Co-showrunners Andy Schneider and Diane Frolov preview Wednesday's fall finale, which features Ethan and April's wedding.
As Chicago Med sends off one of their own, a slew of new challenges await for the doctors at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.
In Wednesday's season 8 fall finale, titled "This Could Be the Start of Something New," Will (Nick Gehlfuss) relies on Crockett (Dominic Rains) and Med’s newly donated, state-of-the-art OR 2.0 to save his patient. Charles (Oliver Platt) helps an elderly confused patient who’s mourning the loss of his high school sweetheart. And as their wedding day approaches, Ethan (Brian Tee) and April (Yaya DaCosta) run into some roadblocks.
"Any episodic TV show, and particularly a long-running one, the challenge and creative, what makes it interesting is to find new dimensions to the characters that people have come to know and love. Find new aspects, put them in situations where we haven't done that before and those are things we wanted to do building to the winter break here," co-showrunner Andy Schneider told ET in previewing the hour.
"And also, we're seeing a final crisis with what's going on in the hospital as well. We've been dwelling a lot on shortages and problems within the hospital, so we're also coming to a point; what's going to be the outcome of that?" added co-showrunner Diane Frolov.
Frolov also noted that the fall finale introduces ideas "that are going to drive the latter half of the season, both in terms of the relationships and overall, how the hospital is going to be run and what the ethical issues that they're going to be facing. OR 2.0. is an interesting thing, but there's a lot of challenges to it for the hospital."
Schneider hinted that there are "major changes coming to the administration of the hospital, which will affect everybody." "Concurrent with that, it's a very romantic episode," he teased of the doctors' personal lives. "It's about relationships resuming and starting."
The episode is also a major one as it sends off Tee, who in October announced he was exiting the medical drama after eight seasons, writing on Instagram at the time, "It was a beautiful ride with an incredible group of people that I will hold in my heart forever." As the producers shared, bringing back DaCosta -- who left as a series regular after season 6 -- to formally close out Ethan and April's arc on Chicago Med, was a move they felt strongly about.
"It was very satisfying for us because we wanted to finish their relationship arc. And it was just wonderful to get to do that and to have Yaya back," Frolov said of the reunited couple's upcoming wedding and new chapter.
"And she was very enthusiastic to do what we wanted to do, [which] was to give closure to that wonderful relationship," Schneider acknowledged. "It was great all the way around. It was something we had planned to do from the beginning of the season."
Though the episode closes one chapter as Tee exits as a series regular, Frolov and Schneider are optimistic that the actor -- who returns to direct a later episode -- will find his way back to Med after his character, Ethan, decides to team up with April to start their own mobile clinic.
"We hope not," Schneider said. "He's left the hospital but they're both in Chicago. They'll both have patients. They need to come into our trauma center."
Frolov said Tee's departure was planned from the start of the season. "He's had a very long arc and he's come a long way," Frolov said of Ethan's journey on Chicago Med, from the recent death of his father to getting shot. "So we thought this was a lovely finish to that arc, where he really has changed. Brian is directing on our show, so he's not gone -- just wearing a different hat."
Earlier this fall, Chicago Med star Marlyne Barrett, who plays charge nurse Maggie, publicly shared that she was diagnosed with uterine and ovarian cancer. Her character on the show is a breast cancer survivor.
"Marlyne is a trouper. She's inspirational," Frolov praised of the actress' fortitude to continue working throughout her health battle.
"We're writing as if everything is fine. And she has been coming to work, doing a great job and you've never known that there was any issue behind it. She's just been fantastic," Schneider shared, adding he's had "certainly a level of respect for Marlyne, her bravery."
"To see a fellow human being take on this disease and function in the way that [she has], persevere, be loving and cheerful and all of that. That becomes, as I said, inspirational," Frolov added.
The fall finale of Chicago Med airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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