Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0
4.3
Sorry, Ripley fans. This Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 review is going to be hard on him.
He spent most of the hour trying to sacrifice his career to protect Scully, only to berate Asher when she refused.
Yes, Scully was dying, but how did Ripley going to jail in his place help anything? This nonsense was more proof that this story needs to go away already.
It Was Hard To Care About Ripley’s Career Being On The Line
This Story Hurts The Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 Review Score
Ripley’s career was in danger, but Ripley didn’t seem to care very much about that, which made it hard for me to care, either.
This whole Pawel story has been weak. Ripley was going to fight because the guy was a compulsive liar who got away with too much crap, then settled as soon as the going got tough.
Then, he decided to take the blame for Scully’s beating of Pawel because his loyalty lay with his oldest friend.
I get all that, intellectually, and it feels like the perfect set-up for a strong story, yet what I feel about it is… nothing.
I wasn’t invested in anything other than seeing this annoying story full of tired TV tropes end sooner rather than later, and I cheered Hannah on when she realized that risking Ripley’s wrath was the right thing to do.
Of course, this uninteresting story is likely to lead to a huge rift for the sake of drama between Ripley and Hannah.
Hannah can do better than him. She should walk away forever with her head held high.
She did the right thing. Ripley is an idiot doing his best impression of Brady Black on Days of Our Lives.
What does she need him for?
There are so many more interesting stories than this one, so if the writers could just do whatever it takes to make it end, I’ll be forever grateful.
Charles And Frost Both Faced Ethical Dilemmas Around Confidentiality
HIPAA It Isn’t Always As Straight-Forward As It Seems
Charles and Frost’s stories both raised the same question: When is it appropriate to keep secrets from people involved in a serious health issue?
In Charles’ case, he told the husband of a patient with schizophrenia that his wife was off her meds and potentially headed for trouble.
I wasn’t sure whether that crossed any privacy lines, but what else was Charles supposed to do to try to save the woman’s life?
As it was, neither she nor her husband listened to Dr. Charles, and it almost resulted in the unnecessary death of the woman and her baby.
By the end, the woman’s life still hung in the balance, and Asher had to do a procedure she’d never directly done before and hoped it bought enough time to save the patient’s life.
Maggie: When was the last time you did one of those?
Asher: I watched one when I was in medical school.
Maggie: Med –
Asher: We have no other options.
Thus, Charles clearly did the right thing by talking to the woman’s husband, and I was glad he was also on hand to comfort the guy after all was said and done.
Frost’s decision was harder, and it didn’t help that Archer and Lenox gave him contradictory advice.
Archer likely advised him that way half because he wanted to spite Lenox, which seemed irresponsible. Sorry, Archer, but you lose points in this Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 review for that pettiness.
Still, the patient wasn’t five years old.
In the long run, it would do him more damage to believe he was going to go into remission and get back to playing soccer when he was going to be paralyzed for the remainder of the very short time he had left.
This story demonstrated how tricky it is to give care to teenagers.
Technically, Max was still a minor, so it was up to his parents to consent to surgery and to decide what to tell him about his condition.
Yet he was old enough that he could understand what was going on and make decisions for himself, which made the parents’ decision to withhold the truth feel as wrong as the time on Blue Bloods when Frank wanted a doctor to keep a diagnosis from Henry.
Did Archer And Lenox Actually Come To An Understanding?
Archer’s Original Idea Was Somewhat Silly, But He Learned His Lesson
I was expecting to spend some time in this Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 review chewing out Archer, and I am so glad I was wrong.
Archer’s decision was a nice plot twist. It probably should have been obvious from the beginning that trauma and emergency medicine overlap, but better late than never.
Lenox: I suppose I should be grateful that it only took you one shift to realize that.
Although Lenox might have been annoyed with all the cross-outs and comments on her report, she should view it as a peace offering.
Archer taking the time to read her report and give her a half-compliment along with a lot of red ink is a vast improvement over his refusal to consider Lenox’s ideas before.
Behavior like that is why I would never want to hang out with Archer in real life, but in the context of the show, it’s a major step forward.
Random Thoughts
Ideas That Don’t Fit Elsewhere In This Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 Review
- Marci Miller played another person with a serious mental health disorder, which was interesting to compare to her performance as Abigail on Days of Our Lives
- Sharon’s anger at Charles annoyed me. She should know that past violence doesn’t always mean current bad behavior.
- Unsurprisingly, Sharon laid off mostly random people who weren’t a real part of the show. It would have been a meatier storyline if anyone important had been let go.
- Were the layoffs the real reason Sharon fired Zach?
Over to you, Chicago Med fanatics. Let’s hear your Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 2 review!
Hit the comments with your thoughts.
Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8/7c and streams on Peacock on Thursdays.
