The show’s upcoming year offers the perfect chance to finally revisit a meaningful storyline that has lingered far too long.
As of the time of this writing, Chicago Med’s fall finale has aired, which means that there won’t be any new episodes that will premiere throughout the rest of the year. With that in mind, it is interesting to look back at what happened on Chicago Med during 2025, like the surprisingly fun storylines, the major cliffhanger, and the characters who let viewers down.
The fact that 2025 ultimately was a bit of a mixed bag for Chicago Med is exemplified by one storyline in particular. On the one hand, Chicago Med introduced one of the most compelling and emotional storylines in the show’s lengthy history. However, the disappointing truth was that the storyline has seemingly been dropped, which is why it desperately needs to finally be paid off in 2026.
Chicago Med needs to follow up on Dr. Daniel Charles’ season 10 storyline
Throughout Chicago Med’s history, fans have seen Dr. Daniel Charles go through a lot. Still, fans couldn’t have been prepared for how powerful the character’s storyline at the end of the show’s tenth season would be.
After his mother suddenly passed away, Dr. Charles got to reunite with his daughters, Anna Charles and Robin Charles. Soon after they came together, Dr. Charles and Anna came to a major disagreement over her schooling. While that seemed like it could have been its own storyline, things then took a massive turn.
Trigger Warning: The next paragraph will describe a storyline involving self harm in very general terms.
Ultimately, Dr. Charles would learn that Anna had been suffering from a deep depression, which led her to make an attempt on her own life. Furthermore, Dr. Charles learned that despite the years he’d dedicated to helping people by listening to them, neither of his children felt comfortable talking to him. Given the gravity of Anna’s situation and feeling like he’d failed as a father, Dr. Charles ended the season feeling lost and helpless.
Of course, seeing Anna dealing with the despair she was feeling was extremely sad, and it was hard to watch Dr. Charles feel lost and question himself so profoundly. However, that doesn’t mean that it is a good thing that Chicago Med fans didn’t have to see Anna and Dr. Charles struggle for long. When the show’s 11th season began, Dr. Charles seemed to be feeling fine, and Anna’s struggles were only referenced in a throwaway line that her father said about her adjusting well.
I don’t think Chicago Med must spend many episodes focusing on Dr. Charles and Anna struggling after the events of the season 10 finale. That said, it feels extremely wrong to gloss over how profoundly affected they both were by the events that happened at the end of the previous season. As a result, I seriously hope that Chicago Med will at least focus on how Dr. Charles and Anna growing as a result of what they went through in the coming year.
