Heartbreaking conditions are part and parcel of medical dramas.
Still, there’s a fine line between cathartic and depressing, and Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 15 almost crossed it.
All three cases involved terminal patients, which was an extremely risky move.
Thank Goodness Dr. Archer’s Case Broke The Baby Curse
Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 15 brought back a patient from earlier in the season, and Archer had to come to terms with the fact that there was no way to save him.
That was a hard pill for the same man to swallow who had fought the entire hospital board to do experimental surgery that would buy a few weeks.
To make matters worse, this story revolved around whether Jeremy would live long enough to meet his baby daughter while his wife was in active but slow labor.
I was so focused on Jeremy’s plight and his decision to live with excruciating pain for long enough to meet the baby that I forgot about Chicago Med’s baby curse.
In most cases, people who come into Gaffney because they are in labor do not leave with a baby.
Chicago Med has milked miscarriage drama for all it’s worth, making almost every pregnant woman on screen go through it, and if not that, a stillborn baby or one that dies two minutes after it is born.
Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 15 threatened to go that route when Esma’s baby didn’t appear to be breathing when she was born.
As soon as that crisis began, I remembered how this was likely to end, and braced myself for yet another tragic outcome.
Thankfully, for once, the baby survived — and as an added bonus, Jeremy didn’t pass away while waiting for his daughter to be born and was able to hold her for long enough to grab one last video.
I was not expecting that, which made it an even sweeter, more emotional moment.
Of course, Jeremy died soon afterward, or at least it was implied that he did, but that was to be expected, and it was off-screen, so it wasn’t an unnecessarily tragic ending to the story.
Although it was sad that Jeremy wouldn’t get the full experience of being a father to baby Daisy, his ability to hold her before he passed away made this story worthwhile.
Dare We Hope That Hannah Will Actually Carry To Term?
This could go either way.
The fact that one baby survived could mean that Chicago Med has finally decided to stop killing off all the babies, but it is equally possible that baby Daisy got the one get-out-of-the-hospital-alive card.
I couldn’t tell from Dean and Hannah’s conversation which way this was likely to go, either.
It seems pointless for them to discuss how Dean will be in his 80s by the time their baby girl graduates high school, and that he’s looking forward to co-parenting if it won’t happen.
Plus, I’m not sure how far along Hannah is, but the longer this goes on, the more likely she is to actually carry to term — although that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have a stillborn baby or other birth complication.
I still don’t trust the writers not to decide that the best way to create emotional consequences for Hannah and Dean is to have her lose the baby, but I really hope I’m wrong about that!
I Don’t Know What To Make of Dr. Charles’ Story
The whole 8-ball thing was a bit too quirky for a story about a dying woman desperate to stay alive.
Gwen naming the 8-ball “Chuck” and relying on it to make all her major life decisions seemed like a low-tech version of the AI chatbot stories that have been incredibly popular on TV dramas lately.
Plus, come on! Her 8-ball was named Chuck, and the main doctor she dealt with was Dr. Charles — how ridiculous was that?
Gwen’s diagnosis was heartbreaking, but I didn’t like the subplot about her possibly donating money for research, only if it would cure her.
The offer seemed unethical, and I had a feeling she was hoping she’d be bumped to the top of the list or put in clinical trials no one else could access if she donated money to the research team.
Predictably, she changed her mind when her survival couldn’t be guaranteed, although it wasn’t clear what she plans to do with that $150 million instead, since her time is short.
I liked Theo’s confidence that he would solve this within five years, but Sharon was right — no one could guarantee that, and he was likely lying to himself if he was 100% sure about it.
This story was followed up by Charles getting a random offer to leave Med to teach medical students elsewhere, which I suppose could be his exit story if he does leave the cast.
Frost Should Not Be Obligated To Support His Parents, Period
This storyline irritated me.
First of all, we didn’t need a third terminal diagnosis on Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 15, and worse than that… Frost walked away for a reason.
His parents controlled his finances and spent his money, and it seems like they were abusive in other ways.
His father’s illness and refusal to see a specialist earlier do not mean that Frost can or should pay for their treatment, and the final scene between him and Howard sounded too much like an endorsement of forgiving them just because his father is sick.
I’m also not a huge fan of him joining the reboot when the original series led to nothing but abuse for him. Ugh.