Chicago Med might be a procedural drama with unique medical cases in each episode, but the beating heart of the long-running One Chicago series is its ensemble cast. The show's main characters are what keep us fans tuning back in. Each season, their arcs take us on a ride of character development through their various dramas in their personal and professional lives.
Throughout its decade and counting on the air, Chicago Med has featured a wide range of main characters in its ensemble. One of the cast's most recent additions, Darren Barnet as Dr. Jon Frost, has been among the show's best new characters in years. After two seasons on the show and navigating some of the same issues in his life, season 12 deserves to give him a fresh start.
When we first met Frost in Chicago Med season 10, he was the former child star heartthrob who left the acting world after becoming a sitcom star. Now a doctor trying to start over, Frost was constantly reminded of the life he left behind as his coworkers and patients alike are star struck and completely consumed with his once-upon-a-time celebrity. But it's time for Frost to be able to move forward.
Chicago Med season 12 needs to keep moving Frost's story forward
In Chicago Med season 11, Frost was still confronted with his past on Nick of Time when his friend and costar approached him with the idea of starring in a reboot. Obviously, Frost wasn't keen on the idea given the trauma he faced as a child star. Between his parents and the older woman who started an intimate relationship with him as a minor, he wasn't rushing to go back into that world.
By going through his latest confrontation with his acting career, Frost should either put that part of his life to bed or actually pursue something concrete with it. The season 11 finale found Frost further confront his past by forgiving his father and being with him in the moment that he passed away. More so than possibly any other Chicago Med character, Frost went through a life-changing experience.
Hopefully, this allows for the series to continue giving Frost a new direction that isn't solely focused on his past, his trauma, his family, or his placement in an uncomfortable love triangle. Frost's storylines are often the result of minor fits or starts, not really digging into something major, like Charles' brush with death or Lenox and Ripley's complication relationship.
Chicago Med season 12 can change Frost's direction and put him on a new path. He will still be working through his grief over his father and working on further repairing his relationship with his mother. He's also still dating Naomi, at least we expect that to be the case, but we have been lacking significant movement on that front as well. Simply put, we need more Frost next season.
If the series continues to navigate Frost's experiences in any of the storylines mentioned above without adding something new, it will be a disservice to not only his character but to the fans. He's one of the show's best characters and after everything he's been through for the past two seasons, should have some forward momentum that's fresh and exciting.
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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