CHICAGO MED Post-Mortem: Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov on the Chexton Wedding, the ED’s New Boss, and More to Come in 2023

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Wednesday, December 7 episode of CHICAGO MED, “This Could Be The Start of Something New.”]

CHICAGO MED’s Ethan (Brian Tee) and April (Yaya DaCosta) officially got their happily ever after in the fall finale, “This Could Be The Start of Something New.”

“Marrying April was the perfect ending to [Ethan’s] long journey,” CHICAGO MED co-showrunner Andrew Schneider said prior to the episode airing. “And for her as well. It gave closure to this relationship that was sort of left hanging [when DaCosta exited the show].”

The December 7 episode saw the duo tie the knot, in front of family and friends–after April’s father was brought into the hospital with health issues, and the couple debated pushing their big day—and a fond farewell as they drove off in their new joint venture: a mobile healthcare clinic.

When it came to how much they wanted to show of the wedding, “there’s only so many minutes in an episode,” MED co-showrunner Diane Frolov tells Give Me My Remote. “We had an idea of how much time we would have. [But] there was a lot more shot that is not in the episode, because we have only so much time. But it was always planned to be a big part of the episode.” (A source notes that there’s no plan to release the extra material.)

With April and Ethan still practicing medicine in Chicago, the showrunners made it clear they’d be happy to welcome Tee and/or DaCosta back whenever possible.

“Both actors, I think, would be amenable to return,” Schneider says, reiterating that Tee will be directing episode 16. “It’s just, can we schedule them, given their lives and the logistics of it?”

But the hour wasn’t all good news for the MED couples: Ben (Charles Malik Whitfield) found out about Maggie’s (Marlyne Barrett) recent accident with her ex—important information which she had withheld from him. Hurt, he asked his wife for a break.

“Maggie’s drive in the back half is to win Ben back,” Schneider says.

And though “he does love her,” Frolov acknowledges, it won’t be an easy path to a reunion.

“It’s going to take a bit of work,” Schneider previews. Adds Frolov: “It’s not going to snap right back.”

When the show returns on Wednesday, January 4, the doctors will have another problem on their plate: figuring out what their jobs will look like with new owner Jack (Sasha Roiz) in charge.

“There’s several issues,” Frolov teases. “It’ll be about priorities: there’ll be issues of who can pay for things. There’ll be issues about administration, in Jack’s approach to them. There’ll be issues about data. There’s a lot of data gathering now that’s going on with [OR] 2.0.”

“Jack is a businessman,” adds Schneider. “He’s not a doctor. So his priorities are very different than that of a doctor running the hospital. He wants to run this ship. He’s the admiral. And Goodwin will find herself in a position she hasn’t been in before. It’ll be a struggle, it’ll be challenging for her.”

“It’ll also be challenging for the doctors,” he continues. “And often she will be caught in the middle between Jack’s desires and what the docs want to do.”

There is at least one silver lining for the doctors with Jack’s leadership: The supply chain issues that have been plaguing them all season will come to an end. “He is a very wealthy person, connected,” Frolov points out. “So he is able to solve those supply chain issues for the most part. They take a backseat in the second half. But other problems arise.”

Notably, as the ED grapples with the still-new OR 2.0, “our theme is the way we as humans struggle with all this new technology,” Frolov shares. “We have very mixed feelings about it. And it’s how do we resolve that? What’s our role with it?”

The implications of who might get treated with this new tech is also something the writers are eager to dive into. “It is really a financial, ethical issue, which is when you add this new technology like this OR 2.0, who’s gonna pay for it?” Schneider says. “The insurance? They’re not going to pay for this. Is it just going to be something used by super rich people? Or how do you make it more equitable?”

Adds Frolov, “How do we decide who gets what care?”

CHICAGO MED, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

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