Hannah takes her sobriety seriously and her commitment to helping those still suffering.
On Chicago Med Season 8 Episode 14, she was determined to help a new mother who had recently relapsed to be able to keep her baby with her — only to learn that’s not what the woman wanted.
Hannah risked her friendship with Archer and didn’t completely follow protocol. Was it worth it?
The conflict with Archer was far smaller a part of this story than it seemed it would be, but what little there was of it was powerful.
Hannah: You. have no idea how hard Liza worked to stay sober.
Archer: I don’t doubt that, but we just found her strung out on heroin.
Hannah: She was exhausted after a brutal labor and a serious lapse in judgment, but I know she can get back on track.
Archer: Hold it. You’re not actually suggesting we send a baby home with that woman?
Hannah: Of course not. But I want to find a sober living situation for Liza. A facility where she can still receive treatment while still caring for her baby.
Archer: You are swerving so far out of your lane. Not to mention you are mandated to report this to the appropriate authorities.
Hannah: Not until I find a way to keep Liza and her baby together.
Archer’s not one to talk about protocols and procedures; he breaks the rules whenever he thinks his ideas supersede the patient’s will. But maybe that rebellious streak helped him understand the dangers in Hannah’s path.
Hannah wasn’t considering what Liza most needed or wanted. She was overidentifying with her patient and thought that Liza needed the same thing Hannah would have needed to stay sober.
Her determination not to give up on Liza was admirable, but keeping mother and baby together was Hannah’s idea, not Liza’s. Liza was overwhelmed by the idea of motherhood and couldn’t even deal with her newborn daughter’s first cries.
How would she take care of this child while learning to live without heroin? While keeping mothers and children together is often in everyone’s best interest, it might not have been in this case.
Asher: So you requested DCFS be called? Why?
Liza: When I held my little girl for the first time, I could feel her depending on me for everything. I broke.
Asher: Liza…
Liza: These last few months have been the hardest of my life. It took everything in me to stay sober. But I did it, for her. And now I… I just… I can’t muscle my way through this.
Asher: Okay, I’ve been there. Every time I got sober for someone else, a family member, a partner, it lasted a year at most. Every time, I’d relapse. It finally stuck when I got sober for myself.
The baby needed someone who could take care of her needs. Liza needed the space to be able to focus on herself.
It might sound selfish or contrary to the idea that mothers need to put their newborns’ needs first, but it was not in anyone’s interest for this mother and baby to be together until Liza was in a better space mentally.
Fortunately, Liza had the self-awareness to call DCFS herself and ask what to do, and the social worker was willing to come back once Hannah realized it.
Understandably, Hannah’s call to the social worker was off-screen. Limited time was available, and that scene wouldn’t add much to the story. Still, it would have been interesting to witness Hannah explaining that the social worker was needed after all.
Hannah did everything she could for Liza, and that’ll have to be enough.
Liza obviously appreciated it since she named her baby after Hannah. After learning that, I couldn’t have been the only one who needed tissues!
Meanwhile, Marcel’s decision that he was overly dependent on OR 2.0 seemed bizarre, considering how often he overrides the software’s judgment.
Still, it is too easy to get over-dependent on technology.
I liked Marcel’s analogy about driving without GPS to ensure he still knows the roads. GPS is a strong parallel; sometimes, it leads people on circuitous routes or even puts them in danger if its maps are outdated.
There’s nothing wrong with Marcel taking a break from using the technology, but I wish the issue of his difficulty thinking independently had made more sense.
Dayton will surely have something to say since Marcel is his poster child for OR 2.0. Incidentally, what happened with the videographer?
Chicago Med set up a compelling conflict with Grace having to stop Dayton and the videographer from distracting Marcel.
But then the episode dropped the issue. We also jumped straight from Marcel unsure what to do when 2.0 failed to assist him to Maggie congratulating him on a job well done.
It felt like an important part of the story ended up on the cutting room floor!
Will finally learned the importance of following protocol, though it was heartbreaking.
He was right — ethically, he couldn’t keep the transplant surgeon in the dark about Isaac’s potential cancer.
Isaac might have gotten severely ill or died from taking immunosuppressants, and his new kidney wouldn’t have done him a lot of good if cancer had destroyed it.
Isaac said he wouldn’t hold Will or the hospital liable, but his out-of-town wife might have. And if Sharon had found out about this, it could have been the end for Will. She’s disciplined him far too many times for not following protocol, and he’s only still working at the hospital because of his undercover stint.
Charles’ conflict is unique for a show like Chicago Med. Most of the time, custodial staff on medical dramas is treated as invisible and unimportant. Lower-paid employees help hospitals stay open in multiple ways, which is why a strike is a serious threat.
I didn’t like Sharon’s reasoning that if she gave custodial workers a raise, other unions would demand raises too. Custodians and others who don’t make much still need to feed their families; many, like Liliana, send money to family members in foreign countries on top of trying to make ends meet.
It’s not reasonable to expect these people to do essential jobs for less money than they can live on, and the fact that higher-paid workers will want raises, too, is not their problem.
Charles was also right that it’s cheaper to give the workers a raise than fly strikebreakers in from all over the world.
But now, Charles is truly stuck. He felt he couldn’t speak to reporters about his true feelings, which upset Liliana no matter how much she professed to understand his position. And Sharon got mad that he didn’t take her side in this.
Charles will feel even more pressure to choose a side with the strike looming. This will be interesting!
What did you think, Chicago Med fanatics? Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know. Don’t forget you can watch Chicago Med online if you’d like to see the episode again.
Check out TV Fanatic’s exclusive interview with Jessy Schram if you missed her thoughts about Hannah’s big story!
Chicago Med airs on NBC on Wednesdays at 8 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.