NBC's Chicago Med airs its mid-season finale on Thursday night, because time flies when the doctors of Gaffney Chicago Medical Center are saving lives. The emergency docs have experienced even more life, death, and miracles in the show's second season, as well as crossovers in the NBC Chicago series franchise. But after the mid-season finale, when will Chicago Med return from hiatus? NBC hasn't announced an exact date just yet, but — take this with a grain of salt — Futon Critic's listing has the series returning on Jan. 5 to air the second half of Season 2.
But Chicago Med is definitely returning in 2017, because series creator and exec producer Dick Wolf has a mega four-way crossover between Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., the upcoming Chicago Justice, and Chicago Med planned for next spring, according to TV Guide. Wolf told reporters at the Television Critics Association fall preview that he wanted to wait to do the crossover until Justice premieres during midseason, reported TV Guide. "It'll be in the second half of the season because there's not much sense in having a four-way until Justice is on and people know who the characters are," Wolf said. "Justice is very complicated to figure out because you would want the first season, especially, to end with the trial. So, it's a question of how intensely will a crossover story impact on all four shows."
But Chicago Med has already had its share of crossovers in the One Chicago world so far in Season 2. Chicago Fire's Jeff Clarke (played by Jeff Hephner) switched gears from working in the fire department and is now a fourth year medical student working with Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto). Last month, Chicago P.D.'s very own Det. Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) crossed over into an episode to help a teen get out of sex trafficking ring and, according to NBC's official episode description, she will also guest star in the midseason finale. And of course, Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) is the brother of Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. veteran Det. Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), who will also appears in the Thursday night's episode, according to NBC.
The crossover, though, is one of many storylines planned for Chicago Med in the spring. In an interview with TV critic Matt Carter, actor Brian Tee (who plays Dr. Ethan Choi) mentioned an upcoming storyline that deals with racism. "There’s one episode coming up that deals with racism in a particular way that I think is very poignant, and the thing that you want to do is get it right, but you also don’t want to shy away from it," he said. "I was able to provide some input on that particular storyline and that situation; [the writers] were completely open to it. I feel like we really nailed it, so I’m really excited to showcase that storyline maybe in February."
So it sounds like there are intriguing episodes on the horizon for Chicago Med when the series returns in 2017.
Image: Elizabeth Sisson (2)/NBC
