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Dr. Connor Rhodes's History on Chicago Med
The cardiac surgeon played by Colin Donnell faced a lot of drama at Gaffney Med.
Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell) first appeared on Chicago Med in the pilot episode — which also happened to be his very first day working at the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. It quickly became clear that he was part of a wealthy Chicago family who had ties to the hospital, which colored his time on the show.
Revisit all of Dr. Rhodes's storyline on the show, including his complicated family and strained relationship with his coworkers, up until his departure at the beginning of Season 5.
Who was Connor Rhodes on Chicago Med?
Dr. Rhodes was a trauma surgeon who worked at the Emergency Department. His father, Cornelius Rhodes (D.W. Moffett), was a wealthy donor who helped to fund the hybrid operation room (OR) in the unit, but Rhodes did not know about his gift until long after the room became a reality.
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Rhodes was estranged from Cornelius, who made his first appearance in the series' second episode ("iNO"), revealing their familial connection. Rhodes refused his father's attempt to reconnect, which later made for larger issues when Cornelius asked Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) to remove Connor from a case.
Rhodes and Halstead's Fraught Relationship
From the very beginning, Rhodes was not on Dr. Will Halstead's (Nick Gehlfuss) good side. In the first episode ("Derailment"), Rhodes was on a train that went off the tracks, resulting in mass injuries. He rode with a patient to the hospital and was performing CPR when they arrived. Halstead questioned him and asked him to move away before Rhodes introduced himself as the new trauma surgeon.
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Throughout the first season, the men can be seen questioning each other's decisions and butting heads, but their tension fizzled out as the show went on.
Dr. Rhodes's Conjoined Twin Case
Despite the drama that often came his way, Rhodes was incredibly good at his job and saved hundreds of lives throughout his time at the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. One of the most notable cases was when he performed surgery to separate a pair of conjoined twins.
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Originally, Rhodes had decided to sit the surgery out due to some doubts he was having about his own decision-making. However, in Season 3, Episode 20 ("The Tipping Point"), he was convinced to step back in after he suggested a creative solution to a problem the team encountered mid-surgery, and he ultimately saved both twins in the process.
What happened when Connor Rhodes dated Dr. Ava Bekker?
Another fellow Med employee who Rhodes initially couldn't seem to get along with was Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling). The South African surgeon came to the show in Season 3 as a cardiothoracic fellow, meaning that she and Rhodes regularly fought to be put on the best cases. Their sense of competition tended to push them both to be better doctors, and there was often a sense of a romantic spark underneath their playful bickering.
All of this turned on its head when Ava started vying for Rhodes's attention in dangerous ways, like allowing herself to get cut during surgery on an HIV-positive patient and later murdering Rhodes's father by administering too much insulin. Rhodes and Ava were both suspects for the murder during the investigation in Season 5, Episode 1 ("Never Going Back to Normal"), and Ava ultimately confessed her actions to Rhodes before slicing her own throat, killing herself.
Why did Dr. Rhodes leave Chicago Med?
Rhodes's fate was always intertwined with his father's, so it was no surprise that Cornelius's murder was part of the reason he left the hospital.
In the very first episode of Season 5 — after he tried to save Ava's life from her self-inflicted neck injury — Rhodes told Dr. Isidore Latham (Ato Essandoh) that he was leaving Chicago.
"I'm not going to be able to get over what's happened here, and nobody is ever going to be able to forget. I need a fresh start," he said. "I need to go somewhere where all I will be is just another doctor."
Catch up on all of Rhodes's best moments by streaming Chicago Med on Peacock.
