Spoilers ahead for Episode 21 of Chicago Med Season 7, called “Lying Doesn’t Protect You From The Truth.”
Only the finale of Chicago Med is left before hiatus and the long wait for Season 8, but the medical drama delivered an emotional hour for the penultimate episode for Ethan Choi. The character has had a rough ride going back to his gunshot wound in the Season 6 finale, not helped by the discovery that his father led a whole life that he had no idea about, with a lover who was a man. In the final scene of “Lying Doesn’t Protect You From The Truth,” Ethan paid a visit to Gerald and came to an important realization about his father and their complicated relationship. Actor Brian Tee opened up to CinemaBlend about the moment for his character.
Ethan was clearly feeling a little awkward when he showed up on Gerald’s doorstep with a bottle of scotch, only to walk in and discover photos of his family on the mantle, including his sister and nephew, his own first day in the Navy, and his father looking cozy with this man he loved but never told his son about. Gerald filled in some of the blanks, saying:
I felt like you were all my family too. Fifty years, we had a life together, but no one could know.
Ethan was moved to tears by the sight of the photos and learning about this relationship that had been so important but so hidden, and accepted when Gerald offered to share the scotch and tell a funny story about his time with his father after the Gulf War. It was a heart-wrenching but also cathartic moment for Ethan, who had been struggling with what he’d learned about his father and the fact that he had to learn it from somebody else after his father’s death.
Brian Tee spoke with CinemaBlend about “Lying Doesn’t Protect You From The Truth,” and shared his approach to that final scene as the culmination of everything Ethan had gone through in this storyline with these reveals about his father:
I think, in dealing with his father and his father's lover, and that situation, there's always been this conflict of sorts within his relationship to his father. They've always butted heads, they weren't the best of friends. I think they handled each other in a way, at arm's length, and all of a sudden, this human being kind of embraces him in such a way and wants to get to know him, like his father didn't. Through him, he gets to understand his father better. So in that culmination, he really realizes how much his father loved him. So in approaching that, I think you take all of the aspects that Ethan has experienced through the course of six seasons, now on the seventh, and really kind of let that settle in.
While few viewers can probably relate to the exact situation that Ethan has been going through with learning about his late father's double life, the scene's emotional impact will undoubtedly hit close to home for plenty of fans as everything began to "settle in" for the character after so much turmoil. Brian Tee continued:
In the reveal, I think you experience it, like he would in real life, to be completely honest, if that situation had come across. What I love is that our audience lives through our characters, and I think our audience will experience that situation in that moment, just as much as Ethan did.
Even in the episode of Ethan’s father’s death, he tried to push his son away from being there for him in his final days. There’s tragedy in the fact that he couldn’t get to know his dad better – or fully realize how much his dad loved him that he made somebody else feel like he and his sister were family – until he was already gone, but sweetness in seeing him make these discoveries now. I think it’s safe to say that Dr. Charles would be proud!
Even though Brian Tee was absent for much of Chicago Med Season 7, Ethan has gone through a lot of evolution, and even came to the decision that he would step down from the position as chief of the ED and hand that over to Dean Archer, who didn’t exactly protest. Tee and Steven Weber opened up about Ethan’s “breaking point” that led to the decision and Archer’s feelings about it from the previous episode, which you can rewatch with a Peacock subscription.
For now, you can look forward to the Season 7 finale of Chicago Med on Wednesday, May 25 at 8 p.m. ET, ahead of the “nonstop” Season 10 finale of Chicago Fire and the high-stakes Season 9 finale of Chicago P.D. All three One Chicago shows have already been renewed for the 2022-2023 TV season. For some more important dates as summer quickly approaches, check out our spring TV finale schedule.
