Spoilers ahead for Episode 13 of Chicago Med Season 7, called “Reality Leaves a Lot to the Imagination.”
Chicago Med returned to NBC with the first new episode since January to pick up on some storylines like Stevie‘s departure to try and tie off all the loose ends with her soon-to-be ex-husband (or so it seemed), Dylan dealing with his complicated feelings about Carmen and Darius, and Crockett‘s messy triangle-in-the-making with Pamela at work and her daughter. The biggest twist of “Reality Leaves a Lot to the Imagination” belonged to Maggie, however, and not in a good way. Still, there might be a silver lining, even if she gets the news she’s dreading.
Maggie started off the episode by telling Vanessa that she wasn’t feeling well, had ruled out COVID (which Med has mostly moved past in Season 7), and was nauseous, and nausea for female characters on TV often means one thing: pregnancy. Vanessa was thinking along the same lines, and all it took was one simple test for Vanessa to excitedly declare that Maggie had a bun in the oven. Maggie tried to conceal her excitement at first out of a fear of making Vanessa feel bad, but finally opened up, and Vanessa seemed almost as excited as her biological mom.
And all of that excitement perhaps should have been a sign that something was going to go wrong for poor Maggie by the end of the episode, with Ben not even on hand due to work. She and Vanessa went for an ultrasound, but the ultrasound didn’t show a pregnancy. Instead, there was a mass. The doctor was able to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, and firmly told Maggie that it’s too soon to speculate as to whether or not it’s malignant. The next steps are to do more tests, including sending tissue for pathology after a surgery. Maggie still didn’t look very reassured, so Vanessa stepped in:
Listen, there are several tumors, many benign, that can cause hCG levels to rise and create a false positive pregnancy test.
Maggie was still on the verge of tears, but clearly took comfort in Vanessa’s words and presence, and that is where I can see a silver lining even if Maggie gets news that the mass isn’t something benign or easily treatable. After she already had to struggle with breast cancer just a couple of seasons ago, I’m hoping that she gets the best possible news, but that may not be what’s on the way. If nothing else good comes of this, Vanessa being there for Maggie – and giving no sign that she plans on giving up on her – is something to enjoy.
It wasn’t that long ago that the relationship between the biological mother and daughter was tense at best, and it wasn’t exactly healthy that Maggie had to lie for Vanessa to fake her drug test results. In this episode, Vanessa firmly said that she considers Maggie to be her friend, and hopes that Maggie feels the same way about her. Whatever happens next, Maggie could probably use all the friendship available to her. Goodwin is always there for her whenever possible, but Goodwin may have problems of her own coming up!
Find out what’s in store for Maggie and Vanessa with new episodes of Chicago Med on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET to kick off a night of One Chicago action (followed by Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.) on NBC. The 2021-2022 seasons for all three shows received orders for 22 episodes, so there’s still time for a lot more to happen in the 2022 TV schedule.