[Spoiler] Suspended! Darren Barnet Teases What’s Next

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago Med Season 10 Episode 13 “Take a Look in the Mirror.”]

Uh-oh, Chicago Med is going to be down a doctor at least temporarily — but maybe permanently, if Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) has any say in it.

The end of the previous episode saw Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell) get into a fight outside the bar; both men walked away … or so the doctor thought. To his shock, the other man is brought in as a patient, and he’s in bad shape. John Frost (Darren Barnet) is the one treating him, but Ripley takes a special interest in the case and would rather be more conservative (not remove his kidney). He even pulls rank.

But when Ripley’s plan (embolization) doesn’t stop the bleeding, and the need comes to open the man’s chest and cross-clamp the aorta in the ED, that’s when it all boils over. Ripley wants to do the procedure himself, and Frost tells him to step aside and he’s out of line and out of control. Ripley then reveals it has to be him — because he did it to the man. Frost then pushes him out and continues to work on his patient.

“Frost is kind of getting to know the dark side of Ripley, but he’s definitely not liking it. He’s a bit jarred by it because this man is very beaten up. It wasn’t just a fight. Ripley really, really, really went in on this guy,” Barnet tells TV Insider. “So I think it’s just showing a dark side of Ripley, too, that is a little bit difficult to digest for a character that he wants to consider a friend.”

Later, once they know the patient will make a full recovery but his wife plans to sue, Goodwin confronts Ripley about his behavior. His presence in the ED is a liability, and she suspends him without pay, with a formal investigation, hearing, and judgement to come. He understands and assures her he won’t fight her or the board or make any excuses She then reveals that she’s going to recommend that the board terminate him.

“I think [Frost] thinks that he deserves [the suspension],” says Barnet. “You are a physician. Your job is to help and cure and heal and help people recover, not put them in the hospital. So yeah, it doesn’t sit very well with Frost.”

But this is going to leave the ED without Ripley for at least a couple shifts and there could be permanent changes in store if he is terminated. What’s next “is to be found out,” Barnet says. “We might be going on without Ripley for a little bit, but that’s not to say he’s not going to be having his own journey outside of the hospital.”

George Burns Jr/NBC

After his conversation with Goodwin, Ripley speaks with his girlfriend, Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram). He swears he hadn’t been looking for a fight the night before and the other guy wanted trouble. But if he’s walking away and someone throws a punch, he is going to defend himself. She points out the irony: A few months ago, he’d been accused of assaulting Pavel, falsely, and now he’s back here again, but this time, he did it and nearly killed a man. Ripley reminds her that he helped save him, but that’s not what she wants to hear. She doesn’t know what to say to him anymore and doesn’t understand why he’s hellbent on throwing away the life he fought so hard to have. She walks away, and we have to wonder what this means for their future.

What do you think of Ripley’s suspension? Do you agree with Goodwin that he should be terminated? Let us know in the comments section below.

Chicago Med, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC