Chicago Med returned in the 2024 TV schedule with a new showrunner behind the scenes, as well as some major changes to the ED. The Season 10 premiere not only said goodbye to two doctors, but threw a curveball at Dr. Archer with the introduction of Dr. Caitlin Lenox as the new co-Head of the Emergency Department. Sarah Ramos, who joined Med in Season 10 to play Lenox, spoke with CinemaBlend about what's to come this fall – for better or worse – and what Lenox wouldn't be able to get away with.
Sarah Ramos came to Chicago Med with plenty of TV experience already, most notably as part of the Parenthood cast. Prior to joining One Chicago, her most recent credits were starring in Hallmark's Christmas in Notting Hill and guest appearances on The Bear, the latter of which has also featured her new co-star Oliver Platt. I spoke with the actress ahead of the new Med episode on October 16, and she shared how settled into the ED her character is nearly a month into Season 10, saying:
Lenox keeps trying. She can only do things the way she knows how, and that means transparency, having conversations, open dialogues, whether or not it's giving you the information you want to hear. Whether it's in the first episode, telling Dr. Hudgins, 'Hey, if you can't handle the pressure, you might not belong working in a hospital.' Or if it's this coming episode, saying 'We're going to do a weekly case review where we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the cases that come to our hospital,' and it might bring up some emotions in our doctors, but it's worth it to power through that. I don't know if people agree with her at first.
While Lenox's methods are clearly intended to try and improve the ED and Goodwin of course hired her for a reason, she didn't receive the warmest of welcomes when she arrived in the Season 10 premiere. (You can stream Sarah Ramos' debut episode of Med with a Peacock subscription now.)
It does seem like a safe bet that Lenox's transition into the ED probably would have been a lot smoother if Dr. Archer had been at all welcoming to her. Despite the two beginning to at least co-exist a bit better after a few episodes sharing the top job in the department, Sarah Ramos said this when I asked who is still the most resistant to her character:
It's gonna have to be Archer [with] his blatant and just outright disregard for her. With some of the stuff, it's funny because Steven [Weber] does play Archer as such a charming character, but I've been saying, if Lenox did half of the stuff that Archer did, she would be fired! Even the the small things. Archer's asking her a bunch of questions, like, 'What's going on with this? What's going on with that?' And she's like, 'I sent you an email about it. Did you not read it?' And he just straight up doesn't read her emails. That's so frustrating.
Longtime fans might have a soft spot for Archer after watching his journey on Med going back to when Ethan brought him on board, but he's not exactly endearing himself to Lenox with his "outright disregard" and treatment that could be a fireable offense if she'd been the one doing it.
So, in the face of this resistance from the one person in the ED who she doesn't actually outrank, how objective is Lenox at this point in Season 10? I asked Sarah Ramos that very question, and she explained:
I think Lenox's goal is to be objective. She is again about transparency and about honesty and no nonsense, whether it's what you want to hear or whether it's uncomfortable. That applies to her as well. I think some people think she's coming in and being confrontational.
While fans will have to keep tuning in to see how well the rest of the ED adapts (or doesn't adapt) to Lenox's methods as Season 10 continues, Ramos had a strong example of a doctor misinterpreting Lenox's questions as confrontational. She went on:
For example, the episode last week where Lenox asks Asher, 'Is your department essential to the emergency department?' And Asher kind of takes it as, 'I'm going to fire you.' But it's just a question from Lenox. You could very easily just say, 'Yes, it is, and here's the data to back it up.' And I think Lenox would really appreciate that. She just isn't overly taking care of people's feelings, which people are not used to from a woman especially.
Dr. Hannah Asher went through the emotional wringer in the previous episode, with the case of a pregnant going wrong in just about every way on top of the pressure she was feeling about whether Lenox wanted to cut OB from the ED. It remains to be seen if Lenox still needs more data about Hannah's specialty in the ED after the events of last week's episode, but for now, check out the promo for the next installment of Chicago Med:
Whatever the new episode, called "Blurred Lines," has in store for Lenox and Co. in the ED, it certainly looks like the death threats against Goodwin will be dealt with in some way or other. Keep tuning in to NBC on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Chicago Med, followed as always by Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. All three series are also available streaming via Peacock.
