Chicago Med season 5 character review: Will Halstead

What it means

It’s hard not to get a sense of deja vu when you look at the path that Will Halstead traveled during Chicago Med season 5. He finally gets out of a messy and complicated relationship where he was in his partner’s shadow—and then goes almost immediately into another messy relationship and once again has blinders on.

He may have started out questioning Hannah, but his indignance went away pretty quickly once they slept together, and now she can pretty much do no wrong in his eyes when they’re working together. He’d always run back to Natalie, and now he’s always siding with Hannah. As much as we want to see him happy, it also comes off as Will repeating the same patterns in his life.

It was an absolutely great idea for Will to have his own storyline—but the romantic element did end up negating that. Does he have career ambitions of his own right now? Goals for his life after the loss of his father and the fact that his brother’s been shot twice in two seasons? We don’t know, because with Will, the focus is always on whoever he’s dating. That’s true for both him, and the way he’s written.

If you’re a Will fan, chances are you feel both happy and sad about this season. There’s happiness that the Manstead drama has finally ended and stopped running both Will and Natalie through the wringer, and sadness that he didn’t get to do nearly as much as he could have.