Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 16 Review: The Book of Charles

If you don’t have Charles among your favorite characters, Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 16, “The Book of Charles,” might not be the episode for you. The entire episode focuses on Charles and the terrible day he is having after a very difficult call at the suicide prevention line.

What the show does incredibly well is work with the lighting, the camera focus, and the sound to guarantee we understand exactly how Charles is feeling. When he is struggling, on the verge of a panic attack, we are right there with them. So even if this episode isn’t your favorite, you’re guaranteed to feel all the emotions.

Inevitably, the episode ends with Charles on his office floor mumbling for help. Whether help will come on time is yet to be determined.

While Anna’s frustration is understandable because she’s a woman in her early 20s, Charles’s point of view is just as understandable (if not more). Even though she claims he is fixating on her life because there’s something wrong with his, we know that it goes beyond that.

Charles makes the wrong decision when he spies on Anna through Doris’s social media, pushing her to friend-request Anna’s boyfriend. His reaction to Anna coming into the hospital and the way he handles the conversation are completely wrong. He shouldn’t have taken out his frustration on her.

Nevertheless, everything he says is real. He is afraid to lose Anna, to be left in the dark about her life, because he nearly lost her. Charles hasn’t fully dealt with Anna’s suicide attempt, and that becomes very clear this episode.

Sadly, we know something is about to happen with Charles, and Anna will probably blame herself for leaving things so terrible between them.

The episode focuses on portraying Charles’s struggle beyond his near panic attack. His mood has also completely changed, and it’s even more obvious during his conversation with Goodwin.

While at first he is reassuring that he doesn’t want the position as Dean of Psychiatry, the tone of this topic quickly changes when he feels Goodwin is calling him a liar. Once again, his anger and frustration are taken out on the wrong person.

Even though Goodwin reassures him that she doesn’t want him to leave and is glad he is sticking around, the fight leads Charles to angrily scream that he is now considering the new role. It’s as if everything in his being is pushing Charles to burn the bridges around him.

One can’t help but wonder if his actions are a consequence of the difficult phone call or his body’s way of telling him something bad is about to happen to him.

If you’re sticking around because you want more from the episode than Charles, there are two particular storylines that stand out. One is Ripley’s.

Charles quickly realizes he is in therapy and tells him how proud he is of him. Ripley’s explanation of choosing to go to therapy because he was dumped by two women for the same reason makes perfect sense. And it’s quite great to see that the result of that is his relationship with Lenox growing even more.

The other one is Frost and Naomi’s relationship. Even though it might be disappointing that Naomi has a boyfriend, there might be a bit of hope left because Frost realizes he actually cares about her.

Their banter about Wordle is really cute and captures the core of their relationship. However, it is heartbreaking to see Naomi leave the hospital to meet her boyfriend while Frost decorates the locker room with glowing stars.

We wonder where this relationship will go.

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Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.

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