Why Chicago Med's Noah Has Fans Scratching Their Heads

"Chicago Med" has a pretty large ensemble cast, and for the first six seasons of the hospital drama, Yaya DaCosta's character of Emergency Department nurse April Sexton was a key member. Compassionate and knowledgeable, April served a major role in making up part of the show's emotional backbone. However, fans may recall that she wasn't the only Sexton family member who appeared numerous times. 

April's brother Noah (played by Roland Buck III) also recurred many times throughout the first six seasons, starting out as a medical student studying at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, eventually becoming a resident in general surgery there, and ultimately getting fired for breaking protocol to stand up for his own morals during an extremely difficult medical case. Noah's character arc is pretty dramatic, even by "Chicago Med" standards. He's had a tumultuous ride filled with ambition, familial problems, mistakes, and redemption all throughout. Unfortunately, there's one certain element of the character that muddles the rest of his story and has left many fans frustrated and confused regarding his portrayal.

It doesn't take long watching Noah on "Chicago Med" to notice his tendency to act a little childish at times. Couple that with the myriad times he's made procedural mistakes, and it's left some fans wondering how he even got into medical school at all. "Tbh Noah is a sweet kid but is so incompetent it's ridiculous," Reddit user u/seeyalateradios commented on a r/ChicagoMed post discussing Noah. "Flirting on the job and breaking protocol to get his way isn't the signs of a good doctor."

The show itself has actually provided an explanation for Noah's success. It was none other than April who helped Noah study before and during medical school to achieve his professional ambitions. "I think he's a good example of someone who spent all of their life studying, years of high school and college and med school, and didn't get to be a regular young adult," user u/universe93 remarked on the thread. "So when he finally has a full time job he still acts like a teenager because socially that's where he is"

Noah may not be perfectly professional, but for the actor who plays him, that's an important element of playing a student rather than a full-fledged doctor. "I'm learning, I'm a student so I'm nervous and unsure which comes natural when I don't know what I'm doing as a real person, so it's easy to act that," Roland Buck III said of Noah in a 2017 interview with Black Girl Nerds. He also stressed the heightened importance of Noah's job when he starts operating on patients — with people's lives in his hands and his sister April working closely with him, Buck explained that the stakes are higher than ever for his character at this point in his arc.