“Chicago Med” returned on Wednesday, picking up after a fall finale that left viewers with a pair of cliffhangers: How would the hospital staff address a blackout? And would Lenox survive a harrowing attack? Luckily, the midseason premiere did what any good returning episode should do: answered only some — but not all! — of our lingering questions, delivering a masterclass in the art of the TV cliffhanger.
The Nov. 12 episode left several of our doctors in dire situations: Lenox had gone looking for Faye, the former patient who was being abused by her husband, Devin, and was pistol-whipped over the head by Devin before she could do anything to rescue the beaten woman lying at the bottom of a staircase.
Meanwhile, over at Gaffney, Drs. Kingston and Archer teamed up for a risky surgery on a terminally ill patient who was hoping to live long enough to meet his unborn child — and shared a romantic moment, mid-operation, just before the power went out.
Wednesday’s midseason picks up with a slight time jump and a series of interrogations: Charles’ brain is being picked by a therapist; Goodwin is asking Archer and Kingston to defend their blackout decisions; and Lenox is being questioned by a cop. We also learn that the power outage may have challenged Charles in an unexpected way; someone involved in Lenox’s ordeal is now dead; and Kingston and Archer made a risky decision.
Almost immediately, we also learn something about the nature of these interrogations. After Kingston insists she’s the one who decided to forge ahead with surgery in the dark, we get a flashback revealing that it’s actually Archer who pushed for that call.
At this point, we’ve now discovered that we’re dealing with a trio of unreliable narrators — or we’re at least introduced to the possibility that what they say from here on out may not be the complete story.
This subtle revelation allows our burning questions to fester for a full hour — a rollercoaster ride of truth and deception. It’s a perfect winter premiere that neither let up nor let us down.
How Chicago Med executed the perfect cliffhanger
Cliffhangers often feel less like a storytelling tool and more like a gimmick — a cheap trick deployed to ensure viewers tune in for the next episode. Take “The Real Housewives,” for example: the Bravo reality franchise has a well-documented fondness for the ominous “To be continued…” card, an ending that is rarely earned. Episodes frequently end with a dinner-table blowup meant to tease an explosive confrontation, only for the next installment to immediately defuse the tension within minutes. These flimsy cliffhangers create a momentary spectacle, but they reward casual viewers far more than a loyal fanbase.
Cliffhangers should never be catered toward the casual viewer. That’s something “Chicago Med” keenly understands. Instead of picking up right where Episode 7 left off, regurgitating all the exposition a casual viewer might’ve missed, then detailing how everyone was rescued and saved before moving onto a new storyline, Episode 8 spends much of its runtime gently nudging us further and further off that cliff. The NBC drama hadn’t forgotten where it’d taken us in November — and it trusted us to remember, too, so it didn’t need to outright push us off that ledge with some big reveal. Instead, it had us white-knuckling the side of a ridge for an entire hour, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Who lived and who died? Why is Charles breaking down? Is Lenox a witness — or a suspect? And is she lying about how Devin died? If so, why?
By the episode’s end, some of those questions are answered: Mitch survives; Kingston and Archer’s patient miraculously pulls through; Charles has been contemplating retirement for a long time; and while Lenox is under police scrutiny, she isn’t quite a suspect.
Other mysteries remain unresolved. Why did Kingston cover for Archer? Have the two even debriefed after their flirtatious encounter? Where is Faye? And why did Ripley and Lenox feel compelled to lie about what really happened?
Nothing is neatly tied up — and it shouldn’t be. A good cliffhanger isn’t wasted on an easy solution; it’s designed to generate tension that reverberates for episodes to come. And so, when Dick Wolf inevitably asks this particular TV child the age-old parental question — “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?” — “Chicago Med” can honestly answer: “No. But we’d inch right up to the edge and cling on for dear life, just for the thrill of it.”
What did you think of the “Chicago Med” winter premiere? Grade the episode in the poll below, then sound off in the comments!
This story originally appeared on TVLine
