Stakes are rarely higher in the One Chicago world on NBC than during finale season, and that certainly will be the case for Chicago Med wrapping Season 10 in the spring 2025 TV schedule. On the heels of a penultimate episode that dropped a pregnancy bombshell on Hannah, delivered some transplant drama, and reunited Dr. Charles with his daughters, the finale will include at least one major scare that showrunner Allen MacDonald says will show off Oliver Platt as a "powerhouse."
The Season 10 finale of Chicago Med airs on Wednesday, May 21 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and streams next day via a Peacock subscription. Called "...Don't You Cry," the episode will continue the transplant storyline as it gets more heated while Goodwin has to make cuts at Gaffney and Anna Charles ends up in very real danger, shortly after Dr. Charles lost his mom.
I was fortunate enough to pass some questions along to showrunner Allen MacDonald ahead of the finale. Since it had been some time since the show dug into Dr. Charles' family history, I had to know: why was the end of Season 10 the right time for it? He told CinemaBlend:
One of the themes of Season 10 is loneliness, and I think that’s something that Charles feels deeply. He may be a talented psychiatrist who has helped a lot of patients, but that doesn’t mean he practices what he preaches. Although I think he has been telling himself differently up until now, Charles keeps people at bay and doesn’t let anyone get too close because of the potential for emotional pain. So, we wanted Charles to confront some of the issues he has psychologically ‘swept under the rug’ over the years.
Oliver Platt's character is usually the one who other characters rely on for psychiatric advice, while his own experiences with therapy have been complicated over the years of Chicago Med. Season 10 not only brought back somebody from years prior to provide a window into his current mindset, but also set him up for a potential romance that seemed disastrous even in the earliest stages.
Allen MacDonald elaborated why the roles of Dr. Reese (Rachel DiPillo) and Jackie (La Brea's Natalie Zea) were key to his development this season:
That’s why we brought Dr. Sarah Reese back so she could confront him about how brutal he was with her at times even though he had convinced himself it was to help make her a better psychiatrist. That’s why we brought back Nurse Jackie Nelson… because she was a fellow passenger when it comes to suppressing pain… they had romantic feelings for each other but Charles ultimately pushes her away and calls her on it: he’s afraid of being happy. And ultimately, at the end of the season, we decided to go back to the source of his pain: his family.
In fairness to Dr. Charles, the decision to cut things off with Jackie was probably for the best, even if he didn't necessarily make it for the most healthy reason. In fact, I think fans have had reason to worry about Dr. Charles going back to when he perjured himself on the stand for Jackie.
The cracks in his composure really began to show to the rest of the doctors at Gaffney when he unexpectedly encountered his mom in the ED, followed by her very sudden death. While that was of course a tragic twist for the character, there was a perk for viewers: Mekia Cox returned as Robin for the first time since 2019 and Hannah Riley came back as Anna.
And as the preview for the season finale teased, the return of his daughters is going to result in a very big scare. MacDonald shared:
He’s forced to confront his stormy history with his mother and how he desperately doesn’t want to have the same dynamic play out with his own daughters… and so he basically tries to have an emotional shortcut: he keeps his distance from his daughters Robin and Anna, but tells himself he’s giving them space to live their lives. The truth is if he keeps a distance, if he doesn’t get too close to them, then he minimizes the risk of continuing that negative cycle… and what Charles ultimately finds is that the opposite is true… and he discovers in a very painful manner when Anna is in a terrible car accident and her life is on the line.
Even though this storyline was already rough on Dr. Charles in the previous two episodes and seemingly won't start out any easier in the Season 10 finale, the showrunner was full of compliments for Oliver Platt's performance and their collaboration. The Med boss previewed:
Oliver Platt and I called his story in the last three episodes of the season the 'Charles Trilogy' because of the deep dive we do into his family history and how it affects the present. We’re both really proud of the results. And it goes without saying that Oliver Platt is an acting powerhouse that gets to the emotion of these scenes that makes them so relatable and human.
It's not really a surprise to learn that the showrunner has such a high opinion of Oliver Platt. Co-star Luke Mitchell praise the actor as a "consummate professional" and "invested day after day in trying to make each and every scene the best it can possibly be," and a star doesn't accumulate as many credits as Platt has going back to the late '80s without being great to work with.
That said, I suspect that the "Charles Trilogy" wouldn't hit quite as hard if Chicago Med hadn't been able to bring back both Robin and Anna, which could have been tricky with Mekia Cox working as a series regular over on ABC's The Rookie. Allen MacDonald explained the drive to bring back both Charles daughters and why it worked out for Cox to reprise her role:
Now felt like the right time to bring Mekia and Hannah back because it fit into this story, but also… it felt like too long since we’d seen them both… especially Mekia who had been gone over five years. And thankfully, The Rookie wrapped their season before we needed her, so the timing was perfect.
So, will the storyline of the "Charles Trilogy" continue into Season 11, now that all three One Chicago shows have been renewed? That may depend on how "...Don't You Cry" resolves the crisis with Anna, which looks serious in the preview for the finale. Take a look:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, May 21 at 8 p.m. ET for the Season 10 finale of Chicago Med, which has a lot of loose ends from the penultimate episode that (hopefully) will be tied off before summer hiatus starts. As always, Med is followed by Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET.
Unsurprisingly, NBC is bringing back the successful One Chicago Wednesday block with all three shows grouped together, which allowed for a mega cinematic crossover in early 2025. Whether that happens again next season remains to be seen, but you can always revisit that three-parter streaming on Peacock.
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