After making fans wait all summer, Chicago Med season 11 wasted absolutely no time at all in revealing the identity of Hannah’s baby. Within the first moments of the season, we learned that Hannah went to visit Archer not to get support, but because he is the father of her baby.
The reveal has led to varying reactions from the fans, with half the audience excited by the outcome of the cliffhanger and the other half disappointed that the child is not Ripley’s. While there has been and will continue to be a lot of debate among viewers, it seems there was never any question of who the father should be for Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald.
While the show indeed considered various options — including one entirely unexpected candidate — MacDonald felt Archer made the most sense as it allowed for the most storytelling possibility between a pair of characters who have always shared a very deep connection.
“The thing that always drew me to exploring emotional complications between Archer and Hannah was that they've always had such a deep connection. I would venture to say it’s a deeper emotional connection than Hannah even had with Ripley. We decided we were going to have Hannah become pregnant at the end of season 10. We considered a few other possibilities, including Ripley, but it was always clear to me, it should be Dean, and that had the most storytelling possibility because they've always been friends,” MacDonald told One Chicago Center.
Of course, now that it’s out in the open that Archer is the father of the baby, the show will get the chance to explore how a child will alter their dynamic and explore the feelings becoming parents together will create for the pair.
“We revealed that they had a night where they physically and emotionally connected, a night that was meaningful to both of them but that they decided afterwards that they didn't want to sacrifice the friendship and that they wanted to just keep moving in that direction,” MacDonald shared. “Moving forward with that into season 11, now there's a child coming and Archer's the dad. They've decided to be friends, but there's nothing more intimate than having a child together. What kind of feelings is that going to bring back up in the two of them, and how are they going to negotiate that as the season progresses?”
For Steven Webber, there’s an excitement in seeing just how the arrival of the baby will alter Hannah and Archer’s relationship and whether it will create a deepening of an emotional connection between the pair.
“We'll see what comes out of necessity, you know. Dean and Hannah are nothing if not practical. They've had to be practical in order to survive, because the times that they were passionate, it's messed them up.
So we'll see if this child and this bond necessitates a deepening of an emotional connection between them. The idea that these two characters are about to have a baby is a fantastic opportunity. I think Alan and the writers are taking the opportunity to go deeper on this potentially instructive, and that's not a sexy word, but instructive for the characters and for the people that love this show. It'll be interesting and eye-opening.”
Webber admits that both Archer and Hannah have “feelings that they haven’t been able to define or acknowledge,” and this storyline will now allow the creative team to explore this special and unique bond between them across the season ahead.
“I think they both have feelings that they haven't been able to define or even acknowledge.
I'm not saying romantic feelings even, but I think the bond between them is special and unique, and they'll be negotiating that for 21 episodes, if not more,” Webber teased.
Chicago Med airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.