It seems like Chicago Med season 11 only just began and yet we’ve already reached the end of the line for now. After just seven episodes, Chicago Med season 11 aired its final episode of the year as NBC sends the show into hiatus for the holiday season. The good news is that season 11 will resume on January 7, and the show certainly left fans with a lot to think about during the break.
The promo for the fall finale hinted that Lenox might cross a line to help a patient, but we didn’t quite expect the line to come at the risk of her own life.
As the episode opens, Ripley is treating a man who was injured in the ongoing storm while working on a downed power line. Lenox enters the room and jumps right into action, cutting the man’s chest open and removing the pacemaker that is causing him to be shocked, injuring herself in the process.
We anticipated that the move was going to have repercussions for Lenox, but then the real surprise of the episode came. Devin Carter, the abusive husband of the patient Lenox treated earlier this season, was brought into the ED drunk with defensive wounds. Lenox informs Ripley that her fear is the defensive wounds were caused by his wife attempting to fight back, and Lenox worries that something has happened to Faye.
When Devin comes too, Ripley treats him for his injuries which Devin claims happened in a hockey accident. Ripley asks about the drinking, and Devin explains that he got drunk after the game and was trying to drink it off. Ripley asks if he wants to give Faye a call and Devin says she’s out of town and wouldn’t be too happy to find out what happened, getting defensive right away.
Lenox and Ripley fear he’s lying, but they’re not sure how to prove it. Lenox pulls up the number on file for Faye and Devin answers the phone in a panic in his room. Worried for Faye’s safety, Lenox writes down her address and sets out to go check on her. Ripley says they should call 911, but Lenox is worried that with the storm they won’t get to her in time. She asks Ripley to keep Devin at the hospital as she leaves to check on Faye.
Devin begins to get a little antsy, and Ripley explains that they need a CT since he hit his head in the fall. Ripley assures him as soon as he’s back from CT he’ll be first on his list in an effort to keep him at the hospital as he leaves the room.
As the episode draws to a close, Lenox finally arrives at Faye’s home and knocks on the door, but no one answers. Worried, Lenox uses her umbrella to break a window and enters the house. She finds Faye bleeding at the bottom of the basement steps and races to her side. Lenox tries calling for help, but she has no reception and goes upstairs. In the final moments, Lenox hears a noise in the house which turns out to be an open door, but as she turns around, Devin is there waiting for her and quickly knocks her over the head as the episode comes to an end.
Elsewhere in the episode.
Hannah's former patients return and get more heartbreaking news
The finale opened with Hannah having a nightmare as we hear voices of her colleagues and Dean panicking, hinting the nightmare was about something going wrong with her baby. Was the moment foreshadowing something to come? That’s the thought we’re left to think about as the action moves to Gaffney.
When Hannah arrives at the hospital, she finds a few familiar faces in the ED. Fans might recall Jeremy and Esme as the couple who came into the ED earlier this season wanting to make sure their baby was okay, only to discover that Jeremy had cancer. Jeremy has been undergoing chemotherapy and things have been going as well as possible, but he’s recently gotten sick so they order some tests to make sure everything is okay.
Stepping away for a consult, Hannah and Charles discuss their recent tiredness and Hannah confesses she’s not been sleeping well and notes that when she finally falls asleep, it’s not been pleasant.
Speaking of unpleasant news, when Dean gets Jeremy’s CT results back, we learn that it’s not good news at all. Jeremy’s cancer is no longer responding to the chemo, aggressive treatment won’t change things. This is it. He’s got a few weeks, maybe a month at best.
After getting the news, Esme seeks out Hannah to ask if there is any possibility of inducing labor so that Jeremy has a chance to meet his baby. Hannah informs her that it would be too risky for the baby, but she offers to help look into options to see if there are other options they can explore.
Dean, Hannah, and Dr. Kingston present Jeremy with the option of a risky procedure that could potentially buy him enough time to meet his baby. The risks are incredibly high, and there is a chance that he won’t survive the procedure given his current condition; however, it’s the best chance he has to be able to meet his child, so Jeremy agrees to the surgery.
The surgery begins as the episode comes to an end and hits a major setback when the power goes out and the backup generators fail to kick on, leaving the team without power as Jeremy lies on the operating table.
Charles and Theo clash while treating a young patient in a drug trial
Early in the episode, Frost calls in Charles for a consult with a gymnast who has come into the ED after all of her labs come back normal. We learn the young girl is part of Theo’s drug trial, which is why they came to Med as her mom’s fear is that the trial drug is causing the symptoms the young girl is experiencing.
The young girl has been experiencing dizziness and blurred vision, but Theo doesn’t think it’s a side effect of the medicine and wants to order an MRI. Charles thinks they should take her off the trial drug, but agrees to wait until the MRI results come in to take action. While waiting for the results, though, he notices Theo in her room toggling with her IV and his suspicions are raised.
Charles confronts Theo, and he says he was simply flushing the IV. When confronted, Theo notes that sometimes he misses the chance to work with patients and Charles mentions that he can shadow him anytime he’d like. Once he leaves, Charles pulls Frost aside and asks him to give him a call first when the MRI results come in – clearly not fully trusting Theo has the girl’s best interest in mind.
When the MRI results come in clean, Frost mentions Theo ordered another test and Charles infers that his fear is Theo is looking for any possible explanation other than the drug being at blame. He goes as far as to question whether Theo gave the young girl something that resulted in the High Vitamin A results that showed on the test Theo ordered. Theo assures Charles he would never do anything to harm a patient, and the pair continue to investigate.
Charles and Theo talking with Angelica, Theo asks if she’s been taking anything to help her catch up after her break. Angelica assures him she would never take steroids and that the only think she uses to enhance her performance is glitter. It turns out the products all contain vitamin A and the combination has resulted in the increased levels of vitamin A.
Charles later apologies to Theo, who again assures him he would never put his patients at risk. Charles mentions that they might actually make a good team, hinting that perhaps the duo will be working together more frequently in the episodes ahead.
Naomi tells Frost how she feels
Following up on episode 6’s love triangle introduction, we see Frost getting flirty with Novak early in the episode. He asks her for her number, and she jokingly writes 911 on his arm before leaving, making it clear she’s not going to make it easy on him.
Later, Frost welcomes Naomi back from her recent trip and she asks about the “tattoo” he’s gotten referencing the 911 written on his arm. Nurse Casey awkwardly interjects that Novak wrote it on him earlier, and Naomi clams up as she walks away.
As the episode comes to a close, Frost goes to apologize to Naomi about their conversation earlier in the day. Naomi ends up taking some advice she received earlier in the episode from Hannah to make a move, and confesses to Frost that she’s had feelings for him for some time now. She tells Frost that she gets in her head sometimes and makes up rules for herself that only end up complicating things. Before she leaves, she notes that while she knows she likely has missed her window, she wanted to get this off her chest.
The proclamation leaves Frost speechless, hinting that this love triangle is about to get a lot more complicated.