[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago Med Season 11 Episode 3 “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.”]
Natalie (Torrey DeVitto) faces every mother’s worst nightmare when she returns to Gaffney on Chicago Med. Her boyfriend, Will (Nick Gehlfuss), took her son, Owen (Frankie DeMaio), to Chicago for some bonding at a Bears game, only to be caught in the crossfire and shot when a woman showed up at the hospital to retrieve the drugs a patient had inside him.
In the latest episode, Owen needs a kidney — and despite the risks (she’s pregnant), Natalie insists on donating. Fortunately, everyone survives. And it even ends on a happy note: Will tells Owen he wants to adopt him legally as his son (via a note in response to the boy’s own). Owen checks yes. It’s a heartwarming moment after hearing about their recent troubles since Natalie revealed she was pregnant.
Below, Torrey DeVitto reacts to Natalie’s ending this time (she previously exited in the Season 7 premiere, then briefly returned to Gehlfuss’ exit in Season 8) and shares if she’ll return and what made it easy for her to bring the emotion to the heavy scenes of the episode.
This is your last episode, at least for now, and it was a very specific set of circumstances that brought Natalie back to Chicago and you back to Med. Are you open to returning into the future? Would it depend on the story?
Torrey DeVitto: Yeah, I mean, I have so much fun on that set and I do live in Michigan full time now, and so it’s like I would always be open to going back. It’s like a home away from home and having as much fun as I just did, being back now, I would always be open to coming back.
How do you feel about where the show left Natalie this time?
I feel good about it. I think people are going to feel good about it. I personally felt like there was a lot of open holes when I left the first time. I don’t think it was all wrapped up, but I feel like there’s better closure to it now.
At the end, Will tells Owen he wants to adopt him. Do you think that’s a weight off Natalie’s shoulders in a way?
I do. I think especially with them having their own baby, it’ll bring this inclusivity to Owen for us as a family. And I think also just for Natalie, it’s just that indication of like, “Oh, you are more than two feet in,” and that breath of fresh air, the sigh of relief of, “My son will have a father,” because that’d be so hard to be a single parent and have to be mom and dad. And so to know that there’s someone that’s stepping up in that department, I think is definitely a sigh of relief for her.
What was the most difficult scene to film? Because it’s so emotionally heavy for Natalie.
Oh my gosh. All of them. And a little bit of tidbit that I actually haven’t told anybody. I had eight days of food poisoning during this entire episode. I thought I was dying. So having this much emotion while also being so sick and my daughter was teething and my husband had to stay in Michigan for work, so I was up with her all night and then waking up at 4:30 for my pickups and I was sick and sleep deprived. But I felt so lucky because I could use it all for the character in the storyline. It worked in my favor. If Natalie was not going through any trauma and just had to be chipper and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this whole episode, I would’ve been totally screwed. [Laughs] So I don’t know that there was one that was more challenging than the other. Well, actually, I have to say the emotion was really easy besides the context being so intense and as a new mom, it was just like I can’t even go there and when I did have to go there, it was so easy to get there, but also just being as sick as I was the whole time, all I had to do was like, “Oh, you want me to cry? Great. I’m crying already.” So, it all worked out perfectly.
Chicago Med, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC
