'Chicago Med' Season 5: Ava's death shocks fans, many unhappy over how the character was written off
'Chicago Med' started its fifth season on September 25 and viewers tuned in with much anticipation to watch how the characters of Dr. Connor Rhodes and Dr. Ava Bekker would be written off. Earlier this year, both Colin Donnell and Norma Kuhling, who portrayed the characters, announced they were leaving the show over "creative differences." Though fans were worried that their characters would be written off off-camera, the actors agreed to return for the Season 5 premiere to close their characters' storylines.
With Connor's father's death and the surrounding suspicion looming over them, Connor and Ava were initially shown accusing each other of the crime. However, when Dr. Latham informs them that the insulin used to overpower Connor's father could be traced, Ava begs Connor to help her escape. When he refuses, she slits her throat and though Connor, Dr. Latham, and others try to save her, she dies on the operating table.
We had spoken about the disappointing way the writers chose to treat Ava's character arc, making her go from a competent doctor to a manipulative woman obsessed with Connor and controlling their life together. Fans were incredibly disappointed with Ava's death as well and when the 'Chicago Med' official Twitter posted a picture of Connor and Ava, saying "We love these two so much", the outrage rose up again, with many feeling like the show was pouring salt over their wounds, with one saying, "Y'all really felt it was necessary to upset me today?"
We love these two so much. That's all. 💚 #ChicagoMed pic.twitter.com/5qci5MpE3E
— Chicago Med (@NBCChicagoMed) September 29, 2019
One user retweeted the post by the official 'Chicago Med' handle and responded by writing, "No you don't! If you did you wouldn't have given Norma Kuhling aka Ava a horrible ending! She was a strong woman lead and you destroyed her character." Another viewer was disappointed with the character being defined by her obvious mental illness and tweeted, "I loved ava until the very end, she didn’t deserve the ending she got, she was clearly struggling mentally and didn’t get any help. She wasn’t ‘crazy’ like people are making her out to be. 2 episodes where a mental illness controlled her actions do not sum up her entire character."
One fan wrote, "I see y’all are finally acknowledging Ava/Norma after a few days of literally only caring about one of the characters/actors you lost", in response to the handle's lack of posts on Ava's exit. Another acknowledged the writers' lazy treatment of Ava and wrote, "What a waste of a fine actress #NormaKuhli/ng and what terrible handling of an interesting character #AvaBekker from the @NBCChicagoMed writers. #ChicagoMed is poorer for it. Just another lazy copy/paste crazy-emotionally-unbalanced-woman character arc".
Though there were some who felt that Ava deserved what happened with her end, there was consensus on how much they loved both Colin Donnel and Norma Kuhling. A viewer tweeted, "Norma Kuhling really deserved better." Original 'Chicago Med' character, Connor, is certain to be missed with fans wondering what the show would look like without him.