The BEST episodes of Chicago Hope

Every episode of Chicago Hope ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Chicago Hope!

Television medical drama in soap-opera style. Surgeons Jeffrey Geiger and Aaron Shutte battle valiantly for their patients, often coming into conflict with the hospital administration, run by Dr. Phillip Watters. Their cases are usually ethically complex, highly sensationalistic, and very melodramatic. Meanwhile, Jeffrey and Aaron, who are best friends, commiserate about the shambles their tumultuous personal lives have become....

Last Updated: 11/18/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
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The Son Also Rises
star
9.25
8 votes

#1 - The Son Also Rises

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/17/1997

Aaron discovers that his late father wasn't his biological parent when he meets the eccentric sculptor who is; Phillip learns something about his estranged son when an emergency arises; Kate treats an 11 year-old genius who hungers for contact with his overwhelmed father.

Directors: James Bagdonas
Writer: Tim Kring
Watch Now:Amazon
Leave of Absence
star
9.00
7 votes

#2 - Leave of Absence

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/13/1995

Geiger's bravado is put to the test when hospital counsel Alan Birch is shot by street thugs. Meanwhile, Grad agonizes over not being able to help Alan and Watters regrets his recent harsh words with the lawyer.

Directors: Jeremy Kagan
Watch Now:Amazon
White Rabbit
star
8.83
6 votes

#3 - White Rabbit

Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1999

The hospital is quarantined after a deadly virus is discovered; a child is missing in the hospital.

Directors: Michael Schultz
Writer: Mark Richard
Watch Now:Amazon
The Breast and the Brightest
star
8.80
10 votes

#4 - The Breast and the Brightest

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/21/1998

Grad accuses a mother are starving her infant to death. Shutt and Catera disagree over a neurological patient. Austin announces her plans with NASA, and Watters taked away her status as Chief of Surgery. Yeats uses his ""sixth sense"" to diagnose a patient.

Directors: Martha Mitchell
Writer: Barbara Hall
Watch Now:Amazon
McNeil and Pray
star
8.78
9 votes

#5 - McNeil and Pray

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/16/1998

A member of Jack's basketball team sustains a near-fatal injury during a game; Bobby disagrees about the need for his patient to have heart surgery.

Directors: James Bagdonas
Writer: Stephen Beck
Watch Now:Amazon
The Parent Rap
star
8.71
7 votes

#6 - The Parent Rap

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/29/1996

Kate loses her control and her compassion when her father is admitted with an operable surgical condition but refuses it on religious grounds. Geiger turns up again at the hospital, this time as part of a clown troop there to entertain the patients. Sutton delivers a baby with ambigous genitalia whose parents are equally ambigious about they feel about their offspring.

Directors: Arvin Brown
Watch Now:Amazon
Adventures in Babysitting
star
8.71
7 votes

#7 - Adventures in Babysitting

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/13/1999

Aaron struggles with the loss of a patient; Billy is attracted to Emily's babysitter; a couple asks Bobby and Dennis for help in creating a baby with a genius I.Q.; Joe tries to decide who should go into the hospital's fallout shelter in an emergency.

Directors: James C. Hart
Watch Now:Amazon
Mother, May I?
star
8.67
9 votes

#8 - Mother, May I?

Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/17/1997

Kate flies to Washington with Tommy to speak to Congress about health care. Back in Chicago, her friend Marina makes a decision about adoption. McNeil's patint Harriett Owens is hospitalized again.

Directors: Bill D'Elia
Watch Now:Amazon
Cabin Fever
star
8.67
9 votes

#9 - Cabin Fever

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/26/1997

McNeil offers his cabin to Drs. Austin, Catera, and Grad, whom each want to get away from the city for a while. While at the cabin they receive a visit from an unexpected and deadly visitor.

Writer: Barbara Hall
Watch Now:Amazon
Home is Where the Heartache Is
star
8.67
9 votes

#10 - Home is Where the Heartache Is

Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/17/1999

Jack returns after his brother's death; fearing the impact of HMOs on his practice, Joe begins to sell doorway products; Billy's friend comes to the hospital for a heart transplant, and ends up getting an experimental procedure after the hospital receives the wrong organ.

Directors: Oz Scott
Writer: Josh Reims
Watch Now:Amazon
Tantric Turkey
star
8.60
10 votes

#11 - Tantric Turkey

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/25/1998

Billy's mother shows up at the hospital and announces she is about to give birth. The star of the road company version on ""Jesus Christ Superstar"" comes to the hospital when the star is ill. Yeats former teacher comes to the hospital with chest pains.

Directors: John Heath
Writer: David Yorkin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Transplanted Affection
star
8.57
7 votes

#12 - Transplanted Affection

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/8/1996

Watters steps in and asks Geiger to take on Austin's transplant patient as she struggles with her ex husband for custody of their daughter. Sutton brings a brain-dead woman into the hospital to deliver her baby.

Directors: Michael Dinner
Watch Now:Amazon
Austin, We Have a Problem
star
8.56
9 votes

#13 - Austin, We Have a Problem

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/1998

Gordan teaches Kate how to fly. Hancock accuses a police officer of shooting a homeless African-American.

Directors: Lou Antonio
Watch Now:Amazon
A Goy and His Dog
star
8.56
9 votes

#14 - A Goy and His Dog

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/10/1999

Billy ponders euthanasia when Gordy is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis; Lisa tries to help a woman with metastatic breast cancer get into an experimental group even though the woman doesn't fit the study parameters; Aaron's patient confesses to murder.

Directors: Richard Gershman
Watch Now:Amazon
Deliverance
star
8.54
13 votes

#15 - Deliverance

Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/1/1998

Diane goes into labor unexpectedly and when no one can find Billy she reluctantly asks Kate to be her coach. Wilkes must get a family to safety from an abusive husband/father. McNeil and Catera take dance lessons (with special guest star Kenny Ortega, who choreographed ""Brain Salad Surgery."" Billy arrives at the hospital and discovers that Diane is having a c-section after her and the baby have gone into distress during the labor.

Directors: Rob Corn
Watch Now:Amazon
Growth Pains
star
8.50
10 votes

#16 - Growth Pains

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/27/1995

After Aaron successfully removes a steel rod driven into a man's head in a workplace explosion, the patient miraculously suffers no motor or cognitive problems, but begins to exhibit severe personality changes that greatly upset his family and employees; when a patient in danger of dying from an intestinal obstruction caused by his habit of eating the hair he compulsively pulls from his head refuses the surgery that will save his life, Ray's unorthodox approach to treating the patient's underlying psychological disorder -- by getting Camille to assume the persona of Dorothy Gale from ""The Wizard of Oz"" and role play with the patient -- gets him fired, even though the treatment is ultimately successful; Alan's worst fears come to light when Alicia suffers heart failure, and he lashes out at Jeffrey in his anguish.

Directors: Thomas Schlamme
Watch Now:Amazon
On Golden Pons
star
8.50
10 votes

#17 - On Golden Pons

Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/17/1997

After a little too much holiday cheer Wilkes is charged with a DUI and must serve a community service in Dr. Hancock's clinic. Watters discovers that his accountant has left the country with Watters money. Shutt turns over a patient to Catera, and the two clash over whether she should perform a dangerous surgery on the patient. Dr. McNeil is elected to play Santa and is a huge hit in the childrens ward. Grad receives her Christmas present a little early.

Directors: James Bagdonas
Watch Now:Amazon
Viagra-Vated Assault
star
8.50
8 votes

#18 - Viagra-Vated Assault

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/4/1998

Kate discovers that a patient is using Viagra to cheat on his wife; Jack gives a blood transfusion even though it's against the patient's Jehovah's Witness religion; a musician fears his creativity may be stifled by the medicine Aaron prescribes for his bipolar disorder; Joe's son drives the staff crazy as he roams the hospital behaving exactly like his father.

Directors: Rob Corn
Writer: Josh Reims
Watch Now:Amazon
Sarindipity
star
8.42
12 votes

#19 - Sarindipity

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/1998

A poisonous gas is released in a bank and the doctors try to contain the gas, that is threatening many lives including Dr. Hancock.

Directors: Bill D'Elia
Watch Now:Amazon
A Day in the Life
star
8.40
10 votes

#20 - A Day in the Life

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/1996

Austin's cystic-fibrosis patient is just one of four patients needing transplants who have to wait in fear and hope when a potential donor appears but is prematurely pronounces dead and entered into the donor system by the inexperienced Eggert.

Directors: Bill D'Elia
Watch Now:Amazon
Playing Through
star
8.40
10 votes

#21 - Playing Through

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/3/1999

During surgery to resolve an HIV-positive woman's post-partum complications, Diane accidentally cuts herself and is exposed to the virus; problems arise between Jack and Lisa when he discovers that she's been seeing Robert; a homeless man takes shelter in the hospital's main entrance; an unidentified man is hit by a train after trying to save a child; Jack takes up golf in the hospital.

Watch Now:Amazon
All in the Family
star
8.38
13 votes

#22 - All in the Family

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/10/1997

Shutt has his first group counseling session with a family, and tries to help a young man whose brother commited suicide. Wilkes father comes back into his life. Hancock and McNeil try to treat a boy whom he suspects is abused, even though the child and his father deny the abuse.

Directors: Lou Antonio
Writer: David Amann
Watch Now:Amazon
Broken Hearts
star
8.38
13 votes

#23 - Broken Hearts

Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/7/1998

Austin operates on a pregnant patient with a damaged heart and learns that she had taken the controversial diet pill Phen-phen. An accident reunites Watters and an old flame, the woman he had an affair with. Shutt has his first breakthrough. McNeil and Catera grow closer.

Directors: Sandy Smolan
Writer: Joshua Stern
Watch Now:Amazon
The Ethics of Hope
star
8.38
8 votes

#24 - The Ethics of Hope

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/27/1995

Kate is stricken when she realizes that her negligence due to exhaustion caused the death of a young woman during surgery, and considers assuaging her guilt by informing the woman's parents of her error; Billy and Danny decide to help a teenager running a unlicensed clinic for indigent patients; Judge Aldrich retires from the bench and comes to work at the hospital as Alan's replacement; Camille's drug seeking behaviors continue; Diane has second thoughts about her research project when she realizes that she's become attached to the orangutan that she's successfully infected with AIDS.

Watch Now:Amazon
Last One Out, Get the Lights
star
8.38
8 votes

#25 - Last One Out, Get the Lights

Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/20/1996

Tommy places a bid to buy out the hospital with the intention of firing Kate as soon as the deal goes through; as Valerie continues her affair with Danny, Jack lets Danny know that he's aware of their relationship; Elizabeth is readmitted after Andy beats her again, and Andy takes his revenge when Dennis attempts to help his sister escape the cycle of spousal abuse; a mysterious biohazard accompanies a patient admitted to the E.R., and immediately begins to fell the staff; after Kate pleads the hospital's case, Jack agrees to counter Tommy's offer, but only if Phillip fires Danny; Kate and Tommy threaten to expose each other's secrets; after Diane's work for the last two years is called into question and her grant money is suspended, she decides to go to Africa to do research with a colleague; Tommy courts Aaron's support; feeling under-appreciated and ill-respected, Camille resigns; realizing that Tommy will stop at nothing to destroy her, a desperate Kate flees with their daughter an

Writer: John Tinker
Watch Now:Amazon