“Chicago Med” showrunner Allen MacDonald has long been teasing a Season 11 breakdown for Dr. Charles, and it looks like the doctor’s day of reckoning has finally arrived.
Thus far this season, the Gaffney psychiatrist has faced mental health struggles, challenges with his medication, and technological advancements that change the landscape of his work. The tension between his personal and professional life has been bubbling beneath the surface all season long, and “Chicago Med” is now taking a deep dive into the doctor’s life in a two-part story arc centered around Oliver Platt’s character.
Kicking off with Wednesday’s episode (8 p.m., NBC), titled “The Book of Charles,” “Dr. Charles grapples with his own mental health following a harrowing experience working the suicide prevention line,” per the official logline.
Then, in a follow-up on Wednesday, April 8, titled “Altered States,” “the doctors at Gaffney work to save one of their own in critical danger,” the synopsis reads. Plus, “Hannah finds herself at odds with the OB-GYN who will fill in for her maternity leave.”
Keep scrolling to see what more MacDonald and Platt can tease about the dramatic two-part event.
Oliver Platt teases ‘one of the worst days’ of Dr. Charles’ life
NBC
“Chicago Med” Season 11 has featured plenty of high-stakes drama: co-parent challenges between Archer and Hannah, Lennox being held hostage in a former patient’s basement, and a mysterious chemical attack that brought together all the Windy City first responders. “Chicago Med” showrunner Allen MacDonald promises that Charles’ upcoming storyline will fit right in alongside those conflicts as “one of those dramatic high points of the season.”
Although the events across the next two episodes will be shocking, they might be unsurprising since MacDonald admits he’s been setting up Charles’ storyline since the end of Season 10, which saw the psychiatrist reconnect with his daughters after his mother’s death. MacDonald shares that the two-part event will draw on known “Chicago Med” canon, such as Charles’ relationship with his late mother.
“It’s safe to say that what Allen wrote was certainly one of the worst days in [Dr. Charles’] adult life,” Oliver Platt reveals about Episodes 16 and 17.
Per Platt, everything that Charles has been silently struggling with — his anxiety about aging out of work, his mental health struggles, and his new medication regimen — finally “comes to a head,” in what Platt calls a total “existential crisis.”
“For an actor, it’s just a complete dream to play struggle and challenges, and have the day get worse and worse and worse, until something really bad happens,” Platt shares.
Press “PLAY” on the video above to watch our Q&A with Platt and MacDonald, then hit the comments with all your “Chicago Med” thoughts!
