Chicago Med Boss Talks Finale's Bait-And-Switch Baby Daddy Cliffhanger And [Spoiler]'s Surprise Return
Warning: The following contains major spoilers for the Chicago Med Season 10 finale. Proceed at your own risk!
If you were looking for clarity about who is the father of Hannah's baby on Chicago Med, this Wednesday's season finale provided a big clue... that may be a misdirect.
After breaking the pregnancy news to her upset sister, Hannah had a loaded conversation with her ex Mitch Ripley about how having a child is like having your heart outside your body. "Makes you wonder if it's really worth it," Ripley commented.
As the episode came to a close, Hannah took a deep breath and knocked on a house door. Ripley came bounding down the stairs... but it wasn't Hannah on the other side of his door. Instead, he was greeted by Sadie (guest star Holly Curran), the woman he helped rescue from the well! And just like no time had passed, the two picked up their flirty vibe from when she was trapped.
But back to the door Hannah knocked on: It was Dean Archer's! "We need to talk," she said solemnly after he opened the door.
So does that mean that when Hannah came over with dinner to Dean's place after his ex-wife died earlier this season, that it was more than a friendly visit? And is the door closed on Hannah and Ripley's relationship? Well, not necessarily, showrunner Allen MacDonald tells TVLine in the below Q&A. (And just as viewers didn't witness what happened between Hannah and Dean after he invited her in, "the audience has no idea what happened off-camera" between her and Ripley, either, MacDonald previously noted. "They don't see everything [that] Hannah's up to.")
TVLINE | That was quite a sneaky bait-and-switch you pulled there with the doors. Well done.
Thank you. We call that The Silence of the Lambs bait-and-switch. Maybe I shouldn't say that, publicly, but I'm going to. TV writers all call that — not all of them, but it's The Silence of the Lambs bait-and-switch because that happens at the end of the movie there. But thank you. [Laughs]
TVLINE | You got me. So does the fact that Hannah goes to Archer and says, "We need to talk," officially confirm that he is the father, something happened between the two of them?
I'm sorry to say that I can't tell you that it officially confirms anything, because there's more things coming up in the fall, and I do enjoy torturing the audience all summer long. [Laughs]
TVLINE | But you have to know that people are going to definitely take away some implications from the way that scene was cut.
Yes. Yeah, and I think that's totally fair, but you asked if it was a confirmation. I don't think enough is said to legitimately say it's a confirmation, but yes, it's not lost on us that the audience will have that thought.
TVLINE | There is such a strong and passionate segment of fans that have been rooting for Dean and Hannah for years now. How much did that influence your trajectory and how you crafted the finale?
I feel like, online, it's two factions at war. [Laughs] Maybe that's saying it too over-dramatically, but a lot of people, when the pregnancy came up, they assumed that it's Ripley that is the father, and that might be correct, and there was a whole group of people that want Archer and Hannah to be together, and they were very upset by that. And all through the season, depending on where we took the story, there's one group that wants that to happen with Dean, there's one group that wants it to happen with Ripley. I think when the final answer comes out, obviously, part of the audience will love it, and part of the audience will be disappointed, but we, ultimately, don't consider what the audience wants to happen because it's too confusing. You'll get pulled in too many different directions, and we just have to put that out of our minds and just ask ourselves what we think is the most natural, organic path for the character to take, and that was our north star when we were deciding to do the story of who the father of the baby was.
Finale deleted scene. It's complicated #ChicagoMed pic.twitter.com/xMGUTRuvfO
— Wolf Entertainment (@WolfEnt) May 22, 2025
TVLINE | Is Hannah definitely keeping the baby, or is she still exploring her options?
I think that it's too early to know that. I think that she's just stunned, and she just needs to work that all out in her head.
TVLINE | I love that you brought back Sadie because when we put Holly Curran and Luke Mitchell in our Performer of the Week column, I mentioned how great the chemistry was between the two of them. Was that something that you were thinking about during that episode, like, "We need to revisit them down the line," after you saw the finished product?
Well, first of all, we were all so excited that we got that shout-out, so thank you. Luke Mitchell sent it to me. He was very excited. [Laughs] And we sent it to Holly. But the answer is when I wrote Episode 15, I wasn't expecting to bring Sadie back, and you're correct, their chemistry was so genuine and real, and not to be corny, but kind of magical how they played it. There was this bond, even though they were in this life-and-death situation, and that's one of the things about Sadie's character is that her sense of humor is one of her secret weapons to give herself strength. And I think Ripley is very moved by that, and that they both stayed on each other's mind, and Ripley probably thought of reaching out, but probably thought that, no, that's complicated, and I think that she thought about him and that she decided to reach out to him, and that's what we see at the end of the finale. But yes to your guess, you're absolutely correct. We weren't planning to do that, but once we saw the final product, Episode 15, I said, "She has to come back."
TVLINE | Between Sadie's return, some of the twists with the pregnancy storyline, and the conversation that Mitch and Hannah had earlier this season, when he said he's not going to hold her to her "I love you," Hannah and Ripley have both kind of been able to let go and move on. Would you say that's accurate?
I would say that the intention of that final Silence of the Lambs sequence was... There's a segment of the audience that wants Ripley and Hannah to be together, and that you think that Hannah's going to knock on Ripley's door, and then you cut to Ripley comes out. So the assumption is that they're somehow going to be brought back together, and I'm not saying that won't happen down the line or in the fall or whatever, but I very much wanted the audience to feel like they might be coming back together, but then see they might also possibly have different trajectories now.
Chicago Med fans, who do you think the baby daddy is now? Vote below and grade the finale, then hit the comments with your thoughts!