The following contains major spoilers for Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 4, “Blurred Lines,” which debuted Wednesday, Oct. 16 on NBC. It also contains discussion of pregnancy loss.
Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 4, “Blurred Lines” is one of those episodes that feels like a sucker punch. The NBC show has long delivered incredible highs — but is also capable of audience-crushing lows. This installment has several of those, which very nearly overwhelm the rest of an hour that includes some wonderful performances.
“Blurred Lines” focuses primarily on the fallout from Season 10, Episode 3, “Trust Fall,” as Dr. Hannah Asher continues to struggle in the wake of losing her patient on the operating table. Not only does Hannah have to deal with that emotionally, but new arrival Dr. Caitlin Lenox makes it a professional problem as well. Meanwhile, Hannah’s friend Dr. Dean Archer is blindsided in his own way, and Chicago Med unexpectedly says hello again to an underrated character. What could’ve been great winds up as a mixed bag because it’s so uneven.
Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 4 Isn’t Kind to Hannah
Asher Has Personal and Professional Hurdles to Overcome
The storyline of Hannah struggling to accept Elise Thompson’s death is a great idea; medical professionals wrestle with tragic cases all the time. This specific audience just saw that when Dominic Rains’ exit from Chicago Med was explained by his character Dr. Crockett Marcel learning about the tragic fate of one of his patients and the boy’s father. And given how Hannah put so much effort into bonding with Elise and trying to help her through, it would have been weird if she didn’t still think about it in an episode that takes place just a few days after the events of “Trust Fall.” It’s how the storyline is handled that makes it underwhelming.
Dr. Caitlin Lenox poses the idea of a “case review” and Elise’s passing is the first case she wants to discuss. First and foremost, this is not made up for the show; it’s a version of a real practice in hospitals, called a morbidity and mortality conference, or M&M for short. But M&Ms have been done before and much better on other TV series. TNT did an incredibly underrated medical drama called Monday Mornings that was specifically centered around M&Ms and did a thorough dive into how they, and other practices, affected the mental health of doctors as well as patients. In Chicago Med, there’s not enough time to execute the concept properly, and who’s doing it unintentionally makes it feel even more frustrating.
Dr. Caitlin Lenox: I understand you are hell-bent on finding something you did wrong here… I agree that Elise died because of negligance, but it wasn’t yours.
Chicago Med makes its first significant attempt to endear Lenox to the audience when she reassures Hannah after Dr. Kai Tanaka-Reed points out a procedure he thinks Hannah should have done. This only adds to Hannah’s self-doubt, but outside the meeting, Lenox mentions that she doesn’t agree with Kai, and that the real person to blame is Elise’s previous doctor, who didn’t take her seriously and thus prevented her from getting proper care much earlier on. Lenox has a valid point, and it’s great that she’s on Hannah’s side when it would be easy to go in the other direction. But when she follows up her support with a snide comment about how Hannah should be smart enough to know she’s not at fault, it turns a positive into a huge negative. There’s only so far Lenox can go in her current quasi-antagonist role, and viewers’ patience is going to wear thin.
Conversely, Jessy Schram is on her A-game in this episode, conveying Hannah’s desperation for answers and the understandable instinct to blame herself. She goes on the complete emotional roller coaster ride from grief to embarrassment and then acceptance across 42 minutes, and it’s one more example of how far Hannah has evolved since her original appearance. The revelation that Hannah is so upset she was tempted to relapse is a brilliant addition; even though her addiction is seasons ago, that’s a whole complex aspect of her character that could be opened up. But it also is a missed opportunity that she reveals that to Dr. Mitch Ripley and Dr. Dean Archer, who shows his deep loyalty to Hannah and is also a recovering addict. Maybe the writers went the Ripley route because Archer has his own, and definitely unnecessary, suffering to deal with.
Chicago Med Is Even Less Kind to Archer
Steven Weber’s Acting Is the High Point of His Subplot
It hasn’t stopped being ironic that Lenox and Archer are at odds, because the way she’s written is following in his footsteps — except for one very important distinction. While Archer was an antagonist on Chicago Med originally, the audience connected with him because they could understand him. He was given personal depth and just as importantly, the way that Steven Weber played and continues to play him, he never feels difficult just for the sake of being difficult. Since Weber joined the cast full-time, it’s been a pleasure to see Archer become a better doctor and a better person. A large part of that growth has come through his relationship with his son Sean… which is why it’s so baffling that “Blurred Lines” feels the need to blow that up.
The show (and the fans) have invested a few seasons in not only seeing Archer and Sean reconcile, but Sean’s own success working at a rehab clinic and helping other people turn their lives around. Season 10, Episode 4 drops the bombshell that Sean has been fired from the facility for being argumentative with patients — something that feels out of character for him and is not explained in any specific detail. When Archer argues with Margo about the negative effects this will have on not only Sean’s life, but his as well, Weber feels like he’s speaking for the audience. But Margo’s response to that, and Sean simply declaring that Margo is right and he wants to move to Florida, comes across as just creating drama for the sake of it.
Margo: My patients, they don’t need lectures. They need understanding.
The only thing it adds to Archer’s character is a short-term justification for why he’s so defensive of Hannah. In the long run, it has echoes of Dr. Daniel Charles’ controversial relationship with Liliana Wapniarski — a romance strained over a family member. It also removes Sean from the show, which leaves less to explore for Archer outside of whatever happens with Margo. Chicago Med has an occasional tendency to rely too much on characters’ dating lives to develop them, and this plot twist pushes Archer in that direction. It’s also something he doesn’t need when he has his ongoing conflict with Lenox to keep him busy.
Who Returned in Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 4?
One Guest Character Comes Back Around
There’s one very pleasant surprise in Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 4: the return of Natalie Zea as Jackie Nelson. Jackie was introduced in the Season 9 episode “With A Little Help From My Friends,” when Maggie Lockwood and Dr. Charles intervened to get the overworked nurse some much-needed help. That was a moving and important storyline, but it was also the kind of storyline that the show doesn’t often revisit, so it’s wonderful that the creative team decided to bring Jackie back — not only to show viewers how well she’s doing, but to let her have a positive storyline of her own. It’s Jackie who helps Charles get through to a patient who intentionally blinded herself, using her own experience to connect with the woman.
