him they have to go through the official process.
He notes how she dismisses things like this all the time, which is when she notes that it’s different when the accused is your best friend. She asks what he’s not telling her, and he questions whether she doesn’t believe him. Goodwin admits she’s worried about him, as this is not like him, and questions whether he needs more personal time. He interjects that maybe he needs to take Howie’s offer more seriously. She asks if he was lying to her earlier, and he points out that he’s never lied to her; he was not considering the job, but he is now.
He storms out and returns to the ED where he finds Lenox working on Sage and preparing her for the OR, who has swallowed some drain cleaner. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, something about whether she was sick enough for you now pop. Charles asks if she’s going to make it, but Lenox notes the outcome is not looking good.
It’s then that we return to the moment from the opening of the episode as Charles stumbles through the hall on his way to his office. Once inside, though, it’s not Charles’ office we see. Charles finds himself in his childhood home as his mom greets him. He notes he thinks he’s dreaming as she asks if he’s sure it’s not a nightmare. He awakens as we find him lying on the floor, calling out for help.