It’s always fun when actors associated with one show you love pop up on another.
Almost a year after Days of Our Lives‘ Shawn Christian guest starred on Chicago Med, another alum from the long-running soap will appear on Chicago Med Season 8 Episode 11: Jen Lilley.
Although Lilley is not playing her DAYS character on Med, the patient she plays might have something in common with Theresa Donovan: a substance abuse problem.
According to spoilers, Asher and Archer will use AI to help treat opiate abuse. Since photos have them working with Lilley’s character, this patient is likely abusing painkillers.
This should be a compelling storyline for several reasons.
Archer has been staunchly opposed to the use of AI. He sees it as part of some dystopian future where computers take over the world and fears what might happen if the technology fails.
If he is willing to explore its use in this case, the patient must be in bad shape!
Asher might be the one who pushes him to accept the possibility of an AI-influenced solution. As a recovering addict, she probably wants to do everything she can to get her patient off the drugs and into a rehabilitation program.
Archer might not be the only one she has to convince; denial of the problem is one of the most common symptoms of addiction, especially in the early stages.
Asher will have to get her patient to realize that there is a problem before the woman consents to any treatment, never mind an untested AI program.
So far, AI has been used only in surgery. What type of treatment can AI provide for opiate abuse?
The AI might flag potential abusers. This could be problematic; as Marcel has discovered, the software often is overly cautious, and if it flags someone with a legitimate need as a person with a drug problem, that could interfere with them getting necessary drugs.
Will Asher have to convince Archer or the board that her patient has a drug problem before anything else happens? Since Asher is a recovering addict, other doctors might think she is overreacting or mistaken.
Will’s storyline is also intriguing. He and Maggie have to work together to help a patient who is also a suspect in a violent crime.
Will is usually about going the extra mile to help patients, especially when they are reluctant to embrace treatment. But in this case, the patient is accused of killing people during a robbery.
Will might have mixed feelings about this; if he doesn’t, Maggie will.
Since Ben left her, Maggie has been a mess, so she might not be in the most forgiving mood.
Chicago Med loves it when cases have personal connections, so could the robber or victim be someone Maggie knows? If Grant or Ben is killed in the robbery, Maggie will have an even harder time with that.
Lieu also has to deal with a case that hits close to home. While rock climbing at the gym, Lieu witnesses his friend’s fall.
According to the spoiler video, the fall is only the beginning, suggesting that there is a more significant issue here than the injuries the man sustains during the accident.
Charles and Marcel work together on this one — could that fall have been a suicide attempt?
That seems like the most logical explanation for Charles’ inclusion in this storyline.
The accident victim could also have a psychiatric disorder that caused him to freeze up during rock climbing, but in that case, it’s unlikely this would be the first time Lieu witnessed him having problems.
The patient is supposed to be Lieu’s gym buddy, meaning he and Lieu have worked out together often. If there were some issue with heights or some other psychiatric problem that impacted the man’s ability to do rock climbing exercises safely, it probably would have come up before.
The hospital’s priority will be to take care of physical injuries, which is why Marcel is involved. The patient may say something to Marcel that prompts the doctor to page Dr. Charles.
Hopefully, this will be a better story than that patient who tried to kill her autistic grandson!
Whatever’s going on will probably be hard for Lieu to deal with. This will allow viewers to get to know this new character better. Beyond learning that he is familiar with search and rescue operations, he is still an enigma.
Having someone he cares about have a serious accident gives Lieu some meaty dramatic material to work with. What will he do if he learns that this was no accident?
Will he believe it? Will he try to support his friend? Or will he take a dismissive attitude toward psychiatry like Archer did when he first arrived at Med?
Sean Archer is back again, too; a spoiler photo has Archer visiting his son in prison.
Is the elder Archer trying to rectify things with his son, or does this have to do with the robbery-homicide suspect that Will and Maggie are treating?
What do 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 while waiting for the new episode to air.
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.