I hate to have a bone to pick with Chicago Med after a three-week hiatus.
It felt good to have the soapiest medical drama outside of General Hospital back on television, and Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16 was, for the most part, one of the stronger episodes.
But we need to talk about that Sharon storyline. It didn’t fit everything else she’s dealt with this season.
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Did Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16 Forget Sharon’s Stalking Story?
If Sharon’s conflict with a comatose patient’s mother had happened on Chicago Med Season 9, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
Before Sharon’s stalking storyline, this would have been a moving, powerful story about Sharon having the opportunity to clear the air with a patient who blamed her for her daughter’s coma.
But this isn’t a year ago and it isn’t before Sharon’s stalking.
She was almost killed because a patient’s wife blamed her for that woman’s death.
It’s not realistic for her not to have any reaction to another patient being angry at her about something that happened years ago.
Logically, it wasn’t likely that Josephine’s mother would turn violent, but PTSD reactions have little to do with logic, other than the brain recognizing the same pattern that led to trauma in the past.
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Sharon has already had several PTSD reactions.
She resisted therapy after constantly getting triggered on Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 12, so it’s not believable that she would suddenly be so functional that another patient from the past blaming her for a negative outcome wouldn’t affect her.
I get that on Chicago Med, Season 10 Episode 16, the writers didn’t want Sharon’s mental health to be the focus.
The point of this story was for Sharon to face her own guilt and regret over Josephine’s coma and try to make amends.
Still, it seemed weird for her to have no reaction to the way Josephine’s mom was acting toward her. It was distracting from what otherwise would have been a strong, moving story.
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I’m Glad Sharon Got Her Second Chance
Despite this oversight, I enjoyed Sharon’s Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16 story.
It went in a completely different direction than the stalking story, which I’m glad for.
I didn’t like the unnecessary violence toward Sharon or the missteps that led to her being alone and vulnerable when the woman attacked her.
This was a grieving mother, but one who was not untethered to reality or mindlessly violent.
She initially rejected Sharon’s overtures, only to admit at the end that she had blamed her — and everyone else — unfairly for her daughter’s accident.
This mother had been through the wringer, too, with her daughter suddenly developing a brain tumor that might enable her to wake up just before it killed her.
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Talk about a tragic storyline!
I would have liked more of a conflict for the mother before she consented to the surgery.
While, again, it’s rational to decide a high chance of dying in surgery is better than a 100% chance of dying of a brain tumor, I thought the mother was too quick to give her consent.
She also consented very quickly to an experimental and risky procedure to try to mimic the tumor and wake Josephine up.
I know she was desperate to help her daughter, but none of that struck me as realistic when she’d just been hit with devastating news.
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Dr. Charles’ Story Was My Favorite Part of Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16
Stories about LGBTQ+ kids and the effects that non-acceptance has on them are part for the course for Chicago Med, but they’re also super important right now.
It shouldn’t be particularly brave for a medical drama to point out that gay kids aren’t choosing their sexual orientation because they saw a gay couple on social media or on TV, but unfortunately, right now there are people who want to silence that message.
I especially like that Dr. Charles told Liam’s father that gay kids sometimes self-harm because of their parents’ disapproval of their sexual orientations.
The flip side of that, which he implied but didn’t mention outright, was that studies show that an LGBTQ+ kid who has one supportive adult in their life is 8 times less likely to hurt themselves.
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I was surprised that Liam’s dad took such a strong stand against his wife’s continued attempts to get their son to “fight” his attraction to boys, but I was glad he did.
Although Liam felt guilty about his parents’ argument, at least now he has a supportive father, and that will help immensely.
That said, I wasn’t sure why Charles and Frost had to dance around the issue as much as they did.
They couldn’t tell Liam’s parents that he was gay, and that’s why he self-harmed, but they could have explained that Liam’s taking medicine to induce vomiting was dangerous and needed to be addressed in a hospital setting.
Either way, Liam’s mother was shockingly ignorant if she really believed him forcing himself to vomit to try to make himself straight would have no physical consequences.
It’s hard to write a character who is homophobic and thinks they are doing what’s best for their child without turning them into a stereotype.
I’m not entirely convinced that Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16 succeeded at this, at least as far as Liam’s mother went. His father was more nuanced and realistic, but his mom slid into exaggerated villain territory.
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Random Thoughts About Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16
- I’m glad Frost sent that predator packing, but please tell me she won’t be the next stalker.
- I also hope my vibe-o-meter was broken regarding the cardiologist Naomi will be working for. I got creepy vibes from him, but it could have just been that he wants to ask Lenox out.
- What’s wrong with Lenox’s brother? And how long til he ends up in the ED?
- I was relieved to have only a little bit of Ripley on Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16. But that’ll probably change soon.
- No Hannah or Archer today. We didn’t need them, but it felt weird for them to just be gone without explanation
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Over to you, Chicago Med fanatics.
What did you think of Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 16?
Vote in our poll to rank the episode and then hit the comments with your thoughts.
Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8/7c and streams on Peacock on Thursdays.
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