After Chicago Med season 11 began airing on October 1, 2025, fans of the show have seen a lot happen within Gaffney Chicago Medical Center's Emergency Room. While it has been exciting to see new episodes of the medical drama again, the sad news is that the show's return is coming to an end, for now. That is the case because the most recent new episode of Chicago Med that aired serves as the show's fall finale, which means viewers will wait weeks for the season to resume.
Since Chicago Med season 11 has already featured the return of Dr. Natalie Manning and Dr. Will Halstead, many fans have been thinking about which other characters from the past should also return. While it is fun for fans to think like that, especially since Dr. Halstead and Dr. Manning are gone again, paying too much attention to potential returning characters can obscure an important truth. Chicago Med's current main characters are pretty great, which is why it felt strange that one of the best of them was absent during the show's fall finale.
Sharon Goodwin was missing from Chicago Med's season 11 fall finale
On November 12, 2025, Chicago Med season 11, episode 7, "Double Down" aired on NBC. The episode was a compelling one. After all, it featured the return of a reviled patient, Dr. Daniel Charles questioning himself, a power outage, Dr. Dean Archer flirting with a new character, and Dr. Caitlin Lenox breaking into a patient's home to protect them. If all that wasn't enough, the episode also ended on a dramatic and violent cliffhanger.
For all the things that the episode did feature, it was impossible not to notice that one of the best aspects of Chicago Med was missing since Sharon Goodwin never appeared onscreen. Given the episode's status as the fall finale made it a landmark episode, it is stunning that a character as important as Ms. Goodwin was absent. As the hospital's onscreen leader, it feels like Ms. Goodwin should be part of any Chicago Med episode that means a lot.
While Ms. Goodwin definitely was missed, there are two reasons why her being gone makes sense. First off, Ms. Goodwin not showing up is completely logical from a storyline perspective. During the previous episode of Chicago Med. Ms. Goodwin was with her children as her ex-husband, Bert Goodwin, seemed poised to pass away. The passing of a loved one may be the most valid reason possible for a person to miss work.
The other reason why Ms. Goodwin's absence makes some sense comes from a behind-the-scenes perspective. In April 2023, Deadline reported that as part of agreements to renew the three remaining One Chicago shows, the franchise's stars agreed to appear in fewer episodes per season. With that in mind, it was inevitable that the agreement that was meant to reduce the budgets for the One Chicago shows would ensure that Ms. Goodwin would be absent from some episodes.
Still, it seems interesting that Chicago Med's producers chose to have Ms. Goodwin gone during the fall finale and then didn't even address her absence in the episode. Hopefully, she'll be back for the winter premiere on January 7, 2026!