When viewers last saw Chicago Med‘s Dr. Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell), he was standing in the ocean, dumping Dr. David Downey’s (Gregg Henry) ashes. In the upcoming second season, Donnell previews what’s happening at Chicago Gaffney Hospital, including some new romances and mentors, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In the season one finale, viewers were left to assume that Dr. Rhodes followed Dr. Downey’s wishes and medically helped in letting him die. Donnell said he loved working with Henry and the death “did so much to propel Connor going forward so when we pick up in season two, he’s still dealing with repercussions with that and he’s also being quickly introduced to his new mentor within the cardiotherapy department because he’s taken on the fellowship to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.”
That new mentor will be Ato Essandoh, who has appeared in shows like Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Blue Bloods and Vinyl and has appeared in movies, including Django Unchained, Hitch and Jason Bourne.
The two posted a photo from set that shows that their working relationship may be different in nature than the professional relationship that Downey and Rhodes had.
Donnell also said that there’s not a significant time gap in between the events of the season one finale to the second season premiere, saying there’s about a month to six weeks in between the two seasons.
He also said that just because Rhodes isn’t exactly working in the emergency room anymore doesn’t mean that viewers will see less of him, saying “it’s been interesting because one of the things that I’ve been wondering going into this season was, if you take someone out of the emergency department, am I still going to get to see my people? But they’ve done a wonderful job. Very quickly you see that there are ways to incorporate still being down around everybody and still being very much involved of day-to-day aspects of what’s going on.”
As for romance, Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) is also looking to move on from Dr. Natalie Manning. According to Entertainment Weekly, Halstead will begin dating Dr. Nina Shore, pathologist at the hospital, who appeared in two episodes of the first season. Coincidentally, the actress who plays Dr. Shore is Patti Murin, who, Gehlfuss notes, is Donnell’s wife. Donnell’s character is also getting a love interest this season, as Deadline has reported that Mekia Cox will be playing Dr. Charles’ (Oliver Platt) daughter and that Cox and Donnell’s characters will become a couple as well.
Chicago Med has its second season premiere on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 9 p.m.