What would Dr. Charles say?
The fall 2025 TV schedule is somehow already out of episodes of Chicago Med, with the fall finale delivering the last batch of medical crises in One Chicago until the 2026 TV schedule kicks off early in the new year. My hopes were high ahead of “Double Down” after Med delivered by far my favorite One Chicago fall finale last year, and the promo that aired after the penultimate episode last week hyped a hospital-wide blackout, something going sideways for Hannah’s pregnancy, and a little bit of Lenox continuing to make risky decisions after her diagnosis.
And while “Double Down” wasn’t a bad episode, I was just kind of disappointed after what I expected from the promo, and the Season 10 fall finale had set a high standard after it ended with Goodwin getting stabbed and a harrowing reaction shot from Steven Weber as Archer.
What I Expected From “Double Down”
As you may recall from the promo that aired after last week’s episode with Ripley finally going a little too far with his pettiness, the first few seconds do focus on Lenox making a risky decision in the ED with a patient suffering from an electrical injury, but they seemed like moments that could come from pretty much any Chicago Med Episode of the Week.
The moment that was hyped after “ONE SHOCKING MOMENT” in the preview showed Hannah seemingly in distress with her pregnancy, with Archer asking via voiceover what was wrong. Throw in the blackout while Archer was in surgery, and I was thinking that there was going to be a problem with Hannah’s pregnancy while Archer was unavailable to do anything about it. Take a look:
Now, was it entirely fair of me to get my hopes up for a dramatic A-plot for Hannah and Archer, especially since the writers presumably didn’t cut the promo together? Maybe not, and it’s not like I haven’t gotten plenty of their storyline in this first portion of Season 11. Plus, Hannah’s pregnancy has been stressful enough already this fall, and it was an interesting twist on Med’s usual format that the misdirect about her distress and Archer calling out to her was via a dream sequence.
Plus, I can acknowledge that the fall finale preview had part of me flashing back to an eventful episode of ER and a twist between Abby (Law & Order’s Maura Tierney) and Luka (Goran Visnjic) when she was pregnant, and that’s definitely not the fault of anybody in One Chicago. I enjoyed the similarities between Will’s departure from Med to Carol’s from ER, so this isn’t the first time I’ve seen shades of the classic medical drama where I should only be seeing Med. (In fairness, I did it with The Good Doctor and ER as well. ER is great.)
