Chicago Med’s Manstead proposal: Why Natalie should say yes (and no)

No: It’s way too fast

Chicago Med‘s writers were probably thinking a Manstead proposal was a great shipper moment to end the season on, and it also gives NBC a big moment to hang its season finale promos on and to promote going into next season. They’re not wrong; it’s a huge development, and it’ll definitely be talked about both now and when we get ready for season 4 in September. But when you think about it, it’s also incredibly fast.

This is a couple who just got together at the start of this season. That first scene when they got together was only their second kiss! We don’t know how much time has passed across all of the third season, but it doesn’t seem like a lot. And even if it was, let’s say, a year—that’s still not that much time to go from just starting to date, to getting married.

For Natalie in particular, she should be gunshy here. This was a woman who was still missing her dead husband through most of the first season. It wasn’t until the start of the second season that she even started to date again. So now a season later she’s ready for marriage? Natalie loves very deeply; we saw that with her mourning her husband’s loss and even in how she cares so much about her patients. It stands to reason that going into another marriage would be something she’d need to take her time with.

And in general, these two aren’t ready. Will was living with another woman last season. It hasn’t been that long since he broke up with Nina. We’ve just this season started seeing him staying at Natalie’s place overnight and spending more time with Owen. Maybe these two should try living together first before marriage? Especially with Owen in the mix, it’s worth slowing the roll and really integrating together before going to the altar.