Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
We need to talk (again) about tragic baby stories on Chicago Med.
Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 18 was a solid episode, but I’m over the unnecessary baby deaths.
Yes, these things happen, and they’re sad. But Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 18 again showed that a healthy pregnancy is the exception, rather than the rule, at Gaffney.
Lizzie’s Baby Drama Wasn’t The Top Storyline On Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 18
This story was a minor subplot, or so it seemed, until Lizzie’s baby died and the D&C led to an emergency hysterectomy.
I guess this is supposed to create new conflict for Lizzie and Hannah — their estrangement for five years after Hannah finally got sober wasn’t enough anymore.
But it was also yet another in a long series of baby deaths on Chicago Med. In fact, Hannah nearly relapsed after the last one on Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 3.
I found that one more upsetting.
I just didn’t have enough of a connection to Lizzie to care, and it felt like this was cheap drama.
First, she loses the baby, then she gets Dean to bend the rules so that Hannah can operate on her (despite the questionable ethics), and then she loses her ability to have children altogether.
It’s all sad, but I didn’t feel anything.
I don’t know if it’s that the trope is overused, that Lizzie is a random character who hasn’t displayed much personality beyond wanting to manipulate her sister into bending rules for her, or both.
Hopefully, this won’t cause major issues for Hannah and Lizzie, who were bonding as sisters before this, though.
Lizzie keeps encouraging Hannah and Mitch, which is not a thing anyone wants.
Ripley’s behavior this season is ruining Chicago Med, and we don’t need anyone encouraging more toxicity.
Thankfully, Ripley and Hannah’s Scene Was Shorter Than It Seemed It Would Be
Chicago Med has been promoting the couple talking about their future for weeks, but thankfully, it was a quick conversation in which Ripley acknowledged he wasn’t boyfriend material, at least not yet.
He didn’t let Hannah get a word in edgewise, which was annoying and demonstrated yet again that these two need to stay far away from each other.
Somehow, Hannah got from that self-centered conversation that Ripley had changed. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
Archer was wrong in general about people not being able to change long-term, but I think he’s right about Ripley.
The only evidence at all of him changing was that he stopped Frost from going off on that patient.
But that doesn’t mean he’s changed as a person. He’s just better at seeing his own negative patterns when other people engage in them, that’s all.
Frost Was Acting Out Of Trauma, But He Had A Point
Frost seemed triggered by the couple and their social media posts.
I can’t say I blamed him for that. I was half-expecting some kind of Munchausen by Proxy story where the parents were making the kid sick so that they could post about it on social media.
I also thought maybe the parents were faking the kid’s snakebite somehow to create drama for their social media.
Once Trey lost the snake, I was sure it was a publicity stunt.
The whole lost snake sequence didn’t work for me. It took an interesting story and made it ridiculous.
There are enough strong medical stories that descend into silliness on Days of Our Lives. We don’t need it on a medical drama, too.
Frost’s reactions were the more interesting part of this storyline. He lashed out at Dr. Charles later in a seeming fit of paranoia, accusing him of checking on him because Ripley said so.
The parents probably hit a nerve because no one protected Frost when he was a vulnerable kid on a TV show.
Despite his denials, he knows on some level that what happened to him on that set was wrong, and he’s having a hard time dealing with it.
Lenox Was Also Coming From Trauma — Did Dr. Charles Recognize It?
Dr. Charles was getting hit with other people’s traumas throughout Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 18!
Lenox also gave him an emotional monologue after looking at Cynthia’s scan and confirming she had dementia.
She didn’t think Cynthia should tell her husband because it would be painful for him to see his wife deteriorate.
That came directly from her own pain over losing her parents.
I wondered if Charles understood where that was coming from.
Like he said, he doesn’t “shrink” colleagues, so he let it go without comment, but that had to have resonated on some level.
I also suspect that trauma is what stopped Lenox from being willing to get to know Hayes more personally.
After she witnessed Ron supporting Cynthia through her disease, she became open to Hayes’ interest in her and decided to go to Myrtle Beach after all.
That can’t be a coincidence. She had to have let go of some of her fear after realizing that not everybody is ill-equipped to deal with painful events like realizing a spouse is dying.
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The Cynthia story was the opposite of the Frost one — instead of a reasonable story becoming silly, a silly one became something more substantial once Charles realized something was wrong with Cynthia.
Although dementia stories have become as common as baby deaths, I enjoyed this one. I especially liked how one partner’s medical problem led to a diagnosis for the other.
Random Thoughts About Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 18
Is Naomi leaving the show? She had a going-away party and nice monologue about how she’ll miss everyone, but she’ll be working with Hayes, who is still part of the series.
Speaking of which, that surprise party was nice. True to form, Archer didn’t show up, though.
Where were Maggie and Sharon? They will have a big story on the next episode, but their absence was not explained on this one.
Your Turn, Chicago Med Fanatics
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