Chicago Med Finale Recap: The Past Is Present — Plus, Grade the Episode!
Chicago Med‘s Season 9 finale brought the past into the present for several characters.
The hour begins with Ripley and Hannah finally partaking in some tea and making out when he gets a call from the hospital, which is short-staffed. On the bright side, Hannah brings him coffee the next morning, which is also interrupted by work. A high-risk prisoner is brought in, and fittingly, he’s played by Jeff Kober, who also portrayed the captive vampire Buffy had to battle on her 18th birthday, adding a whole unexpected level of threatening subtext to his Med scenes.
Ripley calls in Charles for help, and the two discover that the prisoner actually has late-stage dementia, which could lead to him getting beat up in prison for non-compliance when he’s confused. That doesn’t sit well with Ripley, who accuses Charles of not advocating for the patient like he didn’t advocate for him as a teen. That raises Charles’ hackles; he exclaims that he’s tired of apologizing to Ripley and protecting him, and he’s done with it.
Meanwhile, Sully comes in for chemo and asks Ripley about Pawel. He accuses his friend of getting soft by letting Pawel get away with the disingenuous lawsuit. “What happened to you? You used to be the king of payback,” Sully says.
Ripley heads to an appointment at the DMV, and after he returns, Pawel is brought into the ED. He claims he was assaulted and points the finger at Ripley, who stays mum even as the police ask him if he has anything to say about the accusation. Instead, Ripley just turns around and leaves, not even defending himself, as his colleagues look on in stunned silence. (Even Hannah doesn’t speak up.) But my money’s on Sully as the culprit.
Elsewhere in the finale:
* Burt is getting worse, but Goodwin feels like putting him in a facility would be like throwing him away. Her extremely understanding boyfriend, Dennis, isn’t upset that her ex-husband is living with her, but he is disappointed that Goodwin isn’t letting him in to help her. A relationship is a partnership, so “invite me into your life,” Dennis pleads. The situation with Ripley’s patient, who can’t get the help he needs, makes Goodwin realize that it’s time to get Burt into somewhere that can assist him. Goodwin asks Dennis to come to the facility, and he shows up, offering his support.
* Crockett is so rocked by the news that his former patient died and that the little boy’s dad committed suicide that he bails on a surgery. The situation brings up old feelings of helplessness and grief for Crockett, who tearfully confesses to Maggie that he knows how the dad felt because he, too, lost a child. He adds that he never took the time to grieve his daughter’s death, which makes me wonder if he’ll actually show up to work the next day, like he tells Maggie he will.
* Archer treats an addict from the facility where Margot and Sean work. As his sponsor, Sean takes the relapse very hard and feels betrayed that his dad is going easier on the man than he did on Sean.
Med fans, what did you think of the season ender? Grade it below, then hit the comments!
Terrible season finale. That should have been the penultimate episode. So disappointing. Way too much emphasis on Ripley, completely unbalanced storylines, AND still with this Pawel guy for season 10 now?! God I hope the new showrunner does a better job.
I doubt that Ripley beat up Pawel. He has zero wou ds on his hands. Very sad about Crocket’s patient. The scene between Crocket and Maggie was very sweet.
It was Sully. That was my immediate reaction.
No it’ll be too obvious and he was kinda gaslighting Ripley to be the one to act
That’s the finale? No. That was not good. Such a predictable “cliffhanger.” I’m kind of shocked that’s all the writers could come up with for the final episode.
How is that predictable, when there wasn’t even anybody expecting Pawel to come in there getting beat. STOP IT!
Sully just had a baby, I don’t think it’s him. For a second I was eorry Marcel might leave chicago.
Very good finale for Med, the cliffhanger was a shocker. I was not expecting them to have Pawel come in there getting beat. I like the whodunit theme, I think it would’ve been better if Pawel got killed. It could be Sully, but I can’t think of anybody else who would do that for Dr. Charles.
A real nice surprise would be Dr. Charles’ daughter doing it.
There has got to be a lot of people who would want to give Pawel a beat down.
Which of Dr. Charles’ daughters as he has two.
Dumb cliffhanger. It’s obvious either his friend did it, or we’ll find out in the premiere it was a completely different person, but giving any perception that he could have actually been behind it is moronic
Exactly. It was obviously not Rip at all so what kind of a cliffhanger was that? What kind of a finale was that?!
dr. Charles is really picking and choosing the patients he stands up to them. He never admit his wrongs to Mitch but blamed the system. he kept treating Ripley as a patient and quite manipulating him too. I’m with Sully on Ripley needing to stand up for himself. At least everything was open ending, relationships and careers to the new showrunner vision.
I didn’t watch the finale yet but from the recaps I got, it wasn’t a very good cliffhanger.. Left us with more questions that answers.. But that is what a cliffhanger probably is.. So I assume the Ripley saga will continue.. I also don’t think Ripley beat Pawel.. ( Just because Pawel is soooo anoying ).. But who knows.. The Sean and Dean blow up came out of nowhere I heard.. So that will continue.. Hannah saying to Margo if she can help in anyway, let her know.. Apparently that look Margo gave her said it all.. I hope were getting a jealous Margo in season 10 because Hannah is close to Sean and Dean… And then hopefully we will see more interaction with Dean and Hannah and they will be the end game..
Ripley being the main suspect gave me a little bit of Downton Abbey vibes. Specifically when Bates, and then Anna (or maybe that’s flipped) were accused of killing Mr. Green but then it turned out to be another woman that Green had assaulted. I don’t know if they’re gonna go this route but if they don’t, then I think it was Sully, not Ripley that beat Pawel up. Or, it could be someone else that Pawel wrongfully sued, in which case I could see it coming out (legally) that he’s a con artist. Which may or may not cause problems between Daniel and Lilliana, though I hope not.
Why didn’t Maggie already know about Crockett’s daughter? They did an episode years ago about him losing a child.
In Season 6, Episode 6 (“Don’t Want to Face This Now”), Crockett revealed that he’d had a daughter, Harper, who’d died at a very young age. “I lost my daughter to Leukemia, about 10 years ago,” he said. “Just a few months after her first birthday.”
Just love this show and all the characters. Look forward to this every week. Hope it will continue in the future !!