'Chicago MED' Season 10 Episode 20 "The Invisible Hand" Review

This episode of Chicago Med starts with things already off balance. Dr. Ripley’s the first to notice the shift, nurses are calling out sick left and right, and something feels off. Maggie is scrambling to make the floor run without them, and Dr. Asher’s called out too. At first, it seems like Maggie might be under the weather, and she let’s them know she is leaving. Turns out, the nurses aren’t sick, they’re staging a coordinated sick-out to pressure the hospital into meeting their demands.

Not long after, a young boy is rushed in, struggling to breathe. Dr. Frost takes the lead, realizing it’s maybe severe peanut allergy. The parents left his EpiPen at home, so it’s a close call. Ripley jumps in to help. Together, they manage to stabilize the boy, but the lack of nurses makes it clear how dangerously thin when the rest of the birthday party comes on with blue lips just as Dr. Frost patients stretched thin and Dr. Charles steps in to help because of the short staffing and they realize that the kids are reacting to each others symptoms and there is just blue dye around their mouth. Crisis averted. 

Then Mr. Marquez is brought in, he’s been crushed under a quarter-ton of pallets and is showing signs of a collapsed lung. He’s also slipping into brief runs of V-tach. Lenox and Max try to stabilize him, but they’re overloaded. Sharon puts on scrubs herself and gets involved, trying to bring in floating nurses just to keep things moving. It’s survival mode.

Upstairs, Dr. Lennox is confused by Marquez’s condition and calls in Dr. Hayes for a consult. Hayes gives his opinion and then, not-so-subtly, invites Lennox to assist him in the surgery. He flirts, suggests they rehearse on a test dummy, and drops that he’s planned a romantic dinner for them at a medical conference in Myrtle Beach. Lennox plays it cool, but it’s obvious Hayes is blurring professional lines. During the practice surgery, their chemistry is thick,almost distracting, and they quietly agree to table their feelings until they’re away from work. What they don’t realize is that Naomi sees them leaving the OR together. She’s clearly uncomfortable.

Later, Lennox confronts Naomi for backing out of the surgery. Naomi finally opens up and tells her what happened. After a previous transplant case, Hayes asked her to stay behind to “go over techniques,” but instead, he crossed a line, stood too close, guided her hands too intimately, and then pressed himself against her. Naomi froze. When she pulled away, Hayes tried to play it off like nothing happened. She tells Dr. Lenox  as well, begging her not to report it. She’s terrified it’ll ruin her residency. It’s raw and painful, and it throws Lennox’s recent dynamic with Hayes into an entirely different light and she is upset with herself for falling for his charms. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Charles is working with a patient named Frederick Lambert, who’s come in with leg numbness and back pain. When his partner arrives, it’s Margaret. Charles’ mother. And Frederick? Her fiancé. Charles is floored. He doesn’t trust Frederick, and it shows. He starts pressing Margaret for answers, about Frederick’s background, his intentions, but she brushes him off. She says she’s slowing down, and Frederick makes her laugh.

Back in the ER, Sharon turns the corner of a nearby deli and sees the entire group of “sick” nurses hanging out. Maggie’s with them. Sharon pulls her aside and warns her, if the board finds out they’re not actually sick, it could mean termination or worse. Maggie doesn’t deny it, but she stands by her team.

Charles, still wary, keeps pushing at Frederick, accusing him of taking advantage of Margaret. Then it all comes out. Charles admits that he is hurt she never approved of his late wife Cece’s relationship with him because she was black and Margaret fires back, that he is being cruel. “Is this payback”? she asks. It’s an emotional mess, then Frederick crashes.

They discover the real cause: a rare infection that entered through a chemical peel and made its way to his spine. Thankfully, Charles had already ordered the MRI, and they caught it just in time. Frederick will recover. Later, he reflects on his vanity, and Charles softens. He quotes Henry V: “Self-love is nowhere near as vile a sin as self-neglect.” It’s the first genuine connection they’ve had all day.

Meanwhile, Dr. Archer call to send Joanna Richards for imaging turns out to be critical—they catch an aggressive osteosarcoma just in time. One small victory.

The hospital finally returns to the table with a new offer: a 5% raise, one more nurse seat on the care committee, and, for the first time, a full-time nurse on the advisory board. Maggie hears it and knows it’s not perfect, but it’s something. Sharon tosses in free cafeteria meals for nurses. That gets smiles. Dignity matters.

Jonathan apologizes to Maggie for how he treated her earlier in the season. He admits she knew him too well, and that scared him. They make peace.

And just when the episode feels like it might finally close on progress, Dr. Charles and Dr. Ripley go to tell Margaret that Frederick’s going to be okay. They find her sitting quietly. Charles reaches down to wake her, and doesn’t feel a pulse. Dr. Charles is calm, but panic is in his eyes. They call for a crash cart to revive her. The episode ends with them working to resuscitate Margret. 

This episode ends with a lot of questions to be answered. Will Lenox report Hayes, did Margaret survive? Will the nurses be punished? One thing that happened that was great is that all of the nurses returned to work and we don’t have to gave another shift short staffed. Hopefully the finale will answer some open questions from this season. 

What did you think?

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