Chicago Med returned from a two-week break on March 26 with the show’s sixteenth episode of season 10, but there was one particular member of the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center team missing in action within the episode: Dr. Hannah Asher.
Jessy Schram does not appear in episode 16, “Poster Boy,” with Asher missing out on the action, and what’s even more frustrating is that the show didn’t really even give us a direct answer as to why Asher wasn’t in the episode. There was no quick throwaway line to explain why she wasn’t in the episode, something that seems like a miss given they could have easily explained that Asher was taking some personal time following Ripley’s near-death ordeal. It would have been more than understandable for Asher to take a bit of time off after the events of episode 15.
Instead, no direct explanation was provided as to where Asher was within the episode with fans left to just assume her absence was due to her taking a day off. This is a similar approach to what we saw just a few episodes back when Dr. Charles was randomly MIA in an episode, his absence also coming without any explanation within the episode.
It’s surprising that Chicago Med hasn’t been as direct as its sister series Chicago Fire and Chicago PD in explaining why characters don’t appear. Chicago Fire, in particular, is great for offering up quick explanations as to where characters are when they don’t appear in an episode, be it they’re out of town, taking a day off, on special assignment, or whatever task comes about to keep them off-screen.
Jessy Schram was not in Chicago Med season 10 episode 16 likely due to budget restrictions
The most likely reason Jessy Schram did not appear in Chicago Med season 10, episode 16, “Poster Boy,” is simply because of budget restrictions. This is something that has plagued many shows including the One Chicago shows with writers having to work around not having every series regular around in each episode of the season.
As TV productions continue to tighten their budgets, series regulars are no longer appearing in every single episode of the season. This is resulting in beloved characters missing the occasional episode within the season and why we’re seeing actors such as Jessy Schram missing the occasional episode of Chicago Med.
The good news is that in most instances, the One Chicago actors are only missing an episode or two, and we should be seeing Asher back soon. In fact, we know she’ll be back in episode 17, and it seems she’ll be among the episode’s central storylines with the synopsis for the episode teasing that, “Hannah discovers a mass on a pregnant woman’s ovary.”
So while we don't get to see Asher in episode 16, rest assured she has not left the show and will be back in episode 17 with a new storyline to enjoy!