The idea to give Ethan—and Tee—a happy sendoff occurred to co-showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov last summer when they learned that Tee was exiting the series. The fact that DaCosta’s FOX series, Our Kind of People, had been canceled made it possible for the couple to reunite and end their onscreen relationship very happily. “We never thought about killing him off,” Frolov tells Parade. “We wanted him to have a very happy exit, but right from the beginning in the summer, we were talking about this wedding. It was like a dream for us. It was really something we wanted to do because it’s both of their story arcs." And DaCosta was enthusiastic about doing it, so the showrunners wrote a storyline that would culminate in the mid-season finale with the big wedding. When DaCosta left the show at the end of season 6, she was written out because April and Ethan, who had an on-and-off-again relationship, had just broken their engagement. But a lot has changed for both characters, and Schneider and Frolov say the time is finally right. “He’s gone through a lot of emotional changes,” Schneider says. “Having been shot, he’s just not that same guy that he was originally. He was very rigid. It was all about the rules and the regulations and following those regulations. Now, he sees life much more in gray terms. It’s not black and white anymore.” Frolov points to a moment in episode 5 where April and Ethan are at a club after work and she sees him dancing and realizes that he has loosened up. “That was the symbol for us that what we were showing there was this release of all that rigidity, this transformation,” Frolov says. And Schneider adds, “We started it last season when he said, ‘You know? I really don’t want to be chief of the ED anymore.’ He came back [after being shot] and he was already evolving. He evolved to the point—and he says it in an episode—that he can now be the man that she needs. And she, herself, having a new professional direction and having grown emotionally more secure, we believe they’re going to make it as a couple now.” Putting together the wedding was a lot of fun for the showrunners. They had introduced the fact that April was raised Catholic in early episodes, so there was never a question about having a church wedding with a priest— despite the recent death of Ethan’s father—and that way, the doctors and nurses from the ED could attend the wedding, as could April’s brother Noah (Roland Buck III), who is back in Chicago having finished his training, and we meet April’s parents for the first time in the episode—but we won’t spoil that. One scoop that Parade learned—and a fun bit of casting—is that DaCosta’s real-life sister Djassi DaCosta Johnson plays her Maid of Honor. You can see their resemblance in the photos. And then there’s the fabulous dress! It was designed by Tony Ward, a Lebanese-Italian designer, and is named Vanaria. Of course, as a former fashion model, DaCosta had input into her bridal gown. “There was a lot of trying on,” Schneider says. “She just looked so great in that dress. It was the one. It won.” And Frolov wraps it up saying, “It felt like a real wedding.” Chicago Med airs Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Next, Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Season 8 of Chicago Med, Including Who Left in the Premiere!
