Chicago Med Review: Can’t Unring That Bell (Season 4 Episode 14)
Guilt does things to people’s capacity to make decisions; it influences their choices leading to a variety of results. It’s that look at what guilt does to people’s choices that fuels most of Chicago Med Season 4 Episode 14, “Can’t Unring That Bell.”
It’s interesting to see how guilt manifests in everyone and how it affects them so differently, from some of the patients to Will and Maggie.
Will’s already impulsive, to begin with if most of his interactions with patients and their treatments are any indication. But when Connor gets a patient that is shot with what turns out to be Will’s stolen gun, it sends Will a little further.
I mean, interfering with patients’ decisions when it comes to treatment isn’t a new thing for Will. But this time around, there’s an added sense of urgency and panic when he hears about the possibility of a full recovery.
It reaches a frustrating peak halfway through the hour when he’s willing to take a chance on this surgery and this teenager’s life just for the possibility of assuaging his guilt. That frustration is what makes Dr. Abrams’ words to Will after he finishes with the patient, to get it together, all the more important.
Let’s hope that he takes those words to heart moving forward.
Meanwhile, Maggie’s guilt manifests by her going above and beyond for a patient and former neighborhood acquaintance on Chicago Med Season 4 Episode 13, “Ghosts In the Attic.” What I like about Maggie’s willingness to go as far as donating a kidney is that it’s not just selfishly motivated.
Maggie genuinely believes that they should be able to do more for the patients they see every day in the ED.
It’s an aspect of medical care that always seems like the toughest. When these doctors and nurses can’t do as much as they like and I appreciate it’s gone about in Maggie’s story. Her decision to donate also gives us a solid moment of confrontation between her and Ms. Goodwin.
It also lands more favorably than Will’s simply because his need to save the patient comes with risks to the patient that he wholly disregards, where Maggie’s feels like it comes from a more selfless place.
Elsewhere, Dr. Charles’ first date ends in the ED when her drug-addicted daughter gets violently sick, and we see another kind of guilt that feels relatable—a parent’s guilt.
To see Britt’s mom go so far as to essentially fill in for her daughter’s drug test is crazy but after Dr. Charles confronts her, it makes sense. She’s tried everything to get her daughter better, what’s faking a drug test, really?
Granted, it’s extreme in the way it plays out throughout the hour, but the need to do everything for your family is entirely relatable and somewhat understandable. Of course, that doesn’t make the whole faking your daughter’s drug test okay.
Random Thoughts
- This whole Connor/Ava situation is going in a vastly different direction than I initially anticipated and I’m wondering what’s the truth behind all of these things because it seems so odd that she would report him for what happened to that Carcarno.
- I’m very curious about where Natalie’s story is going in terms of the baby and father of the former patient.
What did you think of this episode of Chicago Med? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.
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Brianna Martinez
Brianna spends her time away from briefs, legal research, and pleadings, watching TV and writing about it. She generally has a lot of feelings about TV, which you can read about here and on Twitter.