Spoilers ahead for Episode 10 of Chicago Med Season 9, called "You Just Might Find You Get What You Need."
Chicago Med returned from a few weeks off with a reveal about the ED staff and a crisis outside of the hospital that left Maggie in some serious danger. By the end of the hour, it seemed that one doctor really is gone from Med for good, and some details about what comes next make it possible that somebody is already set to fill the vacancy in what's left of the 2024 TV schedule. Goodbye Zola, hello Loren?
Zola's Fate On Chicago Med
While it was a big reveal early in the episode, news that Zola was axed from Med wasn't a huge shocker. Sophia Ali's character was crossing lines from her arrival in Season 9, but she seemingly went past the point of no return back in Episode 8 when she jumped the gun on trying to harvest the organs of a man who still very much needed them, and it was her third strike. (It also might never had happened if she'd been a Grey's Anatomy fan.)
I did think that we might get one more episode with Ali – a Grey's Anatomy alum whose character was also fired – so she would get an on-screen sendoff, and the "Previously On" segment at the start of the episode featured her and her move that nearly harvested a living man's organs. The patient that she and Crockett had been so concerned about was still waiting on lungs, so her story didn't seem over.
But the transplant happened by the end of the hour and seemed to wrap up the only storyline that Zola was still tied to. Throw in another twist from "You Just Might Find You Get What You Need" and the episode description for next week, and I suspect that Med is wasting no time in filling her vacancy.
Will Loren Join The ED Staff?
Loren's most important role on Med up until "You Just Might Find You Get What You Need" was pretty much to be the dashing doctor who occasionally dropped in to flirt with Maggie, and that seemed to be his purpose again in this episode when Maggie joined him on one of his flights to deliver an organ for transplant. When they had to make an emergency landing, however, it turned out that Loren was seriously hurt and he decided to confess his feelings to Maggie.
Luckily, it wasn't a deathbed confession and he lived to return to Med with Maggie, and they received a well-deserved round of applause. NBC's official description for the next episode gives away that he's going to try for a role at the hospital instead of flying in and out:
Ripley struggles to keep Sully’s diagnosis a secret when the latter’s pregnant girlfriend comes to Med for help. Loren works to earn a spot in Med’s trauma fellowship. Charles and a medical student treat a bipolar artist.
Now, Loren as a new trauma fellow isn't the same as Zola as a resident, so he wouldn't be a replacement for her as a character. I could see Henderson Wade as a replacement for Sophia Ali in the Chicago Med cast, though, like how Luke Mitchell stepped into Nick Gehlfuss' vacancy without Ripley coming across as a replacement for Will. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, though, as the promo for the next episode suggests that Loren might not get that fellowship:
Keep tuning in to NBC on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET for the last remaining episodes of Chicago Med Season 9, ahead of Chicago Fire Season 12 at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. Season 11 at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit older episodes of all three One Chicago shows streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
