Does Asher Love Archer Back? Decoding Chicago Med’s Precious Finale Birth Scene
“Dasher” was blissfully happy to welcomed their daughter in the finale episode of Season 11.
Chicago Med icons Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) and Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber) are officially parents.
The arrival of Hannah and Archer’s baby girl was anything but smooth in Med‘s Season 11 finale, “Heaven Help Us”. Not only did Hannah go into early labor, but Archer’s path toward the delivery room was intercepted after he was held hostage by a gunman. Alas, it was nothing the Med doctors couldn’t navigate, and Archer made it to Hannah’s bedside just in time for the big moment: their daughter’s arrival into the world.
The birth was a reckoning for both Hannah and Archer, who had avoided the vulnerable emotions surrounding their relationship. Med‘s showrunner Allen MacDonald and Jessy Schram break down the ever-evolving “Dasher” dynamic, below:
Hannah and Archer’s baby gets a name and inspires a raw confession
Despite the suspense, Hannah and Archer’s baby girl was born with no issues. While staring down at the infant, Hannah named their daughter Mabel. Later, while soaking up quality time with their little one, Archer came clean about something that’s weighed on his heart all season.
“I love you, Hannah,” Archer confessed. Archer had felt that way for a while but didn’t expect Hannah to reciprocate, but she silenced him as she admitted she hadn’t had time to process their budding romance amid the pregnancy.
“Thank you for telling me now,” Hannah said, giving Archer a sweet kiss before continuing to marvel at their baby girl.
“I did want to both satisfy the audience at the end of the season with Hannah and Archer, but I also didn’t wanna complete. I wanted to make it a bit ambiguous what was going on and how they feel about each other…” show runner Allen MacDonald clarified. “Archer says, ‘I love you, Hannah,’ and she doesn’t say it back.”
Jessy Scram chats about Archer and Hannah’s “future” on Chicago Med
So, what does this mean for Archer and Hannah’s future? Schram reveals that when it came time to film the tear-jerking scene, she fought to have Hannah say the line “thank you for telling now” because Archer’s timing was precious.
“Leading up to that moment, Hannah was going through her own. Her body was changing, her career felt like it was being taken away, she was pushed into a corner…” Schram said. The last thing on Hannah’s radar was her love life and the practicality of her next steps with Archer.
“Everything was just laced and ridden with fear…” Schram explained. “She couldn’t look beyond it, and the ‘thank you for telling me now’ was the moment of, ‘OK. I had these ideas. I had this feeling. People have been telling me I wasn’t ready to deal with it, but now I’m here in this moment, and I can be grounded.'”
“There’s nothing that’s left being unsaid for the moment, and I think it’s pretty obvious that there are feelings there, too, because she does kiss him back,” Schram said, adding that Hannah’s thank you was “extremely important.”
“Up until the birth, she was not herself. She was just trying to get by,” Schram explained. “And now the baby’s here, and here’s this moment, and now we get to move forward. Whatever that may look like in the future.”
So will these deep feelings hold water, or is it just an emotional rush of welcoming a baby together? Med‘s show runner tells NBC Insider that it’s a complex mix, calling Hannah and Archer’s reckoning a “hurricane of emotion.”
“It is real feelings, and it is the baby, and it’s all about defining it,” MacDonald revealed. “Those feelings lining up at the same time. I think that there are incredible emotions passing between these two people. Whether or not that ends up in a relationship, I still couldn’t say.”