Copyright Parade
Key Points Dean Archer, not Mitch Ripley, is revealed as Hannah Asher's baby's father. Hannah struggles with co-parenting, family dynamics, and her relationship with her sister Lizzie. Upcoming storylines feature complex medical cases and crossovers with other Chicago franchise shows. It was a bit of a shocker when it was revealed on the Season 11 premiere of Chicago Med that Dean Archer (Steven Weber), not Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell), was Hannah Asher’s (Jessy Schram) baby daddy. Hannah and Archer had always been platonic friends, but there was that one night where she went to make sure he was okay and they made a connection …and one night was all it took for Hannah to get pregnant and to send both of their lives down an unexpected path. “They’ve always had a really deep friendship. They’ve always felt very safe with each other,” Schram tells Parade of the Hannah/Archer bond. “I do think that they bring out the best in each other. You have two broken people who find a safe space with each other, so I think that was something. I feel very protective about that platonic friendship and that platonic love, and when [showrunner] Allen [MacDonald] told us that this was the direction we were going, we had a lot of questions.” 🎬SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 And so do fans. For one thing, there’s the age difference between the two parents-to-be, and then there’s all of Hannah’s exes. “I don’t think that age is the biggest issue for Hannah, to be completely honest. But I think it plays more in the sense of what the public might think or Archer’s own insecurities in the age difference,” Schram says. “I think that co-parenting, no matter what age you’re going to be at is going to be hard, especially when you’re not in a relationship where you’re living life together. So, you have two friends that didn’t know that this was going to happen that are making decisions together. I know that Hannah’s having a difficult time with it, and I’m pretty sure Archer’s frustrated by it as well.” Then there’s the added matter of Hannah’s sister Lizzie (Erin Anderson). Lizzie wants nothing more than to be a mother, and Hannah was helping her out as best she could, but when Lizzie developed complications during her pregnancy and had to have a hysterectomy, Hannah volunteered to be her surrogate. And she was getting tested for it and taking all the steps until she found out that she was already pregnant. So, Hannah offered to still be Lizzie’s surrogate, but not until she delivered her own baby. “Hannah offered that because she is so desperate to keep Lizzie in her life and she’s so desperate not to disappoint her,” Schram says. “Hannah grew up without a mom. She died in childbirth with Hannah, and Lizzie helped raise her, and Lizzie probably helped Hannah through most of her addiction. They’ve been estranged for so long. So, to have Lizzie back in her life, I think that Hannah would literally do anything to make up for the past with Lizzie and to have that love and to have that bond back. Lizzie will come back this season, so we will explore what’s happening there.” Related: Chicago Med Showrunner Teases Halstead’s Season 11 Return (Exclusive) Lizzie wasn’t the only one who took the news hard. Ripley first heard that Hannah was pregnant through hospital gossip from one of the nurses, and he assumed it was his. So, when he confronted Hannah, upset that she hadn’t told him, he was dumbstruck to learn that the baby was Archer’s. And it seemed that he thought that it might be a way for them to get back together, even though he had moved on. “I’m a person that I don’t think the door is ever closed,” Schram says of the Hannah/Ripley relationship. “I think that time goes on and life happens, and unless it’s locked and deadbolted, I guess you could still pry it open. I don’t think that never is in the cards. But I also know that that is not where either of their focuses are. And that’s not something that we’re exploring at this particular time.” Related: Original Chicago Med Cast Member Exits for Season 11 What the pregnancy storyline will explore is a mother-to-be that’s working, an addict that’s pregnant, a woman OB-GYN who, as a result, knows everything that can go wrong, a woman that wants to co-parent with her friend, but also is like, “Dude, let me take care of this on my own.” But it’s not Schram’s only storyline this season. She has a lot of interesting cases coming up, some that she says are unusual and will be new to a lot of viewers. “I wish I could tell you everything right now because I’m just so excited, to be honest,” she wraps up the interview. “But next week [Oct. 29], we have a young woman coming in with truly a deadly secret, and Burgess from P.D. will be coming in, so it becomes a legal matter as well.” Chicago Med airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
