#Chicago Med Season 6 Episode 11 Review: Letting Go Only To Come Together

Medical mysteries have become a hospital drama trope.

At one time or another (usually more than once if a show is on for any significant length of time), the doctors have to deal with a patient who’s had ten million tests and no answers to debilitating pain.

Chicago Med Season 6 Episode 11 offered two separate medical mysteries yet managed to keep the stories fresh and interesting despite how common this phenomenon is on hospital dramas.

Montez’s mystery condition allowed viewers FINALLY to see another side of Choi.

Normally, Choi is annoyingly by the book, and half the time, his rigid adherence to the rules results in harm to his patient.

Dr. Veroni: I’m a cardiologist. I can help.

Ethan: Thanks, but technically you’re only supposed to see patients who are part of your clinical trial.

So it was unsurprising that he initially elected to reject Dr. Veroni’s offer of help because she was a research cardiologist rather than ED staff.

But Choi relented when he could not figure out why Montez kept crashing or how to help him.

His involving Veroni was fodder for his irritating rivalry with Will for Veroni’s affections, of course.

I could have done without Will criticizing Choi for breaking the rules. That had to be the most hypocritical statement of the first half of 2021!

After all, Will never met a rule he saw a point to, and I’ve lost count of how many times he was almost fired due to doing whatever he thought was right regardless of what the patient had to say about it.

In fact, Will and Choi are on the outs partially because Will followed Veroni’s advice for a patient on Chicago Med Season 6 Episode 10 after Choi vetoed the idea!

So none of this nonsense, Will. We all know your problem is that you’re as jealous of Veroni’s involvement with Choi as he is of hers with you.

Anyway, despite Choi’s storyline being set up for more angst with Will, Montez’s case was the best thing to happen to this character in a while.

Choi came across as empathetic and concerned, two adjectives that I don’t generally associate with him.

He wanted to help Montez not only live a long, healthy life but make sure he could play tennis again.

I don’t know where this sudden influx of empathy came from, but I’ll take it.

Maybe Dean took Choi’s bad habits with him when he walked out the door without warning since he was again missing. 

I don’t MISS Dean, but some story continuity would be nice. Or at least an explanation of where he’s disappeared to.

Anyway, Will’s other storyline was a lot more interesting than the Veroni nonsense.

Will and Charles treated a patient whose brain tumor made him believe he was talking to his late wife.

This was mostly Charles’ storyline — he was able to relate to the man because of CiCi’s death, and that was what ultimately allowed him to get through to the patient about the importance of removing the tumor.

Will was just along for the ride, and for once, he followed Charles’ lead instead of going off on his own.

Charles did a beautiful job, too, explaining that he missed CiCi too and sometimes felt like he needed her to help him make big decisions. He got completely into Liam’s world, and that made all the difference.

It would have been interesting if Marcel were the surgeon of record for this case. It would have related nicely to his backstory about his daughter’s death.

But even as-is, this was a moving, emotional story.

Besides, Marcel got both a personal and a professional story, so his plate was full.

Nat’s Mother: So, Crockett, Natalie tells me that your parents immigrated from Iran. Does that mean your family is Muslim?

Marcel: No, actually, we’re Zoroastrian.

Nat’s Mother: Zoroastrian? I’m sorry. I’ve never…

Marcel: Yeah. Dates back to ancient Persia. Three main pillars: Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Not always so easy.

Nat’s mother’s comments about Marcel’s Persian heritage were a compelling throughline.

This story was subtle; it didn’t beat viewers over the head with messages about racism or other prejudices, which is always a risk when writing about these big social issues.

Plus, they gave Marcel an opening to talk about how Nat’s mom was light years ahead of his ex’s parents, who were overtly racist and didn’t want their daughter marrying an Iranian immigrant.

I was glad that Nat talked to Marcel about her fears and let him reassure her that he was in this for the long hall, too.

It would have been SUCH a let-down if they broke up after all that nonsense from Nat’s mom. Besides, this couple is growing on me, and I am shocked by how badly I want them to make it.

Marcel and Nat’s personal drama was interesting enough, but their struggle to find answers for a patient was fascinating.

Lisa epitomized the medical mystery trope. She’d been to too many doctors to count and couldn’t stand the idea of living with pain that had no answers attached to it.

And although this storyline followed the tried-and-true formula of the doctors discovering an exceedingly rare disease and then figuring out an equally unique treatment plan, it kept my interest.

Elsewhere, Sharon struggled with more drama with her son. All I can say about that is that he definitely made the right decision by changing jobs.

He and Sharon were butting heads every week, and it was irritating. We are all much better off without him working for his mom.

Sharon’s probably going to have a bigger crisis than a rogue board member soon anyway. (Side note: why did Gwen make all that noise about how Sharon’s proposal was going to lose the hospital a ton of money, only for the board to side with Sharon about the whole thing?)

She’s going to have to deal with the April vs. Lanic situation.

This is a tough one. April isn’t a doctor and had no legal right to order medication without Lanic’s approval.

But Lanic was slow to suit up, and he DID tell April that Ms. COVID-is-a-hoax was her problem to deal with.

April, we are nurses. Just because we know what to do doesn’t mean we have the authority to do it.
Maggie

Lanic strikes me as someone who’s never happy unless he has something to complain about. The patient survived, and the medication April ordered was the same one Lanic was going to — she just did it 30 seconds early.

However, Maggie is right that April isn’t a doctor, and Sharon probably can’t look the other way on as egregious a violation of the rules as this, even if April did have solid reasons for doing it.

Your turn, Chicago Med fanatics!

Predict April’s fate. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you think will happen to her!

Want to refresh your memory first? Just watch Chicago Med online right here on TV Fanatic.

Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8 PM EST?PST.

Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.