Chicago Med: [Spoiler] Exits NBC Drama in Season 4 Premiere

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Wednesday’s Chicago Med premiere.

One of Chicago Med‘s docs is hanging up their white coat: In Wednesday’s Season 4 premiere, Dr. Sarah Reese left the hospital — and her portrayer Rachel DiPillo has departed the NBC drama after three seasons as a series regular, TVLine has confirmed.

Sarah’s decision to continue her psych residency elsewhere came after the discovery that her father is a serial killer and that Dr. Charles almost let him die.

“She had such a close relationship to Charles, and she feels betrayed by him and just can’t stay,” executive producer Diane Frolov explains. Adds EP Andrew Schneider: “[After] the trauma of her father doing such terrible things, she feels like she needs to go someplace else.”

That said, “we would welcome Rachel coming back,” Schneider continues. “We love the actress. She did a great job in the premiere. And if we can find, down the line, a storyline that would involve her, we would bring her back.”

Elsewhere in the season opener, Natalie accepted Will’s proposal — but only after thinking it over for a week. Could that spell bad news for the newly engaged couple? “He certainly reads a lot into that,” Frolov says.

For her part, star Torrey DeVitto thinks her character was right to take her time. “Natalie’s been married before, and she lost her husband,” she explains. “That’s nerve-wracking to fall madly in love and to think you’re going to be with somebody forever, and then they die, and then to potentially go through that all over again. There’s going to be some reservations — more nervousness than reservations.” Plus, Will popped the question after a fight with his girlfriend, so Natalie “wanted to make sure that he wasn’t just asking by way of freaking out that [she] actually was going to leave, and that he was asking for the right reasons.”

Although Will and Nat overcame that hurdle, it’ll hardly be smooth sailing for the pair in Season 4. “He will be forced to keep a secret from Natalie, which hurts their relationship,” Schneider teases.

What did you think of the episode? Grade it via the poll below, and stay tuned to TVLine for lots more Med scoop!

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