Dr. Sarah Reese is a Psychiatrist at the Ananke Center. She was previously a Psychiatry resident at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. She is portrayed by Rachel DiPillo.
Quick Answers
Why did Sarah Reese initially quit her clinical rotation in the Emergency Department?
What led to Sarah Reese returning to Chicago Med after leaving?
What was Sarah Reese's specialty in her first year of residency at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center?
What happened to Sarah Reese after she left Chicago Med?
Biography[]
Sarah was raised mostly by her mother, as her father abandoned them when she was six. Eventually, she attended medical school, ending up at Chicago Med during her fourth year. She did her clinical rotation in the Emergency Department, only to quit upon graduating and receiving her match to pathology. She later returned (having briefly worked in a coffee shop) when Dr. Charles invited her back for a residency in psychiatry under his mentorship.
Sarah left Gaffney at the beginning of Season 4 because she felt she could no longer work under Dr. Charles. She decided to continue her residency at Baylor.
Personality[]
Sarah struggled with bias in her diagnosis. She looked for signs of schizophrenia in one patient, not recognizing signs of Wilson's disease. When a child is kidnapped in the hospital, Sarah suggests that the patient could possibly be a psychopath who wishes to cause pain (the opposite of Dr. Charles' suggestion) as a result of having just found out about her father being a psychopath.
Season One[]
Derailed[]
Sarah has difficulties dealing with "live" patients. She is forced to act quickly as a little girl she and Natalie are treating starts to code. She performs CPR inadequately until Ethan corrects her, telling her to press harder. She breaks the girl's ribs, and although Sarah is horrified, it saves her life.
Later on, Connor finds Sarah practicing a central line on a doll and shares with her that he failed many times before he finally got it right. Sarah is frustrated because she never misses on the doll, while live patients are much more difficult. She also shares with Connor that if the rotation weren't mandatory, she would be in pathology. Connor tells her that that's what every student feels once they start working with real patients, and that even he felt that way at some point.
Fallback[]
Dr. Zanetti asks Sarah to start a femoral line but she takes too long, so Samantha takes over. Realizing she isn't okay, Connor asks for her help to splint the piece of glass on the patient's shoulder. Later on, she asks Maggie for help with an IV as she already had three attempts and wasn't able to find the vein. At the end of the episode, Maggie calls Sarah to one of the rooms, and tells Sarah she has a mental block with needles so she wants her to draw some of her blood.
Malignant[]
Sarah meets Joey while they are both getting coffee and she snaps the last pack of splenda. Later on, she goes to the lab to ask for some tests and it's revealed that is Joey's workplace. He is a pathologist. Sarah asks him to deliver the results of the tests as fast as he can. She thanks him and attempts to invite him for coffee, but he is long gone.
Timing[]
Sarah decides to quit pathology and embrace the hectic life of the ED with live patients, even if it means having no job.
Season Two[]
When Season 2 begins, Sarah is working at a coffee shop as a barista until she is offered a residency in Psychiatry with Dr. Charles. Although initially hesitant, Sarah accepts after a trial period. She still struggles with her own perceived ineptitude throughout the season, but has made significant strides towards being a good psychiatrist in training.
Season Three[]
Following Dr. Charles' shooting in season two, Sarah testifies against Jack Kellog who screams at her in court as a result. Her testimony, as well as other professions, ensure that Jack was never classified as legally insane and so he ended up in prison. (Speak Your Truth)
Sarah's father asks for her to co-sign a loan in order to help him get a house so he can live in Chicago. She seriously considers this offer; however, she eventually tells him that she cannot co-sign the loan. (Best Laid Plan)
Sarah finds out that her father is a psychopath after accessing her father's hospital charts which included a brain scan to show he's a psychopath. Sarah's father confesses to her that his reasons for talking to her after so many years were selfish and no longer wants to be a part of his life. On the case which they have, involving a woman having a psychotic break due to repressed memories after her father started talking to her again, Sarah explodes at the father after finding out that he molested her. (Devil in Disguise)
Sarah's father eventually has a heart transplant. She begins to take care of him after his surgery, and even says he can live with her instead of going to a rehab facility. He begins packing for his move when Dr. Charles reveals he knows that he murdered the girl in Madison. Robert then has a heart attack. Dr. Charles is about to begin compressions when he hesitates. Sarah sees him hesitate, knowing that Dr. Charles was willing to let her father die due to his crimes. (The Tipping Point)
Season Four[]
Following her father's heart attack, Sarah takes the police to her father's storage unit.
She comes to Dr. Charles to say that she won't be continuing her residency at Chicago Med because of him and that she is transferring to Baylor University. She said that she could deal with being the daughter of a murderer, but not with the look she saw in Dr. Charles' eyes because he was ready to let him die due to him being a serial killer. Sarah felt she could never trust him again.
Noah Sexton later comes to collect her things and says he wishes there could have been something between them. As he leaves with her belongings, he tells Dr. Charles that Sarah said she was thankful for Dr. Charles bringing her into psychiatry and that he was the father she always wanted.
After Med[]
Sarah finished her residency at Baylor University in 2 years, after which she returned to Chicago and entered into private practice at the Ananke Center, where she focuses on a "holistic, by-any-means-necessary approach."[1]
Season Ten[]
Love Will Tear Us Apart[]
She returns to Med after a patient of hers named Ariel Sparkman is brought in following an apparent overdose. When she reveals to Dr. Charles that her patient could not have overdosed because she was unknowingly taking a placebo and instead had a panic attack, the two fight over the ethics of putting patients on placebos without their knowledge. While Sarah pushes for Ariel to be discharged, Dr. Charles puts her on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, and Sarah storms out saying that he has not changed one bit.
Relationships[]
Robert Haywood[]
Robert Haywood is Sarah's father, who left when she was six years old and who she had no contact with for twenty years. He claims to have written to her multiple times, saying that her mother prevented her from getting these letters while Sarah says that she received two birthday cards in twenty years,
He is shown to be highly manipulative and only cares about himself, while Sarah believes, up until she finds out that he's a psychopath, that he wanted to get back in contact with her. His manipulation included trying to exploit Sarah by convincing her to co-sign a loan for him, which she rejects. He confesses to Dr. Charles, and later to Sarah in the hopes that it'll get him on the transplant list, that he got back in contact with Sarah in the hopes that she'd look after him when he became very sick and support him financially.
Despite knowing he was a psychopath who wanted her in his life for his own gain, Sarah goes to speak to him anyway. He manipulates her into thinking he's changed due to the transplant to the point that she was going to look after him at her apartment, rather than him go to a rehab. He then has a heart attack in which Sarah witnesses Dr. Charles' reluctance to perform CPR.
Sarah discovers that her father was a serial killer and that Dr. Charles knew this all along, she gives the police the key to his storage locker where he kept evidence. She then leaves Chicago where Dr. Charles tells Robert he is unlikely to ever see her again.
Noah Sexton[]
Noah had a crush on Sarah for some time, which he made relatively obvious. He asked her out multiple times which she rejected until he gave up asking. When she leaves the hospital, Noah tells Dr. Charles that he always hoped something would happen.
With them being in similar stages in their training, Noah being one academic year under Sarah, they had a good friendship.
Daniel Charles[]
Dr. Charles is Sarah's mentor when she was a psychiatry resident at the hospital. They generally had a good relationship, even though it can get strained at times due to disagreements. Following Sarah's suspension and probation, she changes the attending she's learning under for a short period, but disagrees with the doctor's methods and ends up returning to work under Dr. Charles.
However, once she sees that Dr. Charles was willing to let her dad die because he was a serial killer she said that she couldn't train under him any longer and so ended up transferring to another hospital.
After she leaves, Noah says that she once told him that she was thankful that Dr. Charles brought her into psychiatry and that he was like the father she always wanted.
Memorable Quotes[]
- (to Dr. Charles): "I just quit pathology."
- (to Dr. Charles): "I am not quitting. I am sticking with this all the way!"
Notes and Trivia[]
- She was briefly afraid that she might be a psychopath after finding out that her father is one and therefore had inherited it from him. But she was quickly reassured that, that wasn't the case at all.
- She is a former fourth year medical student/later first year psychiatry resident at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center
- She saw Dr. Charles as the father she always wanted.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Appearances[]
| Season 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derailed | iNO | Fallback | Mistaken | Malignant |
| Bound | Saints | Reunion | Choices | Clarity |
| Intervention | Guilty | Us | Hearts | Inheritance |
| Disorder | Withdrawal | Timing | ||
| Season 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Be My Better Half | when to Let Go | Heavy Is the Head | Backed Against the Wall | What You Don't Know |
| Lesser of Two Evils | The Poison Inside Us | Play by My Rules | Death Do Us Part | All the Lonely People |
| Who Can You Trust | The Things We Do | Ghosts in the Attic | Can't Unring That Bell | We Hold These Truths |
| Old Flames, New Sparks | The Space Between Us | Tell Me the Truth | Never Let You Go | More Harm Than Good |
| Forever Hold Your Peace | With a Brave Heart | |||
| Season 10 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sink or Swim | Bite Your Tongue | Trust Fall | Blurred Lines | Bad Habits |
| Forget Me Not | Family Matters | Love Will Tear Us Apart | No Love Lost | Broken Hearts |
Chicago Fire[]
- S4E8 When Tortoises Fly
- S5E18 Take a Knee
Chicago PD[]
- S3E15 A Night Owl
- S4E17 Remember the Devil