S01.E02: iNo

[WendyCR72]

As Dr. Ethan Choi treats a bleeding teenage girl, he discovers she's just given birth, sparking a frantic search for her abandoned baby. When the details of the teen's troubled past emerge, Ethan finds himself at odds with pediatrician Dr. Natalie Manning and hospital administrator Sharon Goodwin as they're forced to make some difficult decisions about the teen's future. Dr. Will Halstead treats a hypochondriac with chest pains while struggling to navigate his overbearing wife. Meanwhile, med student Sarah Reese and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Charles treat a patient suffering from dementia, only to discover she may not have dementia at all.

[statsgirl]

I wasn't expecting to but I really liked the storyline where Reese and Charles treat a patient with dementia.  If ended happily, if somewhat unrealistically, and was the feel good story for the episode.

 

I hope the girl doesn't get charged but I no longer trust the extremists when it comes to baby vs mother.  Nice of Choi to give her a heads up but there is a sick 14 year old currently homeless out there.

[izabella]

Oh, wow, redhead doc got a lesson in not playing god, and that poor man and his wife are in for a lifetime of pain.  That was brutal.  I was glad the dementia/water on the brain patient was an uplifting outcome.

 

Pharma rep is probably lucky redhead doc canceled their date.  He's too much work.

Edited November 25, 2015 by izabella

[Sandman]

I dunno -- I think the wife of the heart attack guy is the one who seems like too much work. She probably would have torn Halstead into shreds if the husband had died. There was no win there.

I really liked the actors playing the older couple; the moment that made me get a little choked up was the mutual looks of restoration when the wife's brain unclouded and she recognized her husband.

Is Dick Wolf getting sentimental? I don't remember any of the L&O franchise being as emotionally explicit as all of the Chicago trio seem to be.

[izabella]

No doubt - the wife of heart attack guy was a piece of work herself.  I wanted to smack her when she was mocking and belittling her husband's chest pains.  And for sure, she would have been royally pissed off if her husband had died. 

 

At the same time, redhead thinks he's the smartest and bestest person in the room, and that's not a fun person to date.

[juliet73]

I think I'm giving this show one more shot. Everything ties up too neatly, Dr. Redhead is a douche, and Dr. Oliver Platt really needs something to do. The medical student just seems to wander about, not really assigned to anyone. Dr. Guadalajara is easy on the eyes and that's why I'm giving it one last chance. Come on show...

[Sandman]

It strikes me that one of the plainest parallels between this show and ER is the setup between Dr. Redhead and Zoe from Big Pharma. Doug Ross had a dalliance with a pharmaceutical bombshell in the first season, too, didn't he?

And maybe I need my douche-o-meter recalibrated, but Dr. Halstead doesn't seem that objectionable to me. Arrogant he certainly is, but the lengths he went to seemed to me to be not to prove himself right and someone else wrong, but only to save his patient's life. He doesn't seemed as convinced of his own irreducible perfection as either the aforementioned Tragic Consequences or one Doug Ross, for that matter. I'm prepared to put up with him at least a little longer. ETA: Perhaps I have still have goodwill for the character based on his earlier appearances in the backdoor pilot and other points in the shared Chicago/Wolf universe. As Margherita Erdman points out in the pilot thread, that character was notably less self-adoring -- though in all truth, the super-saturated Red-ness of the Hair hasn't perturbed me. Much.

Doctor Charles probably needs an actual job to do -- and if he's a department head, that job should probably be seen to be mostly administrative -- but I almost always find Oliver Platt charming, and so if Chicago Med wants to have him float around, crunchin' pork rinds (which ... what?) and dispensing slightly puckery snippets of wisdom and compassion, I'm good with that. (How much opportunity would he really have to bond with a patient like Jamie, though? Not that I mind, really: Platt and the young actor playing Jamie really sold that relationship.)

Edited November 26, 2015 by Sandman

[Tazmania]

Two episodes only and the verdict is in. Red head douche bag resident is a pain and then some. In first episode, he questioned his senior Dr Conner Rhodes methods. He also first mocked him for being rich and then side eyed for going to medical school in Guadalajara. This episode, he was rude to Dr Manning, who is supposed to be his friend, and called her an emotional pregnant woman for doing exactly what he was doing trying to save a patient. What an awful person to just be around with.

I am watching the show for Colin Donnell. Liked the first episode because it had plenty of Colin, the second episode, not so much. Not enough Colin and too much of red head douche bag

[statsgirl]

Something I'm liking more and more about the show is the medical student (Reese?).  In the TV world where people are heros or villains and everyone is gorgeous, she okay-looking and feels very realistic to me.  She's smart (knew the diagnosis when Charles prompted her) but doesn't trust her skills, she goes for help when she needs it (yay), she's kind to patients and thinks outside the box (getting the song for the older couple) and she's willing to learn.

 

I like most of the characters, which is nice.  Not the red-haired douche though.

[Sandman]

Dr. Redhead's telling Dr. Manning to "think like a doctor, not a pregnant woman!" was a true asshat move.

 

Did anyone else think that "Sarah Reese" sounds like an alternate universe version of John Connor's mother? Just me?

[Proteus]

Something I'm liking more and more about the show is the medical student (Reese?).  In the TV world where people are heros or villains and everyone is gorgeous, she okay-looking and feels very realistic to me.  She's smart (knew the diagnosis when Charles prompted her) but doesn't trust her skills, she goes for help when she needs it (yay), she's kind to patients and thinks outside the box (getting the song for the older couple) and she's willing to learn.

I think Reese is beautiful. JMO. So far I'm really liking her as well.

[Sonja]

And maybe I need my douche-o-meter recalibrated, but Dr. Halstead doesn't seem that objectionable to me. Arrogant he certainly is, but the lengths he went to seemed to me to be not to prove himself right and someone else wrong, but only to save his patient's life.

 

Deciding that his patient's life was more important than Manning's and ripping the bottle out of her hands should actually have brought him a disciplinary hearing IMO. He was way out of line.

 

This episode, he was rude to Dr Manning, who is supposed to be his friend, and called her an emotional pregnant woman for doing exactly what he was doing trying to save a patient. What an awful person to just be around with.

 

I can't take any guy seriously who uses the pregnant/hormonal/PMSing allegation as soon as they are talking with a woman. I doubt he would have dealt with Rhodes or any other male doctor the same way had it been him to sign out what he thought he needed for his patient. He certainly wouldn't have just taken it like that.

 

I was willing to give Halstead the benefit of doubt after the first ep, but all goodwill I might have had towards the character went right out the window.

 

Love Oliver Platt, the nurses and Rhodes so far though. The med student also started to grow on me this week, showing that she's willing to learn. Torrey DeVitto's acting is making me cringe sometimes, I hope she gets more comfortable in the role.

[Sandman]

Deciding that his patient's life was more important than Manning's and ripping the bottle out of her hands should actually have brought him a disciplinary hearing IMO. He was way out of line.

True.

[Lady Calypso]

I still like the show, but I agree that Halstead is bothering me a lot. He's not a good person and he was a total jerk to Manning. Even though he got yelled at by the wife, I still don't like him. 

 

I like Reese a lot, I still like Rhodes (he even had less screentime, so that was ok with me), I really like April and I like Maggie and Charles. I'm not loving Brian Tee's character, and I'm not loving Manning or Goodwin as of yet.

 

God, I'm still expecting there to be a redemption arc for Halstead, much like there was (kinda? I think?) for Voight. I mean, I hated the dude in Fire season 1 and he got his own freaking spinoff. 

 

I liked the elderly dementia case this week the best. I thought it was sad and well done. Plus, it had Charles and Reese, who are by far my favourites. The baby case was alright, but I hated the Halstead case, just because of Halstead....and the wife was pretty awful, and even the husband looked uncomfortable around her. 

[rhys]

I wondered if the pharma rep was transgender.

[Ariah]

I may be remembering things wrong, but wasn't it that Jay actually described his brother as a douche on Chicago PD? 

I guess every med drama needs one and not every Halstead can be likeable.

 

I was thinking they were setting him up with the pregnant doctor, but the way he treated her in this episode... oh boy, way out of line.

 

The heart-attack case hit quite close to home to me: recently my mum had a heart-attack (she had angioplasty and is fine now), so I basically knew a lot about symptoms and blood markers. I guess the guy just had a clotted artery (he was overweight, had a lot of stress from his wife - these are serious risks). 

 

On a shallow note: Doctor Rhodes is still extremely easy on the eyes. And Colin O'Donnel just keeps on getting s!tty on-screen fathers...

[MakeMeLaugh]

This show....

I'm confused about the medical hierarchy and who is in charge--who was the older doc who told Halsted he wouldn't have kept the now-permanently disabled patient alive for that long? Where was he when Halsted was trying to save his life? And how could Halsted not know that his actions were going to result in a persistent vegetative state? Surely the wife is going to have millions of dollars handed over to her. But I can't even get beyond Halsted's horrible hair.

Didn't pregnant baby doctor--Natalie? Very subtle, Show--realize that if a fourteen-year-old ward of the state could successfully live with her older sister, she already would be? Stupid. Beyond stupid, Halstead ripping the canister of magic healing gas from Natalie--there's only one?

Really ott hit me over the head scene with the medical student playing Where the Boys Are for the "elderly" couple. Connie Francis is a few generations removed from medical student--Dr Oliver is an idiot for thinking she would have any idea who that is. He can find his office and act like a psychiatrist any time now, Show. And please give S'epatha something to do.

[statsgirl]

I'm confused about the medical hierarchy and who is in charge--who was the older doc who told Halsted he wouldn't have kept the now-permanently disabled patient alive for that long? Where was he when Halsted was trying to save his life?

The older doctor was the cardiologist on call.  He the specialist, the guy who knows what there they know about the heart.   Halstead is the Emergency Medicine resident, meaning he's 3 or 4 years out of med school and is supposed to be the Jack of All Trades in the ER.   In the ER itself, Rhodes outranks Halstead and Choi.  Maybe Natalie too if she's a resident rather than an attending.

 

Should Halstead have known he was running the code too long?  Maybe. But since Leanne over on Code Black told her residents to keep doing decompressions for another 2 hours after the patient should have been declared dead and he survived to propose to his fiance, I'm going to put it down to TV medicine.

 

Apparently there was a run on the gas cannisters and there was only one left. I think the respiratory tech said that it would be another 10? 20? minutes till the next one was ready and Halstead said his patient couldn't wait.

 

My daughter is 25 and knows quite a bit about the music from the swing era from her swing dance club at university.  She can identify Glen Miller songs better than I can.  I'll have to ask her if she knows who Connie Francis is but

[betsyboo]

I think I'm giving this show one more shot. Everything ties up too neatly, Dr. Redhead is a douche, and Dr. Oliver Platt really needs something to do. The medical student just seems to wander about, not really assigned to anyone. Dr. Guadalajara is easy on the eyes and that's why I'm giving it one last chance. Come on show...

I am same. As of right now, I don't feel I have anyone to root for. (Save Oliver Babbish.)

 

Didn't pregnant baby doctor--Natalie? Very subtle, Show--realize that if a fourteen-year-old ward of the state could successfully live with her older sister, she already would be? Stupid. Beyond stupid, Halstead ripping the canister of magic healing gas from Natalie--there's only one?

Not to mention at NO TIME did Natalie consider that the 14 yo didn't *want* the baby?? hello!? She abandoned it! What magic fairy dust did she sniff to think that just because the sister showed up they could raise the infant?? Also, after talking to the social worker, what made her think Social Services would allow the 14 yo to keep the baby??

 

The older doctor was the cardiologist on call.  He the specialist, the guy who knows what there they know about the heart.   Halstead is the Emergency Medicine resident, meaning he's 3 or 4 years out of med school and is supposed to be the Jack of All Trades in the ER.   In the ER itself, Rhodes outranks Halstead and Choi.  Maybe Natalie too if she's a resident rather than an attending.

 

I thought Dr. McTrauma (what? I can cross shows...lol) identified himself as the new trauma fellow. I think that means he still has training left to do? From my vast medicine knowledge of all 99 seasons of ER and 30+ seasons of Grey's, I believe they are all equals because they all wear the same color scrubs. (can't get anything past me! :-))  )

 

LOVED LOVED LOVED the dementia couple. Waaaah.

 

Dr. Douche needs a haircut. Along that same vein, did awesome nurse Maggie have a wig on at the shower? Or is her hair pulled back at work and not cut short like I thought.

 

PS - While Dr. Douche throwing "girl hormones" at Natalie was especially douche-y, I also didn't agree with her telling Choi that he couldn't possibly have an opinion on the 14 yo because he "wasn't a mother." And then to accuse him of being happy that the police were called - low blow, Nanny Carrie.

Edited November 28, 2015 by betsyboo

[Neurochick]

Here's my issue with the 14 year old with the baby. I don't think there's a state in this country where 14 is old enough to consent to sex. So wouldn't she be a victim of rape?

[MakeMeLaugh]

The older doctor was the cardiologist on call. He the specialist, the guy who knows what there they know about the heart. Halstead is the Emergency Medicine resident, meaning he's 3 or 4 years out of med school and is supposed to be the Jack of All Trades in the ER. In the ER itself, Rhodes outranks Halstead and Choi. Maybe Natalie too if she's a resident rather than an attending.

....

Should Halstead have known he was running the code too long? Maybe....

So Halsted could have consulted at any time with the cardiologist on call, I imagine, which might mitigate Halsted's culpability in the unfortunate results from his decision to continue treating a patient beyond the point of helping him. I'm thinking in real life he'd be in hot water for a long time over this, so it will be interesting to see if thr plotline continues. Edited November 28, 2015 by MakeMeLaugh

[juliet73]

LOL @ Dr. Douche and Dr. McTrauma

[backformore]

Here's my issue with the 14 year old with the baby. I don't think there's a state in this country where 14 is old enough to consent to sex. So wouldn't she be a victim of rape?

Yes, unless she was pregnant by a same-age boyfriend. 

The girl was 14 - just starting high school.  And her sister lived in Champaign, she looked to be college-age.  the expectation that the two of them could raise a baby was ridiculous.  My instinct would be to talk to the girl about giving the baby up for adoption.

 

Red-headed doc really blew it.  A guy comes in with signs of a heart attack, has a normal EKG, and he doesn't admit him for overnight observation?  He let him go home with "maybe reflux, maybe stress".   People don't tend to go to the ER with chest pain unless it's pretty severe.  Even if it was reflux, or stress - those can also be serious.  He was too quick to listen to the patient's wife saying it was "all in his head". 

[starri]

Red-headed doc really blew it.  A guy comes in with signs of a heart attack, has a normal EKG, and he doesn't admit him for overnight observation?  He let him go home with "maybe reflux, maybe stress".   People don't tend to go to the ER with chest pain unless it's pretty severe.  Even if it was reflux, or stress - those can also be serious.  He was too quick to listen to the patient's wife saying it was "all in his head". 

Not everyone who comes in for chest pain is having heart problems, especially when they have a clean EKG, negative enzymes and (IIRC) a stress test that showed no ischemia.  I mean, it happens, but the whole thing was just setup so Dr. Ginger could manpain his was through a seemingly futile resuscitation.

 

Does this ER not have any attendings?  Residents or even fellows should not be the ones deciding whether or not to terminate a code.

Edited November 29, 2015 by starri

[statsgirl]

Anyone with an MD can call a code.  Nurses and paramedics and the rest of us can't which is why paramedics have to wait till there is a doctor there to pronounce death.  I'm not sure about interns though.  If they can't then every doctor but Reese can terminate a code.  Whether they should .... that's another question.

 

There is enough times when someone with gastric reflux (very painful) or muscle pain is thinking they could be having a heart attack that you can't assume that every chest pain is an angina attack much less a full heart attack.  That's why competent doctors do tests.  (On the other hand, my aunt had a heart attack and walked around for two weeks thinking it was just a sprained muscle.)

 

I thought Dr. McTrauma (what? I can cross shows...lol) identified himself as the new trauma fellow. I think that means he still has training left to do? From my vast medicine knowledge of all 99 seasons of ER and 30+ seasons of Grey's, I believe they are all equals because they all wear the same color scrubs. (can't get anything past me! :-))  ).

He has training to do but it's beyond the level of what the others have to do.

 

As an example, let's say finishing your medical school years and internship is like graduating from an undergraduate program.  (Which it is in Europe although not in North America.)  Reese is still working on finishing her undergraduate training.  Halstead and Choi, who are residents, are as if they were in graduate school working on their MAs.  As a fellow, McTrauma has finished his master's and is working on his PhD level training.  So while he is still in training, he's a level ahead of the other two.  He doesn't need it to practice in the ER but he wants the extra knowledge and skills.

 

I don't know where Natalie is.

[starri]

Anyone with an MD can call a code.  Nurses and paramedics and the rest of us can't which is why paramedics have to wait till there is a doctor there to pronounce death.  I'm not sure about interns though.  If they can't then every doctor but Reese can terminate a code.  Whether they should .... that's another question.

In my hospital, any code is supervised by an attending.  If it's a trauma code, there are two: one from the ER and another from the surgical team.  I don't know if that's a common practice or not, but I feel like it's the case in every teaching hospital I've ever been in.

[Sonja]

Should Halstead have known he was running the code too long?  Maybe. But since Leanne over on Code Black told her residents to keep doing decompressions for another 2 hours after the patient should have been declared dead and he survived to propose to his fiance, I'm going to put it down to TV medicine.

 

I would have liked to know who the doctor was who poked her head in and told Halstead he had to call it but then left. Was she another resident or someone who outranked him and should have put her foot down? This episode made it look as if everyone could just do what they wanted without having to expect consequences.

[CoyoteBlue]

PS - While Dr. Douche throwing "girl hormones" at Natalie was especially douche-y, I also didn't agree with her telling Choi that he couldn't possibly have an opinion on the 14 yo because he "wasn't a mother." And then to accuse him of being happy that the police were called - low blow, Nanny Carrie.

 

At least I expect Dr. McDouche to be a douche - this show makes me want to slap the shit out of a pregnant woman weekly and it's annoying. Also, she must have Resting Xanax Face or something because she looks dead-eyed to me.

[SnarkySheep]

 

Doctor Charles probably needs an actual job to do -- and if he's a department head, that job should probably be seen to be mostly administrative ... (How much opportunity would he really have to bond with a patient like Jamie, though?

 

I agree...the only time we've actually seen Dr Charles with a patient was Erin Lindsay, and that wasn't even on this show! He just seems to float around aimlessly (remember, the first time we saw him, on Chicago PD when the ED was bombed, he had been sleeping in his car??)

 

I do think he would have been able to form a relationship with Jamie, though. Remember, he mentioned seeing Jamie since he was 8, well over a decade. He's head of psychiatry now, but presumably back then was just a psychiatrist, likely seeing many patients each day.

[Sandman]

Yeah, that's a good point.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Sandman

[Swedee]

I was excited to find this show because I love me some Oliver Platt. However, they may have lost me with the exchange between Halstad and Manning over the canister of gas. There were so many problems with that. First, he basically physically imtimidates a pregnant woman by ripping the canister out of her hands. Aren't there procedures for checking out those canisters? I don't think any organization would tolerate that type of behavior between employees. Also, would he have done that to Choi? Probably not because a man could have fought back. Then he insults her in the most sexist and condescending way, telling her all them darn female hormones are making her a bad doctor. This was even worse for me because he is supposed to be her FRIEND. That is just uncalled for between professional colleagues. I would have buried him in HR and ethical complaints.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Swedee

[TV Anonymous]

Two episodes in, too much drama, too little medicine. Can not help comparing it with Code Black, and so far Code Black is far superior. Let me check the third episode as a confirmation before leaving the show. And seeing how Chicago Fire fares lately, most likely leaving the Chicago franchises altogether.

[Watermelon]

I'm sure pregnancy hormones make people do and say crazy things, but....it's pretty damn unrealistic to think the state is going to hand over a baby to the 14 year old orphan who put him in a backpack and walked away. 

 

Even if I have sympathy for the girl, at no point would I assume having his birth mother raise him would be the best option.

[Chas411]

Finally catching up on these past few episodes. My biggest problem with the show is that unlike ER or Grey's, I'm not really sure what level any of the doctors are at and who should be superior. Is Rhodes the boss? Does he have a boss?

 

Halsted acted like a total douche to Natalie. Her hormones certainly didn't affect her case the way his god complex affected his. Plus when he went up to her to make amends and she didn't look at him he basically rolled his eyes and stormed off. Just really rude.

 

I liked the sideplot with Natalie and her mother in law/baby shower as well as Reese and the old couple but the second episode wasn't as good as the first.

[Stardancer Supreme]

I was excited to find this show because I love me some Oliver Platt. However, they may have lost me with the exchange between Halstad and Manning over the canister of gas. There were so many problems with that. First, he basically physically imtimidates a pregnant woman by ripping the canister out of her hands. Aren't there procedures for checking out those canisters? I don't think any organization would tolerate that type of behavior between employees. Also, would he have done that to Choi? Probably not because a man could have fought back. Then he insults her in the most sexist and condescending way, telling her all them darn female hormones are making her a bad doctor. This was even worse for me because he is supposed to be her FRIEND. That is just uncalled for between professional colleagues. I would have buried him in HR and ethical complaints.

 

Oh, I would have snatched the canister back then hit him over the head with it.  He picked the right one to try.

 

Why would they be so rough on a 14 year old who just gave birth? Surely that is not a normal circumstance! It seemed like they wanted to punish her for her crappy life. Too many men acting so self righteously over a poor girl's life.