April (Yaya DaCosta) and Ethan (Brian Tee) tie the knot on ‘Chicago Med”s midseason finale.
Here comes the bride! Chicago Med’s wedding between April (Yaya Da Costa) and Ethan Choi (Brian Tee) has been a long time in the making, but it’s finally happening on Wednesday night’s “This Could Be the Start of Something New” episode—and Parade has a look at the photos of the nuptials.
The idea to give Ethan—and Tee—a happy sendoff occurred to the 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.”
Related: Chicago Med Star Announces Shocking News About His Character This Season
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.
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Djassi DaCosta Johnson, Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Marlyne Barrett, Djassi DaCosta Johnson, Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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S. Epatha Merkerson, Marlyne Barrett
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee, Steven Weber
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee, Yaya DaCosta
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee, Roland Buck III
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee, Yaya DaCosta
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Jessy Schram, Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Yaya DaCosta, Brian Tee
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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S. Epatha Merkerson, Oliver Platt, Nick Gehlfuss
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Jessy Schram, Marlyne Barrett, Marc Grapey, S. Epatha Merkerson, Oliver Platt, Dominic Rainsl, Nick Gehlfuss
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Oliver Platt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brian Tee, Roland Buck III, Steven Weber, Yaya DaCosta
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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Brian Tee, Yaya DaCosta
Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC
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 the 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,” says Frolov.
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And Schneider added, “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 he 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.
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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 Warda 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 said. “She just looked so great in that dress. It was the one. It won.”
And Frolov wraps it up saying, “It feels like a real wedding.”
Chicago Med airs Wednesday night at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.
Next, Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Season 8 of Chicago MedIncluding Who Left in the Premiere!
