Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as Naomi Howard, S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin Peter Gordon/NBC; George Burns Jr/NBC
Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut was just as surprised as Us by the Chicago Med season 10 midseason finale — and teased Sharon Goodwin’s fate will be shown during the winter premiere.
“All answers will be revealed,” Chestnut, 32, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her OWN holiday movie, Mistletoe & Matrimony, which premiered on December 14.
The actress, who plays Dr. Naomi Howard on Chicago Med, noted that viewers will definitely find out what happened to Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) during the show’s Wednesday, January 8, return.
During the midseason finale, which aired on November 20, Goodwin learned who her stalker was when she was cornered by her in the office. During their altercation, Goodwin was stabbed and began bleeding out. However, she made one last effort to get free after hearing Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber) outside her office door.
As the elevator door began to close, Archer saw a bloodied Goodwin run out of the room and scream for help as the assailant came up behind her. The episode ended with Archer trying to go back up to help his longtime friend and boss.
“When I was reading it, I was like, ‘Oh no, what’s gonna happen?’” Chestnut recalled to Us of learning about Goodwin’s traumatic moments in the episode. “I’m literally on the edge of my seat asking for advanced copies of scripts and they’re like, ‘No.’”
Even though Chestnut didn’t get to see the scripts early, she told Us they were already shooting episode 14, so she knows what transpires. “All answers will be revealed soon,” she reiterated.
The TV star further teased, “There’s a lot more of Naomi in what that looks like. I’m trying to be vague, but there’s a lot more Naomi.”
NBC (2) Chicago Med’s Sharon Goodwin has a lot to juggle in the emergency department, but her love life will finally take priority in season 10. S. Epatha Merkerson, who plays Sharon on the NBC drama, exclusively told Us Weekly that fans will “absolutely” get more of Sharon and Dr. Dennis Washington’s (John Earl Jelks) […]
Chestnut played coy about how Naomi might be involved in Goodwin’s story line but explained that her character will get more screen time the second half of the season. (Chestnut joined as student doctor Naomi at the end of season 9 and has since become a recurring character.)
“I can tease [that] there will be some actual drama that Naomi gets involved with other characters outside of Dr. Archer and Dr. Lenox (Sarah Ramos),” she said. “That’s who Naomi’s, like, go-to people are, [but] there’ll be some drama outside of those two.”
Since becoming part of the ED, Naomi has worked closely with both Archer and Lenox, who split the duties of running the emergency department until the midseason finale. At that point, Goodwin appointed Lenox (who was new to their staff this year) as the sole leader.
The staffing switch is what led Archer to come up to Goodwin’s office during the November episode as he planned to resign.
Fall TV is looking a little different with shows like Found, Chicago Fire and FBI: International going through casting shakeups. The One Chicago franchise has been making headlines as several cast members across all three shows announced exits. Dick Wolf‘s Chicago universe started out with Chicago Fire, which premiered in 2012 and follows the emergency […]
Naomi, for her part, has been put in the middle of Lenox and Archer all season as they butted heads over how to successfully run the ED. According to Chestnut, that push and pull won’t completely go away when the show returns.
“I am between Lenox and Dr. Archer [still]. There’s a little bit more of that,” she shared. “And you’ll see a little bit more of the relationship between Dr. Lenox and Naomi.”
Season 10 of Chicago Med returns on NBC Wednesday, January 8, at 8 p.m. ET.
