Chicago Med’s Season 8 Finale Secretly Made Maggie’s Exit More Likely

Chicago Med is losing actors left and right, and after watching the season 8 finale, it’s probable that Marlyne Barrett, who plays Maggie Lockwood, will be the next one out the door. The final episodes of the season appeared to be teasing her exit from the show. However, Nick Gehlfuss, who plays Will Halstead, was the original cast member to walk out of the ED for the last time during the finale.

Jack Dayton’s decision to turn Chicago Med into a for-profit hospital ruffled many feathers, including Maggie’s. The doctors and nurses were forced to favor money over patients, which goes against a lot of their beliefs. As a result, Maggie started looking for another job. She hired a recruiter and later secured a job interview at a new hospital. But by the time the finale came around, viewers didn’t get an update on Maggie’s job status. Is she leaving or is she staying? Unfortunately, the fact that the Chicago Med season 8 finale didn’t touch upon Maggie’s decision is a bad sign for her future at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center​​​​.

Chicago Med Season 8 Finale Doesn’t Rule Out Maggie’s Exit

Whereas Maggie had plenty of screen time in the episodes leading up to the Chicago Med season 8 finale, she was barely onscreen during the last hour. When she was a part of the episode, it was only to serve the other characters’ stories, whether it was Maggie helping Archer with his patient or her saying goodbye to Will. But even though the finale neglected Maggie’s recent conflict, that doesn’t mean she’s staying at the hospital.

Maggie seemed very excited about the possibility of building an ED from the ground up at the new hospital in Hyde Park. The writers wouldn’t just ignore that and have her decide to stay offscreen. Plus, now that Dayton has to sell the hospital, it opens up the possibility for more greedy businesspeople to grab ahold of Chicago Med. The Chicago Med season 9 premiere will likely dig deeper into Maggie’s choice — whatever that may be.

Just by looking on the surface, it’s unbelievable that the Chicago Med season 8 finale didn’t wrap up Maggie’s “will she stay or will she go” storyline. The previous episodes had been building up to a resolution but to no avail. When digging deeper, it becomes more understandable, but only if Maggie chooses to leave the hospital.

It wouldn’t be easy to pull off two original characters’ goodbyes in one episode. Since the focus was on Will leaving the show, there was no way to also include Maggie’s exit without either character being a distraction to the other. They both deserve their time in the spotlight, so it’s possible that the writers pushed Maggie’s goodbye to next season so that fans could bid a proper farewell to Will. If Maggie was staying, the Chicago Med season 8 finale could have easily resolved her conflict with a small scene between her and Goodwin.