Season 8 Episode 22's Alien Hand Syndrome Is All Too Real

While the treatment of alien hand syndrome in the recent Season 8 finale of "Chicago Med" represents a theoretically medically plausible depiction of the condition, most characters suffering from it in film and television don't really fit that bill.

The most famous alien hand syndrome sufferer is likely Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) in "Dr. Strange Love or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Dr. Strangelove possesses a black-gloved hand that is always doing Nazi salutes and other actions supposedly without its owner's permission — a reference to real-life German Nazis recruited by the US government after World War II. This is more of a satirical device than a medical one, and we never learn the precise cause of Strangelove's condition.

Ash (Bruce Campbell) in "Evil Dead II" also experiences a form of alien hand syndrome, but one that is caused by a Deadite and actually continues on after his hand has been physically detached via chainsaw from his arm. There is no medical precedent for such a scenario known to science. Other horror movies to draw inspiration from the alien hand concept include "The Hands of Orlac" and "Idle Hands," neither of which are particularly medically plausible either. In real life, the condition tends to be much less dramatic, although it can cause significant frustration and confusion for the sufferer. 

All this is to say, if you assumed after watching the latest "One Chicago" series entry that alien hand syndrome is an invention of the writers, you were mistaken.