Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 17 Review: Altered States

Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 17, “Altered States,” is off to the perfect start as we watch Lenox from the patient’s eyes. Immediately, viewers think they are seeing Lenox through Charles’s eyes. Everything she is saying adds up to the diagnosis we expect to hear about his health.

However, soon we discover we are the eyes of a different patient, and nobody knows Charles is on his office floor, grumbling for help. Our desperation for someone to find him grows when Archer mentions he’s been trying to get in touch with him, and Goodwin tells him it’s best to give Charles some space.

Viewers want to reach out through the screen and shake them into the realization that something is wrong.

Funny enough, viewers aren’t the only ones seeing things through a screen. Charles finds himself in a limbo, revisiting the people and moments of his life that have created the insecurities he carries now. While doing so, he watches on a TV screen as Goodwin finds him in his office, and later as Archer and Abrams operate on him.

The show does an incredible job of placing us in Charles’s headspace. We feel the slow realization happening in his head of why he’s talking to his dead mother, a very young Ripley, his ex-wives and younger daughters, dead Suzer, and at last his father. And the truth is that everything that happened to him throughout Chicago Med Season 11 was preparing him (and us) for this particular episode.

Without realizing it (or without wanting to look at it), Charles has been struggling with the feeling that he is a fraud and is letting everyone down. His need to constantly make everything and everyone better is taking a toll on him because he doesn’t realize it is not possible.

It all started when he had an argument with his mother an hour before she died, and it escalated when Anna attempted suicide. Those two moments triggered something in Charles that he had kept hidden for so long. Something that is revealed the moment we see him find his father committing suicide in their garage.

Young Ripley describes these scenes extremely well when he says Charles is actually having a conversation with himself, going on a nostalgia tour. Everything these people are saying to him comes directly from his mind, and it’s all based on the belief that he is terrible at his job and people will soon discover he is a fraud.

That is why he replays moments from his life when he had fights with people about not being or not doing enough. The only time he is faced with the real question by Suzer, he avoids the conversation. He doesn’t want to look at the root of the problem, even though he knows exactly what it is.

But the smoke chasing him through every scene in limbo is a clue that he won’t be able to escape the one moment he never wants to relive. Finding his father committing suicide again is definitely traumatic, but it is the moment that allows Charles to confront his fears.

He misses his father. He is afraid to lose him again. He blames himself for not having saved him. But the truth is that Charles was young, and there was nothing he could have done.

What’s so beautiful about this episode is that the people who love Charles show up for him despite everything that has happened. Ripley is so distraught by this because he knows the immense impact Charles has had on him. An impact that clearly Charles cannot comprehend.

But the most incredible bond Charles has on this show is with Goodwin. Anna accepts the fact that her father gave Goodwin medical power of attorney because she knows Goodwin is family. Sharon isn’t just a random friend Charles has; she is someone who has come along for the ride for many years, standing by his side through life’s ups and downs.

It’s quite symbolic that while he sees Anna and Ripley hitting the window to get him out of the car, it is Goodwin who finally breaks the glass. She is that one loyal friend who will always come to the rescue because she knows Charles would do the same for her.

That’s why it’s so important to viewers that she is the one in his room when he wakes up. Goodwin is the one constant Charles has always had in his life. Through divorces and losses, they have been there for each other through it all.

She is the saving grace in all the chaos of his thoughts and traumas.

While we focus on Charles, there are two other storylines that stand out on Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 17, “Altered States.” One is the relationship between Lenox and Ripley.

While he tries to be vulnerable and open up to her about what he is feeling, she tries to use sex to “help” him. Their disagreement is that he doesn’t see it as help; he sees it as a distraction. But Lenox continues to be honest with him, explaining she doesn’t do death.

What Ripley doesn’t know is the core of this statement. Lenox started using sex as a “distraction” the moment she found out about her diagnosis. She doesn’t do death because she knows how close she is to it. Therefore, she tries to be there for Ripley the only way she knows how.

However, it becomes clear that she cares about him and wants to try a different approach when she shows up to sit next to him as he waits outside the OR. Goodwin’s little knowing smirk tells us everything we need to know. This relationship is going further than Lenox expects.

The other storyline that stands out is Asher’s. She is finally forced to confront the reality of her feelings regarding her maternity leave.

Her sassy comments about her substitute being a cat with Eugene Levy’s eyebrows and pretending to be young and hip are only a mask to protect her feelings. She doesn’t want to show anyone (or allow herself to feel) how terrified she is about going on maternity leave. She feels like she has no control over anything that’s happening to her, and she doesn’t want her career to be one of those things.

However, something tells us that if Hannah allowed herself to actually feel these emotions, she would be able to handle it differently. Hopefully, we will see a bit more of this before she goes on maternity leave.

---

What did you think of this episode of Chicago Med? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!

Critic Rating:

Audience Rating:

 

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

Check out our latest TV recommendations, updated weekly!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!