‘Chicago Med’ season 2, episode 14 review: Brian Tee gives masterful performance in midst of winter storm
“Chicago Med” on Thursday night brought you “Cold Front,” an episode that was hyped up as one of the most emotional ones that you were going to see entering the whole season.
By the time we made it to the end of the hour, one thing was apparent: This was a story that was going to live up to the billing, and it was one of the best of the entire season. There was a brutal winter storm that suddenly hit the city, and this caused all of the doctors to be all hands on deck. In turn, this led to everyone being forced to make some incredibly challenging decisions.
Dr. Choi – Brian Tee’s performance tonight was out of this world, though in a way that will tear your heart into pieces. His patient’s condition was debilitating quickly, and he was aware of that and communicated to Ethan that all he wanted was to be able to stay alive until his wife was able to be at the hospital. He just wanted a chance to say goodbye — this was a humble request, but certainly a heartfelt one.
Unfortunately, the problem spiked when there weren’t enough ventilators to go around, and Dr. Rhodes told Choi that he needed it for patients with a better chance at survival. Therefore, Choi removed it and did his part to help his patient breathe manually until he could get that final closure. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t make it. Ethan found himself needed elsewhere once again, and him reading the time of death on this patient may be one of the most teary-eyed we’ve ever been while watching someone make this announcement.
Here’s a further reminder of what sort of man Ethan is — while still dealing with the heartache of having to say goodbye to this patient, he did an incredibly brave thing. We’ll get to that in a minute when we discuss Halstead and Manning’s story.
Dr. Charles – There are very few times in which we’ve seen Oliver Platt’s character be completely broken in the way that we saw him tonight. He had to turn away a patient clamoring for medication in the waiting room, but it was only meant to be temporary. There were just so many patients that seemed to need his care more in the moment. Unfortunately, said patient went and shot himself for Charles could get back to them.
We felt deeply for Charles … and then we found out that this guy wasn’t actually dead at all, and the shattering may have been in vain. Maybe he knew this all along, but if so, his acting job was good enough to fool us. He just pretended to be his brother in order to get some attention, and when he was eventually found, he thought that he’d get what he wanted.
Well, let’s just say that Charles got the last laugh, sticking the guy on a psychiatric hold as a result of the stunt that he pulled.
Dr. Halstead and Dr. Manning – They had to decide who would live and who could die between two young people when there wasn’t enough blood to go around. This decision eventually caused tension for the patient who had to make the decision … which she deferred over to the doctors.
Right when it appeared that one of the children was going to die, this is when Ethan stepped up. He was the right blood type, and he was able to donate at the last minute. Consider this one of the few victories in a very difficult night at the hospital. Everyone moved on, but as is typically the case with this show, you could see the emotional impact of what they all went through remain.
Overall – As we’ve noted, this was a fantastic, moving hour that was anchored by Tee’s performance. It was tear-inducing, and a reminder of the sort of challenges that these men and women at the hospital face on a weekly basis. Grade: A.