CHICAGO MED: Allen MacDonald on Charles’ Latest Family Tragedy, Hannah’s Pregnancy, and the Emotional Lung Transplant Case

May 19, 2025 by Marisa Roffman

CHICAGO MED — “…Don’t You Cry” Episode 1022 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)

CHICAGO MED’s Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) goes from the heartache of burying his mother to experiencing a parental nightmare of his own: His daughter, Anna (Hannah Riley), is in an accident and rushed to the ED in the Wednesday, May 21 season finale.

“Well, I mean, obviously the promo probably gave away more than I wanted,” CHICAGO MED showrunner Allen MacDonald tells Give Me My Remote with a laugh in the video below. “But his younger daughter, Anna, is brought in, and she’s been in a car accident. And, obviously, the timing, right on the heels of his mother’s very sudden passing, causes a great deal of turmoil.”

“I don’t obviously want to give away too much, but it was our plan—when I say ‘our,’ I mean me and the writing staff—that we really wanted to put Dr. Charles through the wringer this season,” he continues. “We wanted to confront the fact…that there’s a certain amount of loneliness in his life. And even though he’s this fantastic psychiatrist, he hasn’t necessarily dealt with or handled all the issues in his life. So we very much, through the season, were trying to hit those things with Sarah Reese coming back, and kind of working that out; him trying to embark on a romantic relationship with Jackie, but ultimately backing away from that, scared of it.”

MacDonald and Platt discussed things coming to a head in what they dubbed “the trilogy” to conclude the season. “We bring back his mother, and we work that out—[well,] we actually don’t work that out; [they] have this really horrible moment where they argue, and that’s the last conversation they ever have,” MacDonald says. “And the tragedy of that. As we get into the final episodes here, suddenly losing his mom and then being suddenly confronted with his daughter possibly dying—it brings up some issues…about their family history. And it forces Charles and Anna to confront those issues.”

The NBC medical drama was also able to bring back Robin Charles (Mekia Cox), who hadn’t appeared since season 5. (Cox has been on THE ROOKIE as a regular since 2019.)

“Well, we knew we wanted Mekia to come back about midseason, and we very early checked on her availability, and we knew that we would have to work around THE ROOKIE schedule on ABC,” MacDonald says. “But it all worked out well because it ended up being at the end of the season, the very end of the season, and THE ROOKIE had actually wrapped about six weeks before Mekia came there.”

“It was so amazing to get her back, and I knew that would mean a lot to the audience,” he continues. “And when I was watching [the reaction] on social media, it was very clear that people were really excited to see both of them, the daughters, back. And I believe I’m…correct on this from my memory, I don’t think that Anna and Robin had ever been on screen together, and so we were excited about doing that, seeing the whole family together.”

CHICAGO MED — “…Don’t You Cry” Episode 1022 — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)

As the Charles family is going through turmoil, Hannah (Jessy Schram) has her own roller coaster to contend with: After inquiring to see if she could be her sister’s surrogate, she discovers she was already pregnant.

But how will that shake up her already-tenuous relationships? “That’s kind of a wait-and-see sort of answer. I think that she has,” MacDonald takes a long pause before laughing. “Some cleanup to do in her life. This was an unexpected pregnancy, and she’s going to, you know, have to inform the father. Or, hopefully, inform the father and have the two of them decide how they want to proceed, given their history. So that’s all I’m gonna say about that.”

As the doctors are contending with life-changing news, there’s also a major medical case they’re trying to delicately balance: There are lungs available for transplant, and two gravely ill kids who need the organs.

“The theme of the episode would just be–and maybe for the season, one of the themes of the season—really looking in the mirror and seeing things for what they are, and not fooling yourself about what you’re doing,” MacDonald previews. “And Griffin Lancer, who’s played beautifully by Tim DeKay—who I’ve worked with several times before [on CSI and BODY OF PROOF], and I was just so excited to get him back—is someone who’s used to, as a tech billionaire, getting his way. He’s very smart. He handles problems in kind of a forceful way, but he feels like he got where he is because he didn’t accept no for an answer. And he is taking that same thinking with his daughter’s terminal illness.”

“And as you saw in the previous episode, he has manipulated the system so that those lungs don’t go to the little boy, Noah, they go to his daughter,” he continues. “And he’s kind of fooling himself a little bit. And I just think that what I really liked about these last two episodes—to just say the obvious, it’s two-part episode, and that’s why the names are, ‘Baby Mine’ [and] ‘Don’t You Cry,’ which are the lyrics of the song [from] DUMBO—[is that] the kids in this situation, I think, I turn out to be more clear-minded and lucid and emotionally mature than the parents.”

CHICAGO MED, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

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CHICAGO MED: Allen MacDonald on Charles’ Latest Family Tragedy, Hannah’s Pregnancy, and the Emotional Lung Transplant Case

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