Spoilers ahead for Episode 6 of Chicago Med Season 6, "Don't Want To Face This Now."
Chicago Med is continuing to deepen the Crockett/Natalie relationship in Season 6 despite the awkward moment of her arrival at his apartment overlapping with the return of his ex-wife. Now that the events of "Don't Want To Face This Now" showed Crockett reassuring Natalie that his ex didn't come back in his life to rekindle anything and -- more importantly -- showed more of who Crockett really is, I'm ready to say that Med is finally winning me over to their relationship.
And I say that as somebody who wrote an extensive breakdown of why Natalie forming a connection to Crockett was a bad decision nearly one year ago! I wasn't a fan of the idea of the two of them getting romantic mostly because of how Season 5 began both of their stories. Crockett was originally the only one who had a good idea that Philip was lying to Natalie about their "engagement" but didn't speak up about it, and he became an obstacle to April and Ethan's relationship. Throw in the fact that Crockett hadn't been the most monogamous man on Med, and I couldn't get invested in the prospect of a romance with Natalie.
As for Natalie, I was so exhausted by the Will/Natalie/Philip love triangle that came complete with amnesia in early Season 5 that I was ready to have her take a break from romance altogether for a while. Basically, the first half of Season 5 soured me on the possibility of Crockett/Natalie (mostly due to Crockett's early episodes), and the second half ended too abruptly for Med to prove why these characters are worth rooting for together.
Their awkward flirting in Season 6 has been endearing in its own way, but it wasn't until "Don't Want To Face This Now" really let Dominic Rains flex his acting muscles that I'm actively interested in seeing what happens next for them. Oddly enough, it wasn't even Rains' performance in any of his scenes with Natalie that won me over, but rather when he was telling stories about his daughter to the cancer patient to try and convince her to get surgery, and then at the end when he tried to go through the box of his daughter's things, only to become overwhelmed with emotion and have to turn away.
These scenes gave arguably the closest look to date at the side of Crockett that he works to hide from others. With Natalie as seemingly the closest person to him on Chicago Med, scenes between them seem the most likely to continue showing this side of him and developing him as a character.
Is Crockett still the guy who TOTALLY COULD HAVE ENDED THE PHILIP PLOT EARLY in Season 5 by just talking about the engagement ring slipped onto Natalie's finger while she was unconscious? Sure. Did Natalie have such a rough relationship ride in Season 5 that I would have been fine with her taking a break from messy workplace dating? Yes.
But Dominic Rains has me intrigued about what this dynamic could deliver and reveal more about his character, so I'm on board. Torrey DeVitto also shows off different sides of Natalie in the Crockett/Natalie scenes, and a show that's six seasons in exploring some new territory can only be a good thing.
Chicago Med will continue opening One Chicago Wednesdays on NBC at 8 p.m. ET ahead of new episodes of Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET, and you can find plenty of Chicago action streaming on Peacock. Med, Fire, and P.D. also aren't the only Dick Wolf shows to share a universe, and you can see exactly how they all connect to each other and the upcoming spinoff with our One Chicago/SVU/FBI rundown here!
