Dr Natalie Manning will appear on TV screens in Chicago Med this Wednesday, four years after she left for Seattle
Chicago Med fans were over the moon last week to see Torrey DeVitto back on screens as Dr Natalie Manning in the final moments of season 10 episode two. Her appearance came as a huge surprise, as it had only been announced that Nick Gehlfuss would return as Dr Will Halstead for the show’s 200th episode. However, the storyline saw Will in Chicago with Natalie’s son Owen for a boys’ weekend, only for Owen to be shot by a drug dealer, and the closing scene saw Natalie get a call at home in Seattle.
Natalie was approached by showrunner Allen MacDonald and asked to return for season 11 after Nick had already signed on to return, and she tells HELLO! that when she returned for Nick’s final episodes in season eight, it did “feel like something was missing”. This time around, however, she thinks fans “will be fulfilled with Manstead’s conclusion” after their return to Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.
“Them coming back together this time will give fans a little bit more of that closure that they’ve always been looking for,” says Torrey. “For all the trials and tribulations that Nick and Natalie have had – when she tried to get drugs for her mom, they tried to get married and he was kidnapped and then they were together and then she got into the car accident and lost her memory and was almost engaged – I do think they will be fulfilled with Manstead.”
It was Torrey’s first acting role since she gave birth to her daughter Lyle-Josephine in November 2024 – Nick had also become a father since the last time he appeared on the show – and Torrey shares with HELLO! that getting to return to these characters and tell this story with Nick “after we have both become parents was beautiful”.
But it was also incredibly “challenging” because “as a new mom, it was the last place I wanted my head to go,” she says. “I don’t want to have to fathom this [idea of a child being shot], so it was definitely a challenging storyline to emotionally prep for, and so I didn’t. I wanted to save it for the camera because as a mom, I didn’t really want to have to put my head in [that headspace],” says Torrey. “I had to remind myself at the end of the day, ‘It’s just fiction, it’s not real.'”
Torrey exited Chicago Med in 2021 at the end of season six, but she returned for a one-off in season eight when Will left Chicago and moved to Seattle to be with her. However, episode three of the new season, airing on NBC, will be the first time she will be back in the hospital setting since season six, and she admits that she was worried it may be “awkward,” especially because S. Epatha Merkerson and Oliver Platt are the only castmates left from her time on the show.
“I didn’t know what it was going to be like, meeting all the new people but everybody was so nice and so lovely and we just had a wonderful time,” she says.
In season one Natalie was introduced as a widow, whose husband, Jeff, was killed in action while serving in the U.S. military. She welcomed their son Owen, in the first season, and throughout her six years on the show, she fell in love with Will, became engaged and ended the engagement, was in a car accident, lost her memory, stole drugs for her sick mother, and was ultimately fired.
Torrey says she “should have known” that when she was asked to return there would be more trauma for Natalie, whom she jokes “attracts disasters for whatever reason,” but adds: “I do believe that if she just maybe hangs in there, she might have a happy ending.”
