Chicago Med season 5 midseason report: Will Halstead

What it means

It’s not at all surprising that Chicago Med has shown less of Will this season. He had a huge story last season, one that took up most of the first half and then popped back up later on, and it makes no sense to then give him another massive plot this season. The show has other characters that it has to spotlight.

Plus, with Chexton getting more screen time as the show’s new primary couple, Brian Tee has essentially replaced Nick Gehlfuss as the show’s male lead anyway. Not only is Chexton more of a focus, but Choi has been getting many of the more prominent cases, too. That’s not a slight on either actor—that’s just what happens when producers take the series in a different direction.

It’s much less clear what the writers were trying to do with Will’s romantic life. It was a given that he would hook up with someone else; that happens every time he and Natalie aren’t together. But it was like they couldn’t make up their mind.

Having Elsa develop a crush on Will in one episode was surprising enough; there wasn’t any pipe laid for that. It wasn’t as if they had worked closely for a while. But do you remember the CDC rep in the One Chicago crossover who just happened to have a past with him and yet was never seen again? And the new paramedic girlfriend who’s never been seen before and had one line?

It feels like there’s a struggle to decide who Will is going to be if he’s not with Natalie and thus not at the forefront of the show. And that’s a shame, because he’s a good character played by a great actor.