Chicago Med ruined the climax of Sharon Goodwin’s stalker storyline in season 10, episode 6. Sharon (S Epatha Merkerson) has been part of the Chicago Med cast since the series began. She is a former nurse who now is a hospital administrator tasked with hiring and firing ED staff and often mediates conflicts between doctors about which course of treatment to follow, and has had several juicy personal storylines as well as hospital-based ones.
Sharon has been dealing with a stalker who has sent her death threats throughout Chicago Med season 10. The story has mostly focused on the psychological toll it is taking on Sharon to receive these threats; she has done things such as continually look over her shoulder, and in one episode, she pepper-sprayed a teenage neighbor who she mistook for a burglar. These incidents led toward a climax where Sharon’s stalker was revealed; however, this reveal was underwhelming because of the way it was handled.
Sharon’s Stalker Storyline In Chicago Med Explained
A Disgruntled Former Employee Has Been Harassing Her
Sharon received a death threat in Chicago Med season 10, episode 2, but at first, she brushed it off, refusing to work remotely or otherwise show fear. However, this quickly took a psychological toll on her, and she became hypervigilant, continually fearing that the stalker was following her. This crisis came to a head on Halloween, when she was startled by a knock on the door and pepper-sprayed a teenage neighbor who was trick-or-treating.
This accident led to an important discovery, however, as Sharon’s neighbor had a Ring doorbell that had captured a photo of the stalker near Sharon’s home. Thus, Sharon had proof that the crime was not only in her imagination, which set up her storyline for an exciting finish as she decided to move in with Dennis temporarily to avoid the stalker while the threats escalated and the police investigated who was doing this to her.
Chicago Med Wasted Sharon’s Storyline By Not Properly Building Her Stalker
Her Stalker Was Revealed To Be A Random Character Not Seen On-Screen Before
During Chicago Med season 10, episode 6, Chicago PD’s Kevin Atwater told Sharon he had a lead on the stalker, and she identified him as a former employee. Sharon had been forced to lay off a number of employees because of budget cuts to the hospital, so it was unsurprising that somebody became upset enough to threaten her. However, the culprit was a random employee that had never been on-screen before, which made the reveal far less exciting.
Almost all the layoffs were done off-screen, making it difficult for viewers to identify a suspect. This was a critical mistake. Having the stalker be a random person made it appear as if the writers didn’t know who was stalking Sharon until the last minute, and then tacked a random suspect onto the ending. It would have been better to have had some on-screen layoffs so that the audience could attempt to guess who the stalker was before the reveal.
How Chicago Med Season 10 Should Have Executed Sharon’s Stalker Arc
The Writers Needed A Definite Plan And More Clues Throughout The First Few Episodes
If Sharon’s stalker arc had been handled in a more deliberate, planned manner, it would have been a stronger story. The first mistake the series made was having all of the layoffs be off-screen rather than making them a full story. While it was unnecessary for Chicago Med to show every layoff in detail, it should have shown a variety of responses and given some hints as to who might have been upset enough to stalk Sharon. Furthermore, there were no real clues as to who the stalker was, except for one blurry photo on a Ring camera.
It would have been a strong plot twist for Zach to have decided to get revenge after his firing rather than fading into oblivion.
The audience was unable to follow along and guess the stalker because of this issue. Additionally, there was also an alternative to a random laid off worker being the stalker. In Chicago Med season 10, episode 1, Lenox fired resident Zach Hudgins after he froze during a crisis and left Sharon to tend to a patient without oversight from a doctor. Thus, it would have been a strong plot twist for Zach to have decided to get revenge after his firing rather than fading into oblivion.
Chicago Med could have had a far stronger finish to its Sharon stalker storyline if it had planted more seeds ahead of time or chosen a villain who was already known to the audience. This story also had the potential to utilize characters from other One Chicago shows better, such as police and paramedics. Unfortunately, it wasted the suspense in this story by choosing a random culprit who had not been seen on-screen before, after which it doubled down on its mistake by having the police tell Sharon about their confrontation with the perp instead of showing it on-screen.
