S02.E17: Monday Mourning

[Fireball]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 8:48 AM, FnkyChkn34 said:

I knew exactly what was coming, and I hadn't seen the preview.  I don't think they were looking for the shock element for viewers.

If I hadn't seen the preview, I might have known exactly what was coming too. But I saw the preview and all I could think was ok I know he's going to jump and die can we just get on with it.  I wasn't even sure I'd watch this episode knowing what was going to happen.  The show didn't make me care about Wheeler and as a result I didn't exactly care to see what everyone's reaction was going to be to a character that was only introduced so the show could have a death of 'one of their own'.  So for me giving away who was going to die & how he was going to die in the preview didn't exactly make me go ooooh I can't wait for next week.

[SnarkySheep]

On 3/19/2017 at 4:14 PM, spunky said:

Tate seems to want a woman whom he can control, not an independent, working woman. 

I think part of the problem is that - as least as far as I can see - Tate really has nothing going on in his life aside from April and his son. We know he retired from a successful sports career, so presumably has enough money to not have to work. Of course, it's possible that he IS doing some kind of work somewhere, but as it has never been mentioned, I'll presume he isn't. But clearly, he's a young enough guy who could use some focus on something non-April. While he was telling April she should quit her job, it was her perfect opening to suggest that he GET one, ha.

[spunky]

On 4/11/2017 at 0:15 AM, SnarkySheep said:

I think part of the problem is that - as least as far as I can see - Tate really has nothing going on in his life aside from April and his son. We know he retired from a successful sports career, so presumably has enough money to not have to work. Of course, it's possible that he IS doing some kind of work somewhere, but as it has never been mentioned, I'll presume he isn't. But clearly, he's a young enough guy who could use some focus on something non-April. While he was telling April she should quit her job, it was her perfect opening to suggest that he GET one, ha.

Couldn't agree with you more.

[statsgirl]

I think the biggest problem is that they never bothered to write him as more than a prop for April's storyline.  We have no idea of who he is as a person or what his motivations are.

[Chas411]

Choi was a pain in the ass this episode 

[TobinAlbers]

Finally caught up on my CM episodes and this one really gutted me.

The thing aside from how chillingly calm Wheeler was as he walked through the ER (which was just sad because that meant he had made an absolute decision in his mind to end it and was done seeking out help) was how EVERYONE acknowledged him and said hello as he passed through. People saw him but didn't really SEE him.

Macabre to say but that final view from the top of the hospital for him was beautiful.

Intentional or not I think the show set it up for the audience to feel in a similar position as the characters in the show - that we didn't know much about Wheeler only that he was 'not cutting it' (which was him in distress/drowning) and that we wish we had seen/done something/somehow helped so that this tragedy hadn't happened. It was only in hindsight that people began trying to see him as a person and not simply as a body to fill a need in the machine of the hospital. Halstead came closest I thought in noticing/ trying to reassure him, but showing up drunk at work should've been a MAJOR red flag that someone needed to not only keep an eye on him for the patients' sakes but that he was obviously having personal issues that needed to be addressed for his sake.

While what Maggie said to his father about how Wheeler performed magic for the sick kids was nice it was SUCH a missed opportunity of actually *showing* us that Wheeler had a place where he felt he was an effective healer and had a place where he could excel but that this spark was getting snuffed out. We were only seeing him at the end when he was being ground down. There should've been a scene after his drunk episode of him on the pediatrics ward during a break or helping with a sick kid in the waiting room where we and the staff wouldn't be so quick to write him off.

Why wasn't he shown working with Natalie more since she did work with kids? It would've made her breakdown that much more effective if she had worked closely with him and seen his ability to bring lightness to children and be crushed that the darkness became too much for him. Or a story where they show his connection with the sick kids, and one of those sick kids dies which affects him and makes him feel useless and then later after his suicide, Natalie has to tell one of those kids who is expecting Wheeler to show up that he died and she's bitter that he didn't/couldn't see how much a positive effect he did have on those kids.

At my job we had a colleague who committed suicide and there was one group, like Halstead, who couldn't begin to fathom WHY he killed himself and there were others, like the neurosurgeon, who not only got how this person got to that place but had been in that mindset as well on some days. 

And poor Dr. Charles. That ending of Reese asking him how his day went was just perfect and sad. Like everyone else, he's been in that ER and had to have interacted with Wheeler and he didn't catch it either. Not that he necessarily would have in a few brief interactions but then he's still probably thinking 'if only...'