Chicago Med producers tease midseason finale developments

Chicago Med showrunners Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider tell us what is (and is not!) happening in the Chicago Med season 5 midseason finale.

Everyone’s got something happening in Wednesday’s Chicago Med miseason finale. The hospital is as chaotic as it’s ever been, with every character having either a personal problem, or something bad ahead of them, or both.

With that in mind, One Chicago Center spoke to showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov to gauge where every storyline stands going into the midseason ender—and learn why they don’t think the show has changed too drastically since last season.

One thing fans shouldn’t expect to see in the finale is Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett) facing major professional repercussions from forging paperwork in last week’s episode. According to the producers, Maggie’s personal life will remain the focus.

“She’s facing so much with Ben emotionally,” Diane told us. “That’s huge—the biggest punishment anybody could have.”

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“It’s really up to Natalie to press this on a legal [and] ethical level,” explained Andrew. “And the last scene we saw her in, she’s watching Maggie trying to take care of her dying boyfriend. So it would just seem cruel to go push that.

“Maggie was so remorseful when she came back,” he added. “The story is really an emotional story, as opposed to one of is Maggie going to lose her job?”

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Speaking of Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto), her memories of the car accident that happened at the end of last season are starting to resurface during this episode—and it was always the writers’ plan for that to happen in this part of the season.

“We always knew she was going to get her memories back and see what the ramifications of that would be,” Andrew said. Diane concurred, “I think as we went along, it was just finding out at what point it would happen as we progressed in the season.”

But if you’re expecting that a big Manstead moment will come out of that, then don’t necessarily hold your breath. Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) has other things going on in his personal life—dating a paramedic and the crush Elsa Curry (Molly Bernard) developed on him—so Natalie may once again find herself on the outside of his world looking in.

“Will’s on his own path now,” Diane said, with Andrew revealing, “I think [fans will] be surprised by his response to Natalie.”

As for Chicago Med‘s current couple, it’s a “grey area” when it comes to whether or not Dr. Crockett Marcel (Dominic Rains) will actually come between April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) and Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) or not, after Choi was seen giving April and Crockett a suspicious look near the end of last week’s episode.

“His radar is up. He senses something,” Andrew said. “April gets some very troubling news, and at the same time she’s dealing with some unresolved feelings toward Crockett, which really conflict her.”

Lest you forget, there are still patients coming through the Emergency Department doors during all of these various personal issues, and the next Chicago Med has a few cases lined up for plenty of tension there, too—including a Down syndrome patient and a domino transplant.

While Chicago Med season 5 has seen two main characters leave, another one be introduced, and has given the doctors and nurses a tremendous amount of personal stuff to work through, Diane and Andrew don’t feel like the show is that different from the previous four seasons.

“We don’t really think we took it in a different direction,” Andrew reflected. Agreed Diane, “I think a thing that probably happens on all shows is that the more you get to know the characters and the more they’re developed, there’s more layers to them, so it opens up story ideas in that way.”

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.