Colin Donnell is doing awesome things after leaving Chicago Med

While Chicago Med is still missing Colin Donnell, he’s been doing phenomenal work since leaving the series and this week was his biggest yet.

While Colin Donnell‘s absence was definitely felt in this week’s Chicago Med, he had an amazing week that proved he’s just fine since being written out of the NBC series.

On Tuesday, Colin made his latest guest appearance on The CW‘s Arrow, in the season premiere “Starling City.” Returning once again as Tommy Merlyn, he gave possibly his best performance in the role yet.

Since being killed off at the end of the first season, Tommy has come back in a variety of different forms: in flashbacks, as a hallucination, as someone else’s disguise, and even as a creepy villain in another reality.

In Arrow season 8, we got another alternate Tommy—but we also got Colin delivering his most versatile and intense version of the character.

More from Colin Donnell

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• Chicago Med star shuts down return: ‘There are no plans for [Redacted]’s return’
• 3 Chicago Med characters who definitely won’t be back in season 8
• The most surprising Chicago Med exits of all time

Audiences saw a character who wasn’t just the charming, witty best friend anymore. He had been transformed into something else (which we’ll avoid mentioning for spoilers), full of pain, anger and frustration at the world.

And yet, because of how he was played, he was sympathetic—and kind of fascinating.

This was a broken Tommy, and Colin Donnell’s performance was so honest and with so much energy in it, that he stole the entire episode out from under everyone else. In a season premiere packed with big reveals, watching him unravel a beloved character was the best part.

It also proved Arrow could have done so much more with him in retrospect, which was the exact same feeling when looking at Wednesday’s episode of Chicago Med.

While trauma surgeon Crockett Marcel struggled to keep patients alive, and struggled with losing them, the plotline never popped the way it would have if Connor Rhodes had been in that position. No offense to Dominic Rains (who acquitted himself well and finally humanized his character), but there just wasn’t the intensity to Marcel’s scenes that Connor had.

Colin Donnell brought a certain amount of command presence every time Connor stepped into the OR. Even if he wasn’t in charge, Connor felt like he was in charge. And his reactions to what would happen around him, whether it was his expressions or the emotions he brought, were palpable. It was a level of feeling that was absent from the crossover.

We sympathized with Marcel, but we didn’t feel heartbroken for him. Connor would have broken our hearts.

But Colin Donnell has moved on to other, equally great opportunities, and you might have missed them. Not only did he return to Arrow, but he’s currently starring as Russell Hammond in Almost Famous: The Musical, and you’ve got just about a week to catch him—performances end on Oct. 27. The musical has been getting rave reviews, and a large reason why is Colin’s performance, as he makes a typical rock star into an atypical character.

And as if that wasn’t enough, he’s also part of the indie film Sell By, which is the opening night selection at NewFest on Oct. 23. Tickets for the New York-based festival are on sale now here.

So while One Chicago fans were buzzing about the crossover, you might have missed that one of the franchise’s best alums has been knocking it out of the park. He just played an excellent TV role, is headlining a musical, and has a romantic comedy-drama about to make its New York premiere. Colin Donnell had a pretty great week, and it’s wonderful to see him enjoy the success he so much deserves, even if it’s not in our franchise.

For the latest Chicago Med season 5 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Med category at One Chicago Center.