Chicago Med Bombshell: A New Chief Threatens [Spoiler’s] Place at the Hospital — But Who Will Stay?
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Is Ripley going to jail? Who is the new ED Chief? Is Dr. Jack Frost here to stay? And did the show just casually mention a goodbye party for Dr. Crockett Marcel without giving us any more information on why he left? The Chicago Med Season 10 premiere provided lots of answers, a few introductions, and left fans with even more questions the show will attempt to tackle during the season — particularly surrounding the relationship between Dr. Mitch Ripley and Dr. Hannah Asher. Plus, there’s that pesky matter of the new ED Chief no one saw coming.
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Chicago Wednesdays returned on September 25, 2024, with new episodes of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. Read on for our recap of Chicago Med Season 10, Episode 1 “Sink or Swin.”
Dr. Caitlin Lennox, A New ED Chief
The Chicago Med Season 10 premiere introduces Dr. Caitlin Lennox (Sarah Ramos), who surprisingly turns out to be the someone Goodwin hired to co-run the ED with Dr. Archer (Steven Weber) because Jackson Monroe Hospital is closing its doors. This means Gaffney Chicago Medical Center is due to have a lot more patients in the short term — about double. Ergo, two ED chiefs. Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) attempts to tell Archer of this early in the episode, but he is more focused on proving that he’s got everything under control, which means he only finds out there’s a new co-ED Chief at the worst possible time: in the middle of an emergency.
Enter Dr. Lennox, the super capable, super by-the-book Army veteran who seems tailor-made to frustrate Dr. Archer. They clash right away, because Archer isn’t thrilled that Goodwin hired someone to co-run the ED with him, but Lennox has an answer to Archer’s “How old are you?” and that answer is “How old are you?”
She also takes charge right away, suggesting the extra patients Archer wanted to divert because of a lack of space could be put in the consultation room. That allows more patients to be brought in, potentially saving lives. Later, she clashes with Dr. Ripley (Luke Mitchell) over the last available units of blood and after she presents her case to Goodwin, and Goodwin elects to give it to Dr. Ripley, as his patient has a better chance at surviving, Lennox indicates to Goodwin she made the right choice.
At the end of the episode, we see Dr. Lennox be informed that Dr. Zach Hudgins (Conor Perkins) froze as he was attending a patient and walked out of the room by Goodwin. Lennox then goes to talk to Hudgins, and despite appearing sympathetic as he explains how hard it was for him, she fires him on the spot and tells him he doesn’t need to show up the next day. This seemingly opens a spot for another resident to come on, and luckily, this episode introduced just the perfect candidate.
The hour ends with Dr. Archer confronting Lennox for firing Hudgins without consulting him. “Are you worried I’m here because Goodwin has lost confidence in your ability to lead alone?” Lennox asks. “What I’m worried about is your effect on morale,” Archer quips back. But Lennox has an answer for that too, pointing out that the ED had no plan for overflow, misuse of space, blood shortages, and a doctor who walked away and nearly cost a patient their life.
“I’m here for a reason, and it’s not to keep the status quo,” she tells Archer as the episode ends, with Maggie (Marlyne Barrett) looking on.
More: Meet the Chicago Med cast’s children in real life
Sharon Goodwin Steps Up
With the Season 10 premiere of Chicago Med presenting Gaffney Chicago Medical Center with an all-hands-on-deck situation, Sharon Goodwin, who remarks to Maggie that she keeps her RN license active for emergencies, steps in to help in the ED. They are a little short-staffed after all, Crockett is gone and the show didn’t really give us any details on where he went outside of what he said to Maggie in the Season 9 finale, so it’s good to see Goodwin stepping in. The whole thing is a little bit of an adjustment, though, as Archer quickly apologizes for speaking to her like he would any other nurse, even though Goodwin is having none of it. She wants him to do just that.
Goodwin also helps out Dr. Howard (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) as she’s struggling with a tourniquet, and the two have a conversation where Goodwin confesses that she misses the adrenaline of being a nurse. Dr. Howard questions her about why she stopped doing it, to which Goodwin responds that she realized there were other ways of being of service. It’s a nice moment for Goodwin, who also spends the episode checking in on Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt), who gets dumped by Liliana Wapniarski early in the hour because he doesn’t believe that Dr. Ripley attacked her brother.
Later in the episode, Goodwin is with a patient alongside Dr. Zach Hudgins when he freezes up and walks out of the room as he’s coding. Goodwin manages to get the patient back, and when Dr. Lennox walks into the room, she informs her of what happened. Later, when Lennox fires Hudgins and Archer gets upset about that, Lennox informs Archer that Goodwin already signed off on the firing. Seems like letting her deal with the patient alone was enough to convince her.
She ends the hour checking in with Dr. Charles, who spent the entire episode dealing with a couple whose marriage might never recover from the fact that the dad abandoned mom and kid and ran to save himself during the accident. Some relationships are not meant to last. It’s a callback to Dr. Charles’s relationship with Liliana, of course. But as Goodwin seems determined to remind Dr. Charles, he’s not alone.
Dr. John Frost, A Charming New Addition
Dr. John Frost (Darren Barnet) isn’t part of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center yet. The charming – or annoying, depending on who you ask – pediatric resident from Jackson Monroe Hospital shows up at the ED just on the heels of the commuter ship capsizing trying to get an MRI for one of his patients. He tries to persuade Maggie with a smile, and when that doesn’t work, he just shows her how much he cares about Zoey, his patient. It’s enough to convince Maggie to at least make the call.
Later in the Chicago Med premiere, we see Dr. Abrams tell Dr. Frost that he is right about Zoey, and she does indeed have a tumor and that’s why she’s having speech issues. As Zoey has no family who can decide whether to go ahead with the surgery or not, Dr. Frost explains the pros and the cons to Zoey and helps her make the decision. After Zoey decides she wants the surgery, he sticks around to wait for her to come out of surgery.
As he’s waiting, Maggie asks him what he’s going to do when Jackson Monroe Hospital closes, and he tells her he’ll beg someone to let him finish his residency. Sounds like we know how that’ll end up. In a callback to their first conversation, Maggie admits he is slightly less annoying as you get to know him, which Frost says is the same as “more endearing.” Later, we see both Frost and Maggie with Zoey, who is recovering from the operation, her speech issues resolved.
More: Where former Chicago Med cast members are now
Are Ripley and Asher Back On?
Ripley spends the entire Chicago Med Season 10 premiere treating the man who caused the commuter ship accident and thinking the man did so without meaning to, only to find out the man knew he had epilepsy and thought he could lie about it and no one would find out. It was just a small little lie. Learning about the lies his patient was keeping inspires Ripley to come clean with Dr. Asher (Jessy Schram), who later in the episode indicated the two were on a break after he shut down on her after what happened with Pawel Wapniarski at the end of Season 9.
Earlier in the episode, Ripley had been warned that he might end up getting arrested for what happened to Pawel, as there was a witness that could place him at the scene. Near the end of the hour, Ripley runs into Asher and stops the elevator the two are on to finally come clean with her about what happened. Sully was the one responsible for what happened to Pawel. Ripley tried to stop him but got there too late.
“Why are you telling me this now?” Asher asks. “Because you don’t always get a chance to apologize to the people you’ve hurt,” Ripley says. “I shut you out and I let that jeopardize what we had. And what we had was really good. And for that, I’m sorry.” We don’t see what else happens with the two of them after that, but it’s a really good speech on Ripley’s behalf, and maybe the beginning of something new.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC. It is available to stream on Peacock.
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For more on Chicago Med, check out our gallery on who the cast is dating or married to in real life below.