Chicago Med is currently in its winter hiatus, with no new episodes until the 2023 TV premiere schedule kicks off in the new year. Fans were left with a lot to think about after the fall finale’s big reveal about the hospital, not to mention Ethan getting his happy ending by marrying April and starting a new health initiative (off-screen) in the Windy City. Now, another doctor has been cast for the back half of Season 8, while showrunners Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider had some promising comments for CinemaBlend about the possible return of a former star after appearing in the fall finale.
With another couple of weeks to go before Med is back on NBC, let’s dig in to what the new character is bringing to the medical drama and then what the showrunners had to say about bringing back none other than Roland Buck III as Noah Sexton!
T.V. Carpio Joins Chicago Med As A New Doctor
In a season full of departures including Guy Lockard as Dr. Dylan Scott, Asjha Cooper as Dr. Vanessa Taylor, and most recently Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi, Deadline reports that Chicago Med has cast Big Sky alum T.V. Carpio as a new doctor. Carpio's character is Dr. Grace Song, who is brought into the mix by Jack Dayton.
While Jack Dayton adding a new doctor to Gaffney Med would have been all but inconceivable prior to the fall finale, the episode ended with the reveal that he bought a controlling interest in the hospital after the early success of OR 2.0, meaning that he’ll be able to make changes whether Goodwin likes them or not. The showrunners already previewed “complications” on the way, as well as changes to “Goodwin’s role in the hospital.”
Considering that Goodwin regularly has the ED’s back (including a speech to Will and Vanessa after they broke some rules to buy drugs) whereas Jack is a businessman rather than a medical professional, it’s easy to see where the complications could come in pretty quickly in the new year! But what did the showrunners have to say about the possible return of Noah?
Will Chicago Med Bring Back Roland Buck III In 2023?
Roland Buck III recurred on the One Chicago medical drama for years as Noah Sexton, April’s younger brother who became a medical student and then resident by the time of his departure Season 6. He ultimately had to leave his job after crossing a line to allow a patient (who wanted to kill himself after the death of his wife) to inject himself with enough drugs to die. Instead of reporting Noah to the authorities and costing him his medical license (at the very least), Ethan fired him, and Noah left to pursue residency in Atlanta.
The Season 8 fall finale marked the actor’s first (and so far only) return to Chicago Med since Noah was booted from the ED. His appearance amounted to little more than a cameo so that he could be there for his sister’s wedding, but it did deliver two reveals: Noah is on good terms with Ethan despite Ethan firing him back in the day, and Noah is evidently working in Chicago, as he left one scene at Med because he had to “head back to work.”
So, if Noah is back in Chicago, does that mean that fans could see more of him in the second half of Season 8? I asked the co-showrunners that very question, and Diane Frolov shared:
We are talking about that as well.
The showrunners “talking about” bringing back Roland Buck III as Noah for the second half of Season 8 isn’t exactly a guarantee, but it’s a good reason to be hopeful that Dr. Sexton will be back in the mix in the not-too-distant future! While the character didn’t reveal where he was working in his brief fall finale scenes, it seems that he’s officially back in town. Andrew Schneider went on to address how Buck fits into Med:
Another actor we love is Roland. He's a wonderful actor, with a great different kind of energy from our others, and always very interesting in the mix down in the ED.
While characters like Colin Donnell’s Connor (who had an open ending back in Season 5) and Kristen Hager’s Stevie haven’t returned after their departures, Noah has already turned up again, and that may not be the last time. Be sure to tune in to Chicago Med on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC in the new year to see what happens next, starting with the winter premiere on January 4.
If you want to revisit some of Noah’s past episodes or even the Season 8 fall finale, you can find all of Chicago Med so far streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription. Plus, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. set up some exciting episodes in 2023, with Fire's fall finale ending on an explosive cliffhanger and P.D. finally closing a terrifying case after running through many possible endings.
