Chicago Med alum Torrey DeVitto gave a new interview exploring why she returned to the show.
Torrey played Dr. Natalie Manning for the first six seasons of Chicago Med, most of which had her character in a relationship with Dr. Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss).
Her character had to leave the hospital after it was discovered that she was stealing drugs from a drug trial to help her mom.
Those drugs worked, keeping her mom around for much longer. Dr. Halstead tried to take the fall for Dr. Manning, but it didn’t work.
Torrey returned for the first episode of Season 7 to give her character closure. Will went to Natalie’s house to say goodbye to her and her son, giving them one final conversation before she finished packing her car to leave for Seattle.
Chicago Med fans were surprised when Torrey secretly returned to film a scene for the Season 8 finale. It saw Will quit the hospital and move to be with Natalie in Washington State.
Torrey DeVitto speaks about that one last Chicago Med return
“Honestly, it was all about Nick for me,” Torrey told PEOPLE.
“I had no intentions of going back to the show. I feel like I had done my time and loved so many people there and had such a great experience, but nothing in my head was like, ‘Oh, I hope to come back,'” she continued.
So Nick (Gehlfuss) had a hand in bringing back Natalie for that final scene. And it was the right choice for two of the most beloved characters from Chicago Med.
“I wanted them to end up together so badly, and Nick became a brother to me. I love that dude so much. And so it was because he was leaving, I was just like, we need to give this to all of the Manstead fans out there,” Torrey elaborated.
Below is that classic scene where Halstead says goodbye to his co-workers, but then hello to his new life.
Manstead got their happy ending on Chicago Med
Chicago Med Season 8, Episode 22 featured the final Manstead scene. The episode is called Does One Door Close and Another One Open? and debuted on May 24, 2023.
Chicago Med fans can stream that episode and all previously aired episodes from the series on Peacock.
“The relationship for Will and Natalie comes full circle and it was a beautiful moment with Natalie,” Torrey stated.
Character closure is a rare thing on network television, as Chicago P.D. fans will explain following the exit of Detective Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer). So Manstead fans getting that closure was a nice treat.
And since Natalie, Will, and Owen are still alive and well in the One Chicago world, the door is always open for them to reappear in a future episode(s).
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Chicago Med airs Wednesday at 8/7c on NBC.