If you had to pinpoint one character in the Chicago Med universe that seems to be unfireable, it would absolutely, one hundred percent be Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson). She lives and breathes Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, having given her all to the job. Not only does she run a tight ship, but she has also rolled up her sleeves and worked alongside her team when it was needed.
Goodwin has always been a hands-on boss, making sure her team never feels left alone. Her behavior, experience, and people skills made us believe she would always be a part of Gaffney. We believed the show would end one day, down the line, and Goodwin would still be in charge… but boy, were we wrong!
Halfway through Chicago Med season 11, the fear that Goodwin might lose her job settled in, and viewers were on the edge of their seats for the remainder of the season wondering what would come next.
The unsettling news came during Chicago Med season 11, episode 12, “Spill Your Guts,” when, on their way to a board meeting, Miranda Lewis (Orlagh Cassidy) drops the news that chances are Goodwin will be fired. Before any decisions can be made and Goodwin’s dismissal is confirmed, Miranda suffers a medical emergency that requires the former nurse to save her life.
After that flight, most viewers were naive enough to believe that Miranda would drop the persecution of Goodwin and allow the experienced woman to stay in charge. It seemed that way for a few episodes, but everything changed toward the end of Chicago Med season 11.
The truth is that Miranda waited for the perfect excuse to fire Goodwin. She needed something that would make her dismissal reasonable, guaranteeing there would be no retaliation. As a board member, she knows that firing Goodwin won’t be easy and her team will stand up for her. Nevertheless, she moves forward with her decision.
When Chicago Med season 11, episode 21, “Heaven Help Us,” rolled around, we didn’t expect that to be the moment Miranda chooses to fire Goodwin. However, Goodwin does give her the perfect excuse on a silver platter. Revealing a medical condition goes against HIPAA, and Miranda knows it, so she uses this. Now, Goodwin must resign or lose her job in Miranda’s hands.
But in true Goodwin nature, she won’t go down without a fight. The final scene of the season proves this as we watch her angrily sit at her desk, pondering what’s coming. What stands out the most from that scene is the moment Goodwin looks into the camera, breaking the fourth wall and making fans feel her anger and frustration.
This perfect moment, according to what Allen MacDonald told TV Insider, was not scripted. S. Epatha Merkerson asked to try something on the fifth and final take of the day.
“She did that and she scared everybody at Video Village because we all felt like we had done something bad and didn’t know what,” said MacDonald. “But it’s a terrifying look. And she knew what she was doing, and I got to credit her for that entirely. She knows her character.”
Merkerson knows her character and the universe of Chicago Med so well that she did something that left everyone with their mouths open and ready for the next season. That is the kind of season finale we look for when tuning into a Dick Wolf show.
Chicago Med showrunner hints we've seen the last of one of the show's most disliked characters
The final episodes of Chicago Med season 11 took an unexpectedly darker turn for Dr. John Frost as the season revisited his traumatic experiences growing up as a child actor and his rocky relationship with his parents, who failed to protect him. It all began when Frost’s parents, James and Celeste, showed up in town hoping to reconnect with their understandably estranged son.
Frost would eventually agree to meet with his parents, and he came to learn that his father’s health was in decline due to his MS diagnosis. As the season progressed, Frost would come to learn that his father was not suffering from MS, but rather he had a tumor on his spine which was causing MS-like symptoms. He’d also come to learn that his dad knew about the tumor but didn’t explore treatment out of fear.
By the time Frost found out the truth, his father was no longer eligible for a medical trial which could provide treatment designed to shrink the tumor. Despite their fractured relationship, Frost didn’t want to give up on his dad and agreed to sign on for a Nick of Time reboot series in order to make the money needed to pay for his father’s expensive treatment.
It was clear from the start that Frost did not want to return to acting, but it was a means to an end to make the money needed for his father’s treatment. He was all set to proceed with the project until the reboot’s producer surprised him at lunch with the news that Ainsley, the woman who played his mom on the show and took advantage of Frost as a teen, had been added to the cast.
Upon learning the news, Frost chose to walk away from the reboot which was when he’d come to find out that his father knew about his relationship with Ainsley and never stepped in to protect him. Instead, he turned a blind eye. This led to another fallout between Frost and his father, one that was short-lived as Frost would learn in the penultimate episode of the season that his dad’s treatments were not working and he’d been moved to hospice care.
The season finale saw Frost make peace with his father as he stayed with him through his final hours and remained at his side until his father passed as the finale came to a close.
Jessalyn Gilsig not expected to return for Chicago Med season 12
Needless to say, the back half of the season was particularly trying for Frost in many ways, but it was one that allowed the show to close the book on the past as the show focuses on how Frost will move forward. With the closing of this book, Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald seemed to indicate that we’ve seen the last of a character that quickly became one of the show’s most disliked characters: Ainsley.
While you can truly never say never in the world of television, MacDonald appears to have all but confirmed we’ve seen the last of Ainsley on Chicago Med. In speaking with Parade following the finale, MacDonald noted that while they’ll always make reference to Frost’s past and to Nick of Time and Ainsley, specifically, they’ve closed the book on that—seeming to hint that while Ainsley might come up in conversation, she won’t be popping back up on the show directly.
“There’s a weight lifted off his shoulders. I think the past has always been something he’s run away from, that he thought he didn’t need to deal with it but it was actually weighing him down more because he wasn’t. We’ve spent the last two seasons with him slowly confronting the past and growing from the processing of it, and now I believe next season he’s going to move on,” MacDonald revealed. “There will be other challenges next season for Dr. John Frost, but as far as the past and Nick of Time and Ainsley, those are things we’ll always make reference to, but I feel like we’re closing the book on that, on the past, and now he’s going to move forward.”
As much as we love Jessalyn Gilsig, who was phenomenal in the role of Ainsley, it does make sense for her appearance in season 11, episode 19, “Exit Strategies," to serve as her final episode on the show.
Frost will surely continue to unpack the events of his past in the new season as he works on his relationship with his mom following his father’s death, but we don’t need to see Ainsley back again as it’s time the show began to allow Frost to reclaim his future and move forward. Thankfully, that seems to be the plan, and we’re certainly eager to see what season 12 will bring for Frost as he begins this new chapter in his story!
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