Chicago Med season 11 resumed on January 7 with the eighth episode of the season and the winter premiere ended, with quite the plot twist – one which left one character dead.
Picking up sometime after the events of the fall finale, we see Lenox in the police precinct with a detective asking about her statement. He asks her to walk him through what she was thinking when she left the hospital. Lenox says she doesn’t remember why she didn’t call the police, that maybe she didn’t call them as they wouldn’t have taken it as seriously, to which the officer says maybe if she had taken it seriously someone wouldn’t have wound up dead. This creates a mystery surrounding who was killed, one that unfolds across the episode.
Lenox recalls how Devin knocked her out with the gun, the alleged murder weapon. She can’t remember how long she was out, just that when she came to she was in the basement. We flash back to see Devin has tied her up in the basement and is questioning who knows she’s there, asking about Ripley, who has been calling. Lenox assures Devin she won’t say anything as Faye tries to defuse things by suggesting they skip town. He tries to pick Faye up, but Lenox notes she can’t walk in the condition she’s in and he begins looking for supplies for Lenox to fix her up.
After making a makeshift splint for Faye’s leg, Lenox tries to convince Devin that Faye needs to go to the hospital. Just then, we hear the sound of a car pulling up to the house. Devin goes upstairs as we hear Ripley calling out for Lenox. We hear a struggle and then Ripley up shows up at the top of the stairs at the doorway as Devin leads him downstairs at gunpoint and restrains him as well.
Just as it looks like Devin is going to shoot Lenox, Faye passes out and he tells them both that if Faye dies, they both die. Lenox and Ripley are able to stabilize Faye, but she needs medical help immediately, which is lost on Devin.
While Devin is out of the room, Ripley and Lenox try to convince Faye to create a distraction so they can help her by overpowering Devin. When he returns, Ripley lays into Devin as Lenox works to free herself with a tent stake. She then stabs Devin in the leg, but he gets the upper hand and begins strangling her. Thankfully, Lenox is able to knock him out.
The officer asks why there is a body in the morgue with a bullet in it, as we cut back to the night of the storm. Lenox goes upstairs to look for a phone and calls 911. We then hear a gunshot while she’s on the phone.
Lenox tells the cop Faye shot Devin in self-defense to save her and Ripley. The detective shows her photos of Devin’s wrists which suggest he didn’t break free from his restraints, but rather that someone freed his wrists after the gun was fired, but Lenox sticks to her story.
Lenox is released after giving her statement and is greeted by Ripley outside after he’s also released. He asks how she held up and she says they just had to stick to the story. We cut back to the night of the storm and see Ripley in the room looking for something to get Faye out with as she begs him not to leave her. We see Devin coming to as Faye looks on in fear. Devin coaches her to get the gun and she reaches for it. Devin tells Faye she has to shoot Ripley as it’s the only way to get out. Ripley tries to defuse the situation as Faye then shoots Devin.
We cut back to the present day as Ripley asks Lenox what she was thinking going to the house by herself, to which she quips back ‘What were you thinking following me?’ before heading out.
Elsewhere in the episode…
Dr. Charles considers retirement after a hard case takes a toll on his health
As the episode opens, Dr. Charles sits down with his therapist and recalls the events surrounding a patient who came through Med in need of a heart transplant.
The night of the blackout, a patient was brought in who was an organ donor and their heart was slated to go to a local woman who was at the top of the transplant list. When the woman came in, red flags were immediately raised and we quickly discovered that the woman, named Linda, had tried to overdose on her medication. Linda’s sister tries to explain to Dr. Charles that her sister has been waiting for a heart for 12 years and begs him not to let Linda lose the heart because of one poor decision.
After evaluating the situation, Dr. Charles is unable to recommend Linda to the advisory board for the transplant and her sister quickly lashes out at him. Speaking of lashing out, before coming to his final decision, we saw Dr. Charles have a rare outburst as he laid into Dr. Morris about suggesting Linda was undeserving of the heart and it should go to someone more deserving.
Dr. Charles admits to his therapist that he’s thinking about retiring and it’s something he’s thinking about all the time as he’s not sure how much gas he has left in the tank. She presses him for information about what happened that he wasn’t telling her, suggesting he’s holding something back – and her gut was correct.
We later see that following his confrontation with Dr. Morris, Dr. Charles got into the elevator and began having a panic attack, something he hasn’t had since medical school. In addition to the panic attack, he also got a nosebleed, which has him worried something more could be going on.
Hannah and Dean find out the gender of their baby
After noticing that something is off with Hannah, Dean confronts her about the cold shoulder treatment he’s been getting and tells her he wants his friend back. She tells him about the nightmares she’s been having about her dying in the delivery room like her mother. She feels like if she finds out they’re expecting a girl, the nightmare is going to swallow her whole.
As the episode draws to a close, Dean shows up at Hannah’s door with an envelope. He says she needs to face her fears as letting anxiety fester isn’t good for the baby’s health or her health. The results show they’re going to have a girl, and he assures her that history doesn’t always repeat itself.