Chicago Med Season 5 Episode 6 Review: It's All in the Family
Jack Ori
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Will never learns, does he?
He almost lost his chance at a residency at Med back on Chicago Med Season 1 because he ignored a patient's DNR order, and on Chicago Med Season 5 Episode 6 he made a similar mistake.
And his decision to override his patient's religious beliefs was especially egregious considering that he'd tried to stop Natalie from doing the same thing in Lucas' case.
Dr. Marcel spent most of the hour trying to convince Will to follow medical ethics and stop imposing his beliefs on his patient's family.
Too bad it fell on entirely deaf ears -- but at least Marcel TRIED to do the right thing, so there was that.
Will: I just want you to understand that without this surgery, David will not likely survive.
Father: We'll pray.
Will: Look, I'm a man of faith myself, but if you're praying for a miracle -
Mother: We don't pray for miracles. We pray that Jehovah will sustain and comfort David.
Will's opinion was that his patients' faith was ridiculous and he became obsessed with proving that David was not a Jehovah's witness.
How exactly was that different from Natalie locking herself in the room with Lucas to give him medication his parents didn't believe was appropriate?
Will won the battle and lost the war, too. He felt guilty about making David fear eternal damnation, but that's not all he did.
David's parents disowned him over Will's claims and Will thought that was fine because it meant they were no longer in the way of his providing lifesaving treatment.
Related: Chicago Med Season 5 Episode 5 Review
And Will's guilt was quickly forgotten, anyway. For him, the lesson was to trust Natalie, not to let patients make their own decisions.
I couldn't believe he thought he'd swoop in, tell Natalie that Philip was a liar, and then live happily ever after with her. Even the lesson about trusting her didn't stick for more than a second.
As for Natalie, both her professional and personal storylines were wrapped up too neatly and too quickly.
After Gwen refused to allow the hospital lawyer to help Natalie, Goodwin had a chat with Lucas' mother and all was forgiven just like that. Charges dropped, Natalie back at work, end of story.
It's fine if Med didn't want to go the route of Natalie facing criminal charges (though the crossover with PD, if this story had been developed better, might have been fun.) But there still should have been consequences.
Sharon: Where are we?
Gwen: In a slightly better position than we were four hours ago. Lucky for you, Calmid did some quick maneuvering to get a court order to treat Lucas. But there is no excuse for your reckless behavior.
Natalie should have been suspended or placed on even more restrictions. Dr. Lanic already thought she belonged on a short leash and this incident should have convinced him she isn't ready to return to full-time work.
Instead, nothing happened other than Natalie going to the police station for approximately 30 seconds before charges were dropped.
Whether or not she ultimately saved Lucas' life, she should have faced consequences on the job for her behavior.
She put the hospital at risk for a lawsuit and broke half a dozen laws. How can she just return to duty as if none of that ever happened?
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And don't get me started on that Philip nonsense.
If there had to be a love triangle, why couldn't it be between two good guys instead of Philip being turned into a manipulative liar to make viewers root for Natalie/Will?
Of course, the joke is on both men because Natalie broke up with both of them. Hopefully, it's not set-up for Philip to become a crazed stalker that attacks Natalie so that she realizes Will is her true love when he rescues her.
That's how things happen on Days of Our Lives, but I'd like to think Med is going to give us something more original than a soap trope.
Girl: You should have just let them jump me in! Now what they're gonna do to me is worse.
Noah: What are you talking about?
Girl: If they don't get to jump you in, they sex you in.
Meanwhile, Noah made a dumb decision that will likely come back to bite him.
April's decision to call the cops might not have been the best idea.
Angel and the other gang member probably suspect that Noah or April did that, and we don't need them putting out a hit on anyone at Med.
But if Noah's "better plan" was to hide the girl at his apartment, then April's right not to trust him.
There's only about a million ways this could go wrong.
For starters, Noah doesn't know this girl at all. He doesn't know that she won't steal from him or do anything worse than that.
There are gang members after her who suspect Noah called the cops, too.
If Angel finds out she is staying with Noah, that could cause a lot of trouble.
And could Noah also get in legal trouble for letting this girl stay with him?
Dr. Charles' story was my favorite. It's always exciting to see stories about my fellow trans people, especially if they're done well.
It would have been nice if we'd cut out some of the nonsense (I'm looking at you, Natalie, Will, and Philip!) so that there would have been time for more depth in this story.
It was over too quickly.
Claire decided against stopping her hormones, her wife returned to her, and Dr. Charles went to tell Sharon the good news.
I'd have liked to have seen Dr. Charles talk to Claire and find out what it was like for her to live as a man and why she rejected the cardiologist's suggestion that she stop hormones.
To me, it made perfect sense.
If Claire couldn't live as herself and had to go back to living as the man she wasn't, she'd be so tortured that there'd be no point to being alive.
But that wasn't expressed anywhere in the dialogue.
Instead, we left Claire and Melinda in the midst of their reunion and it wasn't clear what Claire ultimately decided about the hormones.
What did you think, Chicago Med fanatics?
Should Will and/or Natalie face sanctions for their unethical behavior?
Was April right to call the cops?
And was Claire's story too rushed?
Share your thoughts in the comments, and don't forget you can watch Chicago Med online if you missed anything.
Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8 PM EST/PST.
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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
