Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Chicago Med Season 10, called "No Love Lost."
Chicago Med finally returned in the 2025 TV schedule to pay off on the harrowing fall finale cliffhanger that ended with Goodwin stabbed and Archer just out of reach, and Steven Weber wasn't kidding about "getting down and dirty" for the storyline! Fortunately, Archer was able to save her life (and her quality of life) with a tricky surgery, and she both reunited with a former ED doctor and shouted out Will Halstead in her recovery. And dang it, now there's another former character who I'd love to see back in Season 10!
I'm surely not the only One Chicago fan who has felt nostalgic ever since Rachel DiPillo reprised her role as Dr. Sarah Reese in Season 10 for the first time since the fourth season premiere. So, when Goodwin jokingly asked if Will Halstead was next after she recognized Reese, I half believed based on the look on Dr. Charles' face that Nick Gehlfuss really was about to walk into the shot as a winter premiere surprise. If Med could do it with Torrey Devitto for Gehlfuss' exit, why not something similar for Goodwin's recovery?
Of course that wasn't the case, and Dr. Charles naturally was emotional due to his best friend's near-death experience, but hearing Will's name at the end of an episode featuring Sarah Reese reminded me that Dr. Connor Rhodes never got the kind of closure that Will did or a return to finish his story like Reese did. Can we please get Colin Donnell back before the end of Season 10?
I was always a fan of Colin Donnell on Chicago Med, to the point that I hoped he would stick around on FBI: International to make up for his abrupt One Chicago exit. (A different One Chicago alum became the new FBI: International lead in the fall 2024 TV schedule instead.) Donnell's last episode of Med was the Season 5 premiere, which had to explain both Connor and Ava's exits after the Season 4 finale raised big questions for their characters. (You can revisit Connor's final arc streaming with a Peacock subscription.)
Both Donnell and Norma Kuhling returned for just the one episode of the fifth season, which pretty definitively ruled out Kuhling ever coming back. In short order, Ava broke down, revealed that she had killed Connor's dad, and then slashed her own throat when Connor refused to support her. Connor didn't die like Ava did, but decided that he needed to leave the hospital and couldn't bring himself to say goodbye to anybody other than Goodwin. And that was that.
According to co-showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov at the time, his exit happened because "There was a general feeling that Connor's story was really coming to a conclusion" and they "knew [Ava] was not going to come to a good end." The bosses later went as far as to say that Connor is "alive" and "doing well" off screen, and it was a "possibility" that he could come back.
That never happened under the tenure of Schneider and Frolov, but a new showrunner took over in the fall with the arrival of Allen MacDonald, who watched all 176 episodes of the first nine seasons ahead of Season 10. Perhaps Connor's story is still fresh enough in MacDonald's memory for him to come back, even if just for an episode or two like Rachel DiPillo did as Sarah Reese?
For now, Chicago Med fans can look forward to what happens next since Goodwin has survived her ordeal and convinced Archer to stay at Gaffney. New episodes will continue airing on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, ahead of Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET before the big three-part crossover later this month.
