‘Chicago Med’ Bosses on Ethan’s Exit, Jack’s Big Move &

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago Med Season 8 Episode 9, “This Could Be The Start of Something New.”]

Chicago Med said goodbye to Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) — and he left as planned!

Through April (Yaya DaCosta) admitted to nerves, the couple did get married and will be opening a mobile clinic. But just after they left the church, the others learned entrepreneur Jack Dayton (Sasha Roiz) bought a controlling interest in Gaffney Medical Group — after unveiling his tech-filled OR 2.0 — and is now in charge. Elsewhere in the fall finale, Dean (Steven Weber) revealed to Hannah (Jessy Schram) he’s dealing with a kidney disorder, interstitial nephritis.

Showrunners Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider tease what’s ahead.

I was very happy to see that the wedding did happen because things can always go wrong. So speak about writing out Ethan as planned and not having something go wrong.

Andrew Schneider: From the moment we knew that Brian would be exiting the show, we thought the perfect way to sort of resolve his long journey would be to have him marry the love of his life.

Diane Frolov: And it was a very happy thing for us to write towards something that was actually gonna happen.

That exit was quite fitting for Ethan and April as well with that mobile unit. Did you consider anything else?

Frolov: We had an idea that they might have a clinic, but then the mobile clinic idea —

Schneider: — caught our [interest]. But we decided that they were not gonna leave Chicago. Which also gives us, of course, the possibility of bringing them back with patients. But we thought it was such an endearing way for these two to join their lives, both romantically and professionally, with this mobile clinic.

Frolov: And to do something that is really important to them, to serve these underserved communities.

Speaking of that possibility, what are the chances of seeing either of them again this season?

Frolov: There’s a real possibility of that, and we would like to do that, but it’s all a matter of working that out…

Schneider: …scheduling the logistics. But we’re talking about it.

George Burns Jr/NBC/Universal

Then came the news of Jack being in charge. What does that mean for the hospital going forward? Especially after we saw how much he and Marcel (Dominic Rains) clashed in this episode?

Frolov: There’ll be a lot of clashing. [Both laugh] Jack brings good, and he brings not-so-good.

Schneider: He’s not a doctor. He’s an engineer and an entrepreneur, and he might be running the hospital with very different priorities than somebody else.

Frolov: He will solve the supply shortage issue. But he’ll also raise other challenges.

Schneider: It’ll be problematic for Goodwin [S. Epatha Merkerson] who is used to not having to answer to a guy like that, and she’ll be caught between her own needs and his and between the doctors and him, where there’ll also be some conflict.

Because he’s more about the splash and everyone else is about caring for patients.

Schneider: Perfect way to put it.

Frolov: It’s a business

That OR 2.0 is very impressive, but it’s also easy to imagine quite a few ways things can go horribly wrong. When will we see that happen, and how?

Frolov: It’ll really be about how the human interfaces with the technology. That’s really what we’re gonna be talking about in this last half, on the level of that, on the level of data —

Schneider: — how you handle the data, how you pay for this device, what patients are gonna be privileged to have this kind of technology, and who are gonna be denied it.

Frolov: So it allows us to deal with these questions that are current to all of us when we are dealing with healthcare, with our own healthcare. That’s the role that 2.0 will be playing —

Schneider: — through medicine to illuminate the issues that we deal with every day when we get on a website and decide [whether] to accept a cookie or not. Well, that’s gonna be an issue on this.

How worried should we be about Dean’s health and perhaps him being the next doctor the ED loses?

Frolov: His health will continue to be an issue, but he’s dealing with it, and it has impacted more on relationships like with Hannah and with his son.

Schneider: That will be a continuing storyline, his trying to resurrect his relationship with his son in the midst of having these health issues.

George Burns Jr/NBC

It was only a matter of time before Ben (Charles Malik Whitfield) found out about the accident. What exactly does that “time apart” look like for Maggie (Marlyne Barrett) and Ben?

Frolov: She’s anguished and wants to repair this.

Schneider: Her drive in the second half will be to reconcile with Ben, to get him back.

Charles (Oliver Platt) and Liliana (Alet Taylor) are getting coffee, and we already saw him wrestling with the unequal power dynamic. How much does that come up moving forward for them?

Frolov: It will continue to come up. Charles is in love.

Schneider: Charles is in love, but a hospital is a very status-conscious place, and he’s very high on the totem pole, and she is at the bottom of that totem pole. And so those issues of the social dynamics will play into their relationship.

What does that do to Charles and Goodwin’s relationship? Because that is one of the best relationships on the show.

Frolov: Yeah. She’s very supportive of him. There will be an incident where his relationship with Liliana —

Schneider: — puts him in conflict with Goodwin.

What are the chances of seeing Connor (Colin Donnell) this season or getting an update on where he is and what’s going on in his life?

Frolov: There’s a chance.

Schneider: There’s a pretty good chance. It’s a question of logistics, and can we do it? But we would love to see Dr. Rhodes again.

Frolov: Yes, we would.

We haven’t heard about him. Is that because you’ve been waiting to see if you bring him back to determine exactly what’s been going on?

Schneider: We want to bring him back in a meaningful way. We have a possibility if we can make it work.

Is there anything new you can say about any possibility of a crossover? Whether it’s a three-show crossover or a major crossover with one of the other shows outside of the smaller ones that you do?

Frolov: We’re gonna continue doing the small ones. We don’t know about a three-way —

Schneider: — because we still have to observe some COVID protocols, and mixing all the shows together is a little riskier in that way. So we don’t have immediate plans to do a major three-show crossover, but as soon as it’s viable, we’ll do it.

Are you not gonna do a two-show crossover and would rather wait to do a three-show one?

Frolov: Maybe we will. We’ll see.

Schneider: We’re certainly gonna bring characters from Fire and P.D. onto our show vis-à-vis individual storylines.

Will (Nick Gehlfuss) and Hannah have been professional so far, but will that change going forward?

Frolov: They have a developing friendship. They’re, in a way, rediscovering one another because they’re not attached anymore as a couple. So they have an appreciation of one another in a different way. We do want to continue that friendship.

Are any new doctors coming in?

Frolov: We have some residents, and we’ll have some other residents coming in. We don’t have what we call an attending doctor coming in at this point.

Schneider: We do have doctors who will come in vis-à-vis the technology Jack is bringing into the hospital, doctors who are conversant with the technology and helped develop it.

Chicago Med, Winter Premiere, Wednesday, January 4, 8/7c, NBC

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