And just like that, the hard-to-believe soap opera-like elements are back.
Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 2 pulled out all the stops for its 200th episode, including kicking off a multi-episode arc featuring Will’s return.
Whether you loved or hated it depends on what you expect from Chicago Med. For me, it mostly reminded me of my biggest problem with Will.
Why, Why, Why Does Will Always Have To Get Involved In Weird Criminal Nonsense?
When Chicago Med first began, Will was central — but he wasn’t ridiculous.
During Chicago Med Season 1, Will was a resident who was sometimes impulsive and went too far in his zeal to provide patient care, often putting his career at risk by not following the rules.
I love maverick characters, but over the years, the show deviated from that, instead making Will a larger-than-life hero who ended up in the middle of organized crime.
He worked undercover to help the Chicago PD get the goods on a mob boss, nearly resulting in his own death and derailing his wedding to Natalie. After that, getting into these kinds of situations became Will’s new normal.
I’d forgotten all that nonsense, but it came roaring back when Will became the only doctor a patient who was hiding drugs in his stomach trusted.
It was yet another larger-than-life situation — and of course, Will was in the middle of it, even though he didn’t even have privileges at Gaffney anymore.
I Have To Admit, Though, Will’ s Grand Entrance Amused Me
For one thing, it interrupted all of that ridiculous gossip about Hannah and Archer’s baby.
Isn’t this an emergency room? Why are doctors and nurses standing around talking about Hannah’s pregnancy?
Charles’ teasing Archer about being an “old dog” seemed out of character and annoyed me to the point that I was grateful Will showed up with a patient in his arms.
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That entrance was typical Will — he just happened to be in the right place at the right time to save someone’s life, and he walked in like he’d never left.
I Wish There Had Been Time For More Of Will Realizing How Much Things Had Changed
Will was too deeply involved in the life-saving drama to take a breath and realize that Gaffney had changed in his absence.
The only indication of how much things had changed was that he couldn’t find the charging cables for Owen’s tablet because they’d been moved to another shelf.
I know it isn’t how this fast-paced medical drama typically rolls, but I’d have loved to have seen a more character-oriented drama in which Will realized that the Gaffney Medical Center he was visiting was very different from the one he’d left and developed some feelings about that.
Sharon came close to telling him when she reminded him he didn’t actually have privileges in this hospital (though he ended up still being Jasper’s doctor anyway, simply because Jasper wanted him to be.)
Sharon: Dr. Halstead, a word please.
Will: I feel like I’m in trouble.
Sharon: I’m sure it’s a familiar feeling.
When Reese visited, at least she asked for temporary privileges before she jumped right in!
I loved Frost’s bemusement. He’d never met Will before, so to him, this was some random guy intruding on his patient.
It turned out they were both right, too, since Jasper needed an NG tube and had drugs in his system.
This All Culminated In A Contrived and Unnecessary Cliffhanger
I’m sorry, but it was way too easy for that woman to get into an OR with a gun so she could demand the drugs the doctors were removing from Jasper’s stomach.
This kind of contrived nonsense is what soured me on Will toward the end of his original run. There were similar, uncalled-for stories that made it feel more like General Hospital than a primetime medical drama.
Are you psyched Will is back for a few episodes or do you wish he’d go back to Seattle for good?
Either way, that’s what the comment section is for! Share your thoughts and let’s talk.
The scenes in the OR were meant to be tense, but I had a hard time taking them seriously when the security breach was so ridiculous.
I did like Lenox talking the woman down. It reminded me of years ago when Chicago Hope’s Jeffrey Geiger took a similar risk with a gunman who wanted a loved one to get a heart transplant right away.
However, there was no real reason for Owen to get shot other than it being a good vehicle for bringing Natalie back, too.
Will made sure Owen was hidden behind the couch as soon as he realized something was wrong, and there didn’t seem to be any reason for the woman to shoot anyone after she got what she wanted.
These types of gun violence stories make me uncomfortable in a day and age where too many children have experiences like this at school.
If a child is going to be shot during a story, there’d better be a damn good reason, and there wasn’t one here.
Plus, the scene with Natalie confused me. Everyone was in all white, so I thought someone was in heaven or having an out-of-body experience.
Thoughts About Non-Will Stories
I’m glad Will wasn’t involved in every storyline, although he took up a lot of screen time.
The Ripley/Archer stuff was purely annoying.
I loved it when Dr. Charles called them out on acting like they were in the schoolyard, but otherwise, I had no use for this story.
It was hard to have empathy for this patient, too, considering that his biggest problem in life seemed to be that he was 5’4″ and his fiancée didn’t know he wasn’t really 5’10”.
I’m shorter than him, and it has never held me back in life, unless you count having to ask someone to get me groceries off a top shelf.
It was funny when Dr. Charles decided not to say anything to Emerald because she also was keeping it secret that she smoked cigarettes, though he should have stuck to his guns and not considered violating HIPAA in the first place.
When did Trini become so gossipy? First, she spilled the beans about Hannah’s baby, and now she thought they should tell Emerald that her fiancé was shorter than she thought he was.
Meanwhile, Hannah got the saddest story of the night, but it got lost in the shuffle with all of the Will stuff and the drama between Archer and Ripley in the OR.
Your Turn, Chicago Med Fanatics
Did you love or hate this episode? Either way, we value your opinions, so please don’t keep them to yourself.
Hit the comments with your thoughts, and vote in the poll below to grade the episode.
If you love Chicago Med, you might also be interested in our other One Chicago coverage. We also write about various other medical dramas, such as Grey’s Anatomy and Brilliant Minds.
Chicago Med airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c and streams on Peacock on Thursdays.
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