Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 19 Review: Exit Strategies

Raise your hand if Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 19, “Exit Strategies,” feels like yet another missed opportunity for Archer and Asher’s storyline to advance. The only scene the two share is awkward and tense, giving fans nothing of the chemistry that drew them to the couple in the first place.

While it’s clear that the awkwardness comes from Archer’s relationship with Kingston, neither of them is willing to address it. The show itself seems to have forgotten about this plot, feeding us only small moments here and there. Hopefully, this will change during the season finale.

However, Asher does get the opportunity to confront something that was making her pregnancy a torture, giving her fears that she carried from her childhood.

It’s been obvious from the beginning that there are certain feelings bothering Hannah regarding her pregnancy that she’s been carrying since her childhood. They were addressed briefly when she discussed with Archer why she didn’t want to know whether they were having a boy or a girl.

These issues became even more obvious when she discussed the fact that she was afraid everything was changing, and she couldn’t control it. But beyond that, Hannah has been dealing with the fears and stress of pregnancy on her own. This was bound to backfire eventually.

It backfires in a way that pushes Asher to confront her reality. When she pushes hard during a case to save the mother, regardless of what happens to the baby, she realizes it all stems from her mother passing away when giving birth to her. But as she talks to Charles about this, it becomes clear that it comes down to the fact that she believes her father hates her for it.

Luckily, this time around, Hannah doesn’t stay quiet and meets her dad to discuss this. It is the. perfect opportunity for both of them to have closure on something that’s been haunting them since Hannah was born.

This short but necessary conversation is the reassurance and the healing that Asher needs before giving birth to her daughter. The “it’s okay to live and have a child even if your mother didn’t survive” moment she’s been needing from the moment she found out she was pregnant.

Theo is Gunning for Charles

If you were on the side of the fence that wasn’t sure Theo belonged in the ED, you must be happy to know you were right. Everything he’s been doing since he joined the team has been gunning for Charles’s job and changing everything he has created at the hospital.

It all became even clearer on Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 18, “Things Left Unsaid,” when Charles returned to work to find that Theo wasn’t willing to give up his newfound power. This time around, the two continue to butt heads over the patients they see.

Theo is quick to dismiss Charles’s policies, claiming he has several ideas for improving things around the ED. Truthfully, his improvement means pushing his fMRI study and getting patients in and out of the hospital faster than recommended. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Charles, who believes that human interaction should lead psychiatry.

However, what changes the game is that Theo goes so far as to claim Charles isn’t fit to return to work because he failed his fMRI. Goodwin can’t confirm that it was Theo who gave that report, but Charles knows it was him because of the way he’s been behaving. Lucky for him, his best friend runs the entire hospital and will fight for him.

It’ll be interesting to see how this resolves before the season finale, or whether it bleeds into Chicago Med Season 12.

Frost Speaks Up

From the moment Frost joined the show, fans knew there was something from his past that was causing issues. When we met Ainsley, we understood everything. But the harm from his childhood became even clearer the moment his parents showed up.

Frost’s huge heart and caring nature showed again when he agreed to do the reboot of the series to help pay for his father’s treatment. We see him struggling with this decision because that is a part of his life he wants to forget and leave behind. But every time he tries to move forward, something or someone from his past comes back knocking.

Against his better judgment, Frost meets with the producer and his former co-star to discuss the reboot. However, everything goes wrong the moment Ainsley walks through the door. While everyone’s confusion about Frost’s reaction is understandable because they don’t know what happened, Frost’s reaction is even more understandable, logical, and acceptable.

Watching him open up to his former co-star about what happened with Ainsley is huge. This is the same man who, not too long ago, had a fight with Maggie when she tried to confront him about this. Not too long ago, Frost continued to deny the abuse that happened to him, so watching him acknowledge it and confront it is a big step for him.

But what truly breaks our hearts (and pushes Darren Barnet to deliver one of his best performances) is that his father knew Ainsley was taking advantage of him. His father calls Ainsley “your ex,” triggering something in Frost we hadn’t seen before. He is now ready to speak up and no longer cares about the repercussions.

It is sad to see that nobody ever took care of him, and that his father knowingly continued to push him into the arms of an abuser. Frost owes him nothing.

Lenox’s Truth

Even though a big part of Lenox’s behavior has changed since her diagnosis, the side of her that behaves as an older sister hasn’t changed at all. The moment Kip shows up, she is back to eldest-daughter behavior, making sure her brother is okay.

Ripley notices this when he hears her lie to Kip. When confronted with this, Lenox claims she can’t tell Kip the truth because he is very sensitive. Unknowingly, Lenox is feeding Ripley the words that will lead him to discover the truth about her diagnosis.

Kip’s big mouth reveals to Ripley that their mother had prion disease, but even then, that’s not what pushes Ripley to realize the truth. It is Lenox’s kind heart and need to protect her brother that ultimately becomes her downfall…or what reveals the truth.

Because Ripley is Ripley and he genuinely cares about Lenox, he confronts her and tells her he now knows the truth. If he was expecting her to break down and open up to him, he was delusional. Lenox has the reaction we all expected: she yells at him and kicks him out.

This leads to Sarah Ramos’s best performance on Chicago Med. The way she goes from yelling to breaking down immediately, hesitating over whether to call Ripley back, is incredible. We feel all of her emotions in just mere seconds, reminding us why Lenox is such a perfectly complex character.

Something tells us this isn’t the end of this relationship, and it has only pushed them to the next level.

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

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