Last week's 200th episode of Chicago Med brought more than a few surprises for long-time fans, but we already knew about one. Nick Gehlfuss reprised his role as Dr. Will Halstead, returning to Gaffney for a visit but ending up involved with helping the team care for a teenage patient. While on his trip to Chicago with Natalie's son Owen, disaster struck that delivered the next huge surprise.
After many seasons away since leaving as a series regular, Torrey DeVitto made a surprise appearance as Dr. Natalie Manning, and no one saw her arrival coming. Natalie was talked about in the episode as it's explained she stayed in Seattle since she's 20 weeks pregnant with their son. However, by the episode's end it became impossible for the series to leave her out and... there she was!
The patient's case that Halstead became involved with had to do with running drugs. A woman broke into the operating room demanding that Lenox and Frost hand over the drugs that the teen boy was carrying inside his body. They handed over what they had removed so far, but Lenox talked the woman down. After returning to work, the doctors heard two gunshots outside.
It was revealed by Goodwin calling Manning that Owen was the victim of at least one of the gunshots, and that's what's bringing Manning back to Gaffney in season 11 episode 3. Obviously, we wish we would be reuniting with one of the show's best original characters under better, less tragic circumstances, but we couldn't be more excited to see her back in season 11.
What's going to happen with Owen after the shooting in last week's episode? Will Manning fall back in line at her old stomping grounds? Were Lenox and Frost able to save their patient's life and keep him out of trouble? Let's find out with a live recap of Chicago Med season 11 episode 3!
Owen has horseshoe kidney and remains in surgery as Natalie arrives
The beginning of the episode reveals that the shooter was tackled by security, and when she fell to the ground, she fired two shots. She managed to hit Owen, and he was significantly injured. One of his kidneys was "obliterated" according to Archer, who reveals he has a condition called horseshoe kidney. Owen will have to have a kidney removed. Meanwhile, Natalie rushes to Chicago. Charles picks her up at the airport for her to have a familiar face and calm her nerves.
Ripley helps Frost reflect on what just happened, and Frost can't believe that Lenox wasn't afraid at all when a gun was pointed directly at her. They don't have much time to waste before two car accident patients arrive. Asher comforts Halstead, who blames himself for Owen's injury. He wishes he would have taken Owen to the game. Natalie arrives and interrupts Asher and Halstead's moment, and the couple watches Owen's ongoing surgery from the other side of the glass.
Ripley cares for a man who was found floating in the Chicago River and looks a little worse for the wear, especially his gnarly case of trench foot. Lenox and Frost inform the car accident victim that his partner Julian is brain dead with no hope for recovery. He wants to take Julian off his ventilator as soon as possible. Archer informs Natalie that Owen is on dialysis until a kidney donor can be found and assures her that he will survive. Before ending Julian's life support, Lenox halts the process.
Natalie wants to donate a kidney to save Owen in Chicago Med season 11 episode 3
Even though his partner said Julian and his parents had been estranged, they have unexpectedly ordered that he remains on life support. Because he and his partner aren't married, his parents seemingly have the final call. When his parents arrive, they lay on the guilt and resentment very thick. Meanwhile, it's getting awkward in the ED for Asher as Archer, Ripley, Halstead, and Natalie all hang out in the lounge. But Natalie's fighting to get Owen a kidney, even giving up one of her own.
Charles attempts to talk with Ripley's river patient and diagnoses him with dissociative fugue state. He wonders if the victim had ended up in the river under "purposeful wandering," which means he could have traveled a longer distance than they thought. Frost asks Julian's partner about the parents, and he reveals Julian was estranged long before he was in the picture. He had an abusive childhood. The parents ask Frost to retrieve Julian's sperm before he's taken off life support.
Julian's partner begs Goodwin to not allow his parents to go through with the sperm retrieval. He reveals that the parents kept a padlock on his door when he was nine. Not to mention, Julian didn't want to have children. Meanwhile, the parents blame him for the estrangement. Even though Frost is fully against the retrieval, it's possible and he and Lenox are instructed to go through with it to avoid legal ramifications. Ripley and Doris identify their fugue patient and discover the reason for his state.
Asher scans Natalie, who's a match, to see if she would be physically able to donate a kidney, and she clears her as viable for the surgery. But Asher warns her against going through with it, and Natalie rebuts both Asher and Halstead. She goes kind of below the belt with Halstead, saying that he should have taken him to the Bears game. There's nothing that will convince Natalie not to go through with donating a kidney to Owen, and she and Halstead appear to be in a very bad spot.
Owen survives the kidney transplant and Halstead adopts him
Ripley and Charles help the lieutenant reprocess his memory circuits and get out of his fugue state. Daniel taps as shoulders as Charles lists facts about him in an attempt to resurface his memories. Suddenly, he remembers that he doesn't fly jets anymore because he has a heart murmur. All at once, he's back. Natalie accepts Asher's offer for another OB-GYN to scrub into her surgery, and they have a moment of honesty after all of the tension between them. Asher offers Natalie comfort for her fear.
Halstead worries that he's prioritizing the baby's life over Owen's, but Goodwin assures him that he shouldn't worry about that or that Owen hates him. She shows him what Owen wrote in the notebook that she gave him. Owen worried that Halstead would love the new baby more than him and he wouldn't have him as his dad anymore. Frost makes one last plea to Lenox, who shuts him down. But when the parents bring her demands, she flips the script and pushes back against them.
Asher ends up scrubbing into Natalie's surgery, and they enter a very tricky part of the procedure that could harm the baby. After Lenox's outburst, Goodwin informs Frost and Lenox that the retrieval went through and remains at the hospital, but the court likely will not rule on the side of the grandparents. Natalie wakes up from surgery and learns that the kidney donation was successful and the baby is safe. Halstead asks Owen for permission to legally adopt him, and Owen accepts.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC, streaming next day on Peacock.