‘Chicago Med’ Midseason Premiere: Who’s Thinking of Retiring?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 8 “Triple Threat.”]

It’s an episode of three stories for Chicago Med in its January 7 midseason return, explaining just what happened the night of the blackout as well as diving into what’s going on with one of the doctors.

Last we saw Lenox (Sarah Ramos), she went to Devin (Jack Falahee) and Faye’s (Olivia Nikkanen) to check on the latter after the former came in with suspicious injuries; he did beat her again, and she was in the basement with a severely injured leg. Devin knocked her out as the fall finale ended. Meanwhile, Charles (Oliver Platt) has been struggling to figure out what’s going on with him. And Archer (Steven Weber) and Kingston’s (Merrin Dungey) surgery took a turn when they lost power, plus there’s the matter of what’s been going on with Hannah (Jessy Schram) as her pregnancy progresses.

Read on for a recap of these three storylines from the premiere.

Lenox vs. Devin — Who lives and who dies?

We learn what happens at Devin and Faye’s through Lenox speaking with a detective and flashbacks. After Devin knocked her out, Lenox came to in the basement, and soon after, Ripley (Luke Mitchell), who knew she was going there, came looking for her. He, too, ended up being taken captive by Devin, with both doctors’ hands zip-tied. Devlin, meanwhile, kept telling Faye he’d never hurt her again.

To protect them, as Lenox stresses to the detective, Faye told him she’d run away with him, but then she couldn’t stand on her ankle (they made a splint) and began having trouble breathing (a hemothorax, leading to Lenox and Ripley MacGyvering a chest tube). She still needed proper care, Lenox told Devin, who refused to listen. She did eventually free herself and attack Devin, who lost his gun but got his hands around her throat. However, Lenox was able to fight back and knock him out.

The detective seems skeptical, but Lenox points out she served in the army, special forces, and had hand-to-hand combat training. With Devin restrained, Lenox headed upstairs to find a phone and call 9-1-1, only to hear a gunshot. As she tells the detective, when she got back downstairs, Devin had broken free and attacked Ripley. Faye shot him in self-defense. The detective doesn’t seem to buy it … and he shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t self-defense, given what Devin did to Faye.

The truth, as we see it and Lenox and Ripley keep from the detective, is that Faye shot Devin after she got her hands on the gun, and he, still bound, tried to get her to shoot Ripley. Lenox then freed him from his restraints. Outside the police station, Ripley asks what Lenox was thinking about going to the house by herself, and she wonders what he was thinking following her. And since this is a TV medical drama, we can’t help but wonder just how close this experience might bring them…

What’s going on with Charles? Meet his new therapist

Has Charles found a new therapist? Maybe! At first, he’s quiet, admitting he’s not feeling that introspective, before he recounts his shift to Daria (A Million Little Things‘ Allison Miller). Following the death of an organ donor, it seemed that one of his patients was going to get the heart that she needed… only for her to be brought to the hospital by ambulance after an overdose; her sister claimed she gave her too much by accident, but Charles realized quickly that she was lying, and the patient intentionally ODed. It was up to Charles to determine if her depression and suicide attempt could be solely attributed to her failing heart.

Charles also had the transplant surgeon breathing down his neck about the finite lifespan of a donor heart — and the next person on the list. Charles got in his face about what goes into making such a decision before ultimately telling his patient he could no longer recommend that she receive the heart. Her sister told him he gave her sister a death sentence. The heart went to the next person on the list. But when Daria calls him out on using cliches, reminding him he wanted to work together, he admits that he’s thinking about retiring all the time and doesn’t know if he has it in him anymore. And after his conversation with the surgeon, he had a panic attack and got a bloody nose in the elevator. He hadn’t had a panic attack since medical school and had never talked to a colleague the way he spoke to the surgeon. As for the bloody nose, Charles thinks there’s something really wrong with him, and he doesn’t know what it is. “I’m scared,” he says. Oh no!

Hannah opens up to Archer about her fears

Archer and Kingston were mid-surgery when the power went out, and rather than risk something going wrong by moving up to another floor, they continued the procedure, something that was his suggestion but she agreed with and took responsibility for when faced with questions from Sharon (S. Epatha Merkerson) and Peter (Marc Grapey). The good news is Jeremy does wake up, and while he may still not have much time left, he does get to feel his baby kick.

Meanwhile, Archer asks Hannah about what’s been bothering her, calling her out for the non-answers and cold shoulders, wondering if the baby’s getting between them. “I just want my friend back,” he says. She admits to having nightmares — well, the same nightmare, over and over, about her dying in the delivery room like her mom, or maybe she’s the baby and her mom’s on the table, it’s not clear. Whatever it is, the baby is always a girl in her dream, and she worries if she finds out they’re having a girl, the nightmare will swallow her whole. When the power comes back on at that exact moment, he calls it a sign they need to talk more often.

Then, near the end of the episode, Archer goes to Hannah’s, and, to face her fears, she does open up the envelope that confirms they’re having a girl. He assures her that, contrary to popular belief, history rarely repeats itself, and he hopes their baby turns out to be just like her mother. Knowing she won’t be able to sleep, she asks him if he wants to watch a movie, and he agrees.

Chicago Med, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC