During Chicago Med's eleventh season, the show reached an incredible landmark when its 200th episode aired. While fans knew that the 200th episode would feature the return of Dr. Will Halstead, they were shocked when Torrey DeVitto appeared in the closing moments as her character, Dr. Natalie Manning. After she made that surprise cameo, Dr. Manning was at the center of the show's next episode, which created a massive opportunity.
While it hasn't been confirmed, it now appears that Dr. Manning's short-lived Chicago Med return is over, at least for now. With that in mind, it makes sense to look at whether DeVitto's return ultimately was a success. Unfortunately, it appears that the return of Dr. Manning was a flop with many of Chicago Med's most passionate fans.
Now that Dr. Will Halstead and Dr. Natalie Manning have exited Chicago Med's fictional Gaffney Chicago Medical Center once again, it is remarkable that their returns didn't leave a mark on the show. While that was a failure for the two characters, it was the return of Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Manning that went wrong in a completely different, and arguably worse way.
When Chicago Med began, it seemed clear that the show's writers wanted viewers to be invested in and care for Dr. Natalie Manning. While that may have been the case at first, as the show's seasons progressed, that tide certainly began to change. Instead of being a fan favorite, social media activity made it clear that more and more people began to be frustrated by Dr. Manning over time. No matter if all of those people had valid complaints about the character or not, what mattered was that the character inspired a lot of anger in viewers.
In an ideal world, the recent return of Dr. Manning would have reminded fans of the likable elements of the character. Instead, Dr. Manning's return featured moments of the character often being angry at Dr. Halstead and she was extremely rude to Dr. Hannah Asher to the point that Will called her comments "unwarranted and cruel."
To be clear, Dr. Manning spent the entire episode being terrified for her son's health, and people under that kind of stress can take that out on others. As a result, Dr. Manning's portrayal may have been accurate. However, an October 17 2025 thread on the r/ChicagoMed subreddit shows that the character's actions made the show's passionate fans like Dr. Manning even less. The title of the post which featured text naming Dr. Manning a "bully," was simple and revealing. "Natalie Is So Mean. Beyond Mean."
On top of the writer of the thread's original post calling Dr. Manning out, the majority of the most-upvoted responses didn't get any better. For example, one of the most popular responses expressed anger at the character. "I hate her so much." Another one of the responses argued that Dr. Manning's return made her even more unlikable than she was before her exit. "She was horrible then and even worse now. Just miserable to watch."
Between responses like those and the many others that expressed similar sentiments, Dr. Manning's return clearly didn't make the character any more popular.