Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 2 Review: This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us
For those viewers who were missing Will Halstead, fear not because Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 2, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us,” delivers his replacement. And we aren’t the only ones to notice it.
As always, Chicago Med delivers several storylines that keep us on the edge of our seats, wondering what will happen next. Between kidney transplants, a chaotic divorce, and a sneaky doctor, there is a lot going on.
Luckily, the show always knows how to focus on each storyline to give us enough information to understand what is happening and find out how it gets resolved.
The moment Goodwin introduces us to Zola, we get the feeling that she will be a Halstead 2.0. Her history shows she is willing to bend the rules in order to help those in need.
It doesn’t take her long to begin bumping heads with Marcel, which once again reminds us of the way in which Halstead and Marcel got into more than one fight while working the ED together. However, Zola seems to be more apologetic about her actions than Halstead was.
Even then, she is spontaneous and rushes into things. She describes this by saying she feels a rush of adrenaline that she tries to control but is unable to. Halstead never described it this way, but his actions spoke the way Zola does.
The board was never all too happy with Halstead, but it was the one quality that made him stand out. He always put patients ahead of regulations and laws. Zola has started to do the same, and it is, again, a quality that we must highlight.
The way she is introduced seems to purposely want to remind us of Will, but towards the end of the episode, this is confirmed by Marcel himself, who tells Goodwin he won’t say names, but it is a doctor who has red hair.
Goodwin’s confirmation that she knows what Marcel is talking about is the proof we need that she hires Zola exactly for that reason. As many headaches as Halstead gave her, he was the kind of doctor that’s worth fighting for.
Hopefully, Zola is, too.
Nothing on Chicago Med is an accident. Every detail in every scene is purposely put there for a reason. Whether the reason is confirmed on the same episode or later depends on each storyline, but everything is always resolved.
When the episode starts, we see Ripley teaching interns about a new machine that shocks patients’ wrists to see if there’s still neurological function. At first, it seems random, and we wonder why that scene is so important.
However, before Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 2, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us,” ends, we know that is shown to tell us what Ripley is capable of. Even though it’s not a hundred percent confirmed yet, he used the machine on an intubated patient to get away with proving he was right.
We don’t know if that’s what he has done, but the camera focuses on the wrists of the patient and shows two little marks that coincide with the machine he shows the interns. However, we, as the audience, aren’t the only ones to notice it.
Charles is quick to see the marks and begins to suspect that Ripley falsified a “yes” from the patient to get his way.
This is yet another incident that will come between the two doctors and set up for further conflict down the line. Indirectly, Charles has warned Ripley about having his license removed if he continues to lie about his methods.
If there was something to criticize on Chicago Med Season 9 Episode 2, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us,” it is how it brushes over the racism one of the patients presents when talking about the guy he ran over.
Wade comes into the ED with his wife after they were in a car accident. It is a very intense storyline as it involves Zola’s spontaneity and a cancer diagnosis. However, when there are delays in his wife’s treatment, the man begins to show racist tendencies.
He talks about how “these people” have come and taken up space in their schools and are using up all of their resources. Sadly, the show does not focus on these comments, and they’re brushed off as if nothing had been said.
The doctors don’t stop to think about it because Zola is attacked, and security has to intervene, but the comments feel unnecessary. They don’t add value to the storyline.
Luckily, on this episode of Chicago Med, Dean’s medical issues are finally being resolved. It seems at first that he won’t be getting his son’s kidney, but it is shortly resolved.
Unlike previous episodes when Hannah was the person who solved the issues in Dean’s storyline, this time, it is Maggie who helps Dean’s ex-wife do the right thing.
The fact that the episode begins with Maggie and Ben trying to sort out their divorce is a small clue of the way in which Maggie will use her personal experience to help Dean get his kidney. As sad as it is to see Maggie suffer, she shows her strength once more, making her an important character on the show.
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Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.
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Lara Rosales
By day, Lara Rosales (she/her) is a solo mom by choice and a bilingual writer with a BA in Latin-American Literature known as a Media Relations Expert. By night, she is a TV enjoyer who used to host a podcast (Cats, Milfs & Lesbian Things). You can find her work published on Eulalie Magazine, Geek Girl Authority, W Spotlight, Collider, USA Wire, Mentors Collective, Instelite, Noodle, Dear Movies, Nicki Swift, and Flip Screened.