Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead, NBC’s ‘Chicago Med’ brings season 11 to a close with a lockdown crisis after a convict escapes custody within the hospital premises. As the event stretches out, tensions begin to flare up between some doctors, and especially between Dr. Charles and his protege, Dr. Theo Rabari. Following Charles’ touch-and-go with death in earlier episodes, Theo believes that he might not be the best person to lead the Department of Psychiatry. Naturally, this leads to a silent war between the two, with Sharon Goodwin, the hospital’s Executive Director of Patient and Medical Services, siding with her old friend and colleague. However, by the end of the season finale, titled ‘Heaven Help Us,’ trouble seems to find its way to Sharon herself, putting her entire legacy into question. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sharon Goodwin Refuses to Leave Gaffney Hospital Without Putting up a Fight
While much of the ‘Chicago Med’ season 11 finale is centered around Dr. Charles’ feud with Dr. Theo Rabari, the ending flips the script entirely, pinning Sharon Goodwin at the center of this controversy. After Theo rescinds his complaints regarding Charles, Miranda asks Goodwin to leave Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, after accusing her of leaking Theo’s medical files to the board. For Goodwin, this means stepping down from the role of Executive Director of Patient and Medical Services, a position she has worked her entire life to achieve and consolidate. Naturally, then, she refuses to go down easily, and when Miranda gives her an ultimatum to send a resignation letter, Goodwin promises a reckoning instead.
Though Goodwin never confirms whether she actually leaked the documents, some details from the penultimate episode support the idea that she might have. Early on, when Theo first comes after Charles’ job, Goodwin herself suggests leaking reports that indicate his antisocial personality disorder to the board. When Charles shuts down that idea, Goodwin later confronts Miranda with the same threat, and this might just be the inception point for the latter’s revenge ploy. In the final scene of the season, we see Goodwin at her office, all alone and absolutely livid, and it soon becomes clear that she doesn’t exactly have a counterattack ready to go. As such, whether or not she manages to stay aboard this ship depends completely on how she tackles the variables as they come.
S. Epatha Merkerson is Confirmed to be Reappearing in the Next Season
The possibility of Sharon Goodwin exiting the story means that S. Epatha Merkerson’s time with ‘Chicago Med’ might just be coming to a close. This is huge considering that Merkerson has been with the show since its very start, stretching even further back to ‘Chicago Fire.’ As such, she is one of the few presences whose name is synonymous with the show itself, and the idea of her leaving is bound to send ripples through the entire narrative structure. However, fans would be glad to know that Merkerson is confirmed to reappear in season 12 as a series regular, alongside actor Oliver Platt, who plays Dr. Charles, another original pillar of the show. However, just the fact that Merkerson will be returning doesn’t shed much light on what her arc might entail going forward.
To begin with, the fact that season 11 ends on a cliffhanger naturally implies Merkerson’s return for the next season, if only to tie the plot together and ease the transition process. ‘Chicago Med,’ much like the rest of the shows in the ‘One Chicago’ franchise, is no stranger to frequent and major changes in the cast, but this still makes the possibility no less impactful. Merkerson has a very keen understanding of her character and loves it when the writers take risks and highlight the sides of her personality that the audience isn’t always familiar with.
One such aspect is how Goodwin processes fear, which becomes particularly relevant given the season 11 ending. In a conversation with One Chicago Center regarding her arc in season 10 and its impact on the story, Merkerson said, “She (Goodwin) didn’t come to this job as an administrator, she came as a worker (…) Just because she’s the boss doesn’t mean she’s not human.” The veteran actor’s words hold truer than ever in light of Goodwin’s ambiguous fate, and fans will have to wait for the next season to get a definitive answer to the mystery.
Read More: Who is Dr. Theo Rabari? Is Manish Dayal in Chicago Med?
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