Season 7 of Chicago Med has been a big one for Maggie Lockwood, for better or worse. Her relationship with Vanessa has turned into a nice friendship, but she had a health scare not too long ago. She discovered that she might be pregnant and had just enough time to get excited about the idea… until she found out that there was a different kind of growth that resulted in the positive test, and she was facing a possible cancer recurrence rather than a bundle of joy. That was fortunately a false alarm, but actress Marlyne Barrett opened up about Maggie living with the trauma of her cancer.
After learning that she had cancer at the end of Season 4, Maggie dealt with her diagnosis and difficult treatment throughout Season 5 for what the showrunners described as a “realistic and prolonged” arc. Luckily, she not only recovered, but also met future husband Ben in the process of receiving treatment, and has gone on to meet the daughter that she gave up for adoption decades ago. Still, as a Season 7 episode proved, she’ll never be entirely free of wondering if the cancer will return. Marlyne Barrett spoke with press for the upcoming One Chicago Day, and had this to say when I asked about her thoughts on Maggie moving forward:
Maggie recovered from an illness that was very traumatic, and then at the same time, is it something that she's completely recovered from? Is it something that's recurring? [The possible pregnancy] was a little glimpse on, you know, sometimes things like that do recur, and how is she living with that? How do you live with the shadow of the possibility of getting ill again? And I think Maggie constantly has that little presence there. And at the same time, she has her daughter that she missed for 20 years, that she wants to get to know, that she wants to develop a relationship with, so I think they go hand in hand. Her actions behind recovering from the illness led her to break a promise of not contacting [Vanessa], so they go hand in hand.
Poor Maggie was so excited about believing she was pregnant once Vanessa made it clear that she wasn’t going to be upset about it, so the reveal that she had something to worry about instead of be excited about was an unfortunate twist for her. Still, there was the silver lining of Vanessa sticking by her side to support her, and she eventually got the good news that her cancer has not returned. Only time will tell if Med revisits a pregnancy story for her or focuses more on her relationship with Vanessa, with actress Asjha Cooper as a regular in Season 7 after recurring in Season 6.
Of course, change is on the way to the ED regardless of whether Maggie has a bun in the oven this season. The cliffhanger at the end of the most recent episode revealed the return of none other than Hannah, whose departure and breakup with Will early in Season 6 weren’t under the best of circumstances. She seems to be steady in her recovery, and will help fill out the cast of ED doctors now that Stevie is back in Michigan and Ethan is still out due to recovery from his shooting and his own emotional trauma with his dad’s death. Based on Marlyne Barrett’s comments, Maggie’s concern about her illness possibly returning will remain on her mind.
Fans can get more peeks behind the scenes at Chicago Med (as well as Fire and P.D.) with the 2022 One Chicago Day on Wednesday, April 6 starting at 3 p.m. ET on the One Chicago YouTube page. New episodes of Med will continue airing on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC to kick off a full night of Chicago action, followed by Fire at 9 p.m. ET and closing with Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. For some more viewing options now and in the coming weeks, don’t forget to check out our 2022 TV schedule.
