ONE CHICAGO Women: CHICAGO MED “Down By Law” (3×10), CHICAGO P.D. “Sisterhood” (5×15) & CHICAGO FIRE “The F is For” (6×12) recap

It’s been a good six weeks since we’ve had a full roster of all three ONE CHICAGO shows airing in the same week and now we’re back to our regular scheduled programming. A recurring (and certainly topical) theme this week was the representation of women and how they’re perceived by others. Read onto find out more and how this came into play for the leading ladies of CHICAGO MED, CHICAGO P.D. and CHICAGO FIRE this week…

Pictured: (l-r) Torrey DeVitto as Natalie Manning, Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton — (Photo by: Adrian Burrows/NBC)

Dr Natalie Manning

The episode begins with Nat working with Maggie’s ex, Barry, outside of the hospital. He confesses that he has an ulterior motive for helping the doc out – with Maggie’s birthday in a few weeks, he wanted some advice on what to get her. Unfortunately, they’re interrupted by a drive-by shooting and when they rush over to help the victim, the perpetrators return and Barry saves Nat’s life by pushing her aside and also pulling out a gun and shooting at the car driving away. During this process, Nat hits her head and Barry gets shot in the leg. Nonetheless, she’s adamant that she’s fine (Um she’s a doctor so surely she of all people should know that it’s better to get checked out as a safety precaution!) and is frustrated when Dr Halstead suggests she take the rest of the day off and go home since he’s called in an on-call replacement, to which she tells him not to make unilateral decisions on her behalf. Before they can get into it any further, a man pulls up yelling for help. In his backseat is a young woman bleeding from the crotch. They assume the man is her father and Nat is outraged when he says he’s her husband. Her anger is further fuelled when the man seems more concerned about his wife’s ability to conceive rather than her welfare, especially when it’s revealed she has an early stage of cancer and he is strongly against his wife having chemotherapy.

Pictured: Torrey DeVitto as Natalie Manning — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

In a rare moment where the man leaves the young woman’s side, Nat goes in to speak to her and tells her that legally she’s medically emancipated and she has the right to decide what she wants to do. Before she can go into further detail, the man returns and is not happy that Nat is intervening and grabs her by the arm and leads her out of the room and into the ED where they go at it. Nat doesn’t hold back and calls him a bully and a predator and he in turn declares “I want this bitch removed!” When she gets replaced by Halstead on the case and he tries to help, she once again lashes out at him and tells him that she doesn’t need her boyfriend to save her. Before they can hash it out further, she throws up and passes out – this is why you should get head wounds checked out people! When she comes to, she momentarily forgets that she was taken off the case and tries to go and see the patient but Halstead stops her. Instead he plays the husband so that he has an opportunity to speak with the girl, who tells him she wants a hysterectomy because of her family history and also she doesn’t want to bring a child into her messed up world. Although Halstead doesn’t agree with the decision, he arranges the procedure and the husband is livid when he finds out. Later, Nat tells Will that even though the girl’s a kid, she’s tough and that women are tougher than he thinks, obviously a reference to their own disagreements.

Sharon Goodwin

Goodwin and Maggie are both there to greet Nat and Barry when they arrive back at Med after the shooting. Goodwin is concerned as to whether Dr Manning is okay but she says she’s fine and is more focused on saving the patient. Goodwin has to call in legal for advice when Nat and Halstead go to see her about their young patient. Unfortunately legal says that it’s legal so they can’t intervene and Goodwin tells Nat she understands that it’s a distasteful situation but their main priority is the patient. Nat is concerned that she’s not going to be able to do her job 100% with that man being present. Following the confrontation with the patient’s husband, Goodwin tells Manning that while she admires her advocacy, she’s going to have to remove her off the case and put Halstead on it instead. This isn’t the only awkward conversation Goodwin has to have with a fellow staff member this episode. When the police investigate Barry, they disclose to Goodwin that he changed his identity to conceal a record he had as a juvenile, something that Maggie didn’t know about. This upsets her and Goodwin gives her a shoulder to cry on.

Pictured: Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Maggie Lockwood

Barry’s close call has Maggie re-evaluating her relationship with him. She admits that hearing that he got shot at made her scared and she realised that she wants a fresh start with him and she kisses him. When CPD’s Olinsky arrives to investigate the situation, Maggie is confused when she discovers Barry has a gun and things become even more complicated when it looks like Barry’s gun was involved in the shooting of another man, even if it was an accident. Maggie is visibly concerned and when Dr Choi asks her how she’s holding up, she admits that she’s scared. Choi and April try to ease her fears and tell her Barry wasn’t responsible, the shooting was instigated by someone else and it was self defence, but Maggie tells them that Barry will have to live with that. When she later discovers that Barry Vaughn is not Barry’s real name, she becomes upset that he never told her and had this whole other life. She feels betrayed because it means that he has been lying the whole time that they’ve been together. Looks like the bubble has burst on this relationship. It’s heartbreaking to see Maggie so upset!

April Sexton

April doesn’t have a major storyline this week, just assisting with the various gunshot victims brought in.

Pictured: (l-r) Rachel DiPillo as Sarah Reese, Olivier Platt as Daniel Charles — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Dr Sarah Reese

Reese has been doing rounds at the county jail, which seems to have improved her confidence. This week she and Dr Charles tend to a man who insists on being committed before he kills his pregnant wife. The two doctors have opposing views on how to handle the case – Dr Charles thinks that they should follow through on the patient’s wishes while Dr Reese thinks that it’s a form of OCD and that they should try exposure therapy. Dr Charles tells her that while that may be working for her, it may not necessarily be the right thing for their patient. Nonetheless, Reese takes matters into her own hands and unbeknownst to Dr Charles, looks herself in a room with the patient and tries her method. When Dr Charles finds out, all he can do is watch on outside the room with the other doctors. Thankfully, Reese’s method works but it could have ended up a lot more worse. Dr Charles is livid when she comes out and tells Reese that she was reckless and insubordinate and should not have directly defied him. She protests that she was right and he tells her that she is missing the point. She may have this newfound confidence following her own therapy success but it does not make her all-knowing. Is this rift going to be something these two doctors can come back from?

Pictured: (l-r) LaRoyce Hawkins as Kevin Atwater, Marina Squerciati as Kim Burgess — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Kim Burgess

The episode begins with Atwater and Ruzek undercover and then Burgess, Upton, Halstead and Dawson following up on a lead from them. Burgess spots blood and a clothing trail and follows it, only to find a young woman who has been raped, bashed and dragged around. The sight leaves Burgess in tears and it’s worse when we discover the victim was only 17 and that this was the result of a gang initiation. Burgess ends up getting partnered up with a fellow detective from homicide and when Burgess doesn’t some digging to figure out who the victim was, they end up questioning the deceased’s best friend and realize she was also attacked but escaped. Following the attack on her own sister last year, this case hits close to home for Burgess and brings up some unresolved feelings. When they end up finding the rapists who attacked the girls, they’re already dead and have had their appendages cut off. Halstead remarks that this was one way to take care of the situation, to which Burgess replies that she wishes she had someone like that who could have taken care of the guys who attacked her sister. This remark doesn’t go unnoticed by Voight, who warns her to keep her head straight.

Pictured: (l-r) Marina Squerciati as Kim Burgess, Jonathan Schaech as Det. Scott Hart — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

We do (understandably) get a lot of feisty Burgess this episode from her point about the way Intelligence profile women as not tough enough and immediately use pronouns like “he” when talking about suspects, to the way she tells a suspect during an interrogation that she deserves a trophy if she was the one who cut off the rapists penises (but also telling her that’s not how the rules work). When the woman does end up being the one who killed the rapists, Burgess tells Voight she wants to offer her a deal – her cooperation in return for the guy they were originally trying to nab at the start of the episode when Ruzek and Atwater were undercover. Voight agrees and when Burgess and Upton are watching the woman from their car, another car pulls up and whoever is in hands something to the woman. They can’t tell what it is and Upton urges Burgess to call it in and warn the others but Burgess is reluctant to. She only does it because Upton otherwise would have. It turns out the item was a gun and the woman uses it to shoot the guy they were trying to nab. Burgess arrests her and tells her that she blew it but the woman shows no remorse and says if anything she won because she took back the power – he raped her when she was 14. Later that night, Burgess goes to see Voight in his office and admits she knew it was a gun being handed to the woman but she didn’t care because she kind of wanted her to shoot the son of a bitch. Voight simply pours them a drink and tells her that he wasn’t going to let them lose the case and that Chicago is a better place without the guy. Burgess has certainly come a long way since we first met her or even since joining Intelligence – who knew that sweet Burgess could be more ruthless like Voight?

Pictured: Tracy Spiridakos as Hailey Upton — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Hailey Upton

Upton is just as horrified as Burgess when they discover their victim and wonders what sort of animal does this. During some girl talk in the kitchen, Burgess tells Upton that this case makes her think of her sister’s situation and the lack of justice – yeah they caught the guys that attacked her sister but they were only given a couple of years and truth be told, they’ll probably be released in one. When Upton and Halstead go to a bar in search of a man named Q, it’s Upton who notices a woman with a Q tattooed on her arm as they leave and realizes that they’ve been after the wrong man. Then Upton and Burgess end up interrogating the woman in the interrogation room. It’s probably a deliberate pairing but I always enjoying seeing these two get to partner up. To be honest, I thought when Upton first joined that she was going to be the tougher female character following the departure of Lindsay but it seems like Burgess is the more impulsive one and Upton is the level-headed one. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

Trudy Platt

Platt doesn’t appear on P.D. (or Fire) this week, but next episode looks to be a big week for her!

Pictured: Monica Raymund as Gabriela Dawson — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

Gabriela Dawson

We get some cute Dawsey scenes this week, including one after Casey and Severide have their close call and the married couple are back at home. “Didn’t we have an understanding about no jumping off 5-storey buildings?” quips Dawson and Casey jokes that he was trying to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During the Casey and Severide rescue, there was a photographer on the scene and one of his shots made the news and generated a lot of publicity for the CFD so to capitalize on the public relations hype, it’s decided that this photojournalist will shadow the Firehouse for a Day in the Life piece. All seems well until Dawson returns covered in puke from a call and goes to shower and Casey finds the guy attempting to take photos through the mirror while she showers. He roughs up the guy and kicks him out and also gets him blacklisted from the Chicago Tribune and Sun. That doesn’t stop the guy from showing up at a scene that 51 attend to later that episode and being such a nuisance that he ends up getting hit by car and Casey saves him! How’s that for karma? Dawson thanks Casey for always protecting her.

Pictured: Kara Killmer as Sylvie Brett — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

Sylvie Brett

Brett reveals to Dawson that Hope, who is now back in Fowlerton, reached out to her via email wanting to drive up and see Brett to mend faces. Brett didn’t reply and tells Dawson she just deleted the message instead. Taking the high road isn’t that easy though, because when Brett logs onto Facebook she discovers that Hope is trash talking her. Cruz tells Brett she should drag Hope down by revealing what she got up to while in Chicago, Mouch likens the situation to a celebrity feud he saw but Brett says that she’s sticking to her initial instinct and ignoring Hope. Dawson thinks that Brett should stand up for herself though but Brett says she stands up for herself when it’s something forth standing up to and Hope isn’t worth it. Don’t underestimate Brett though – this week one of Brett and Dawson’s regular calls, a homeless guy named Gerald, shows up at the Firehouse twice with different injuries. The first time seems innocent but after the second time, the paramedics are concerned that there is more to the situation than Gerald lead on and go downtown to where he stays. They find that an aggressive woman has kicked him out of his home and claimed it has her own. This gets Brett riled up and she yells at the woman (despite the woman waving about a knife) and tells her this isn’t her street, it’s theirs and if she messes with her friend again, she’ll have to face all of them. This seems to do the trick and the woman scampers. Dawson is all sorts of proud and even moreso when Brett has a change of heart and tells her she will email Hope back, just to let her know that she’s not interested in anything she has to say and so that there’s nothing she can misunderstand about that. Ha!

Pictured: (l-r) Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

Stella Kidd

We pick up where we left off from the Winter Olympics hiatus with Severide and Casey leaping off the roof of the burning building and landing in the river. Severide wasn’t as lucky as Casey with his landing but Kidd spots him and goes in to save him. When she comes out, Zack is there to greet her (um I thought he was taken to hospital cos he got taken out by the gas last episode?) and Severide watches on as they hug. The awkward Kidd and Severide moments continue throughout the episode and we’re not the only ones who notice. Serious about her decision last episode to find her own place, Kidd asks Casey in front of Severide if she can swap an upcoming shift so she can follow up on an apartment lead. Then later on she goes to see Severide in his office and tells him that she thinks things are weird between them and doesn’t like the dancing around that is happening. She likes Zack and is having fun with him and thinks it could get serious. Severide is so special to her and she feels like it would help clear a lot of things up if she moves out. After she says her piece, she goes to leave and after a moment Severide tells her he doesn’t want her to move out. Before they can discuss any further, they’re interrupted by a call. After shift, Kidd is having dinner with Zack at a fancy restaurant and remarks how Severide would give her a hard time if he were here right now. Awkward! Kidd apologizes for making such a remark and Zack tells her he knows it might be a bit early but his sister is in town next week and he was wondering if Kidd would like to meet her. Kidd says of course, but the look in her eyes suggests otherwise…

CHICAGO MED airs Tuesdays at 10/9c,  CHICAGO P.D. Wednesdays at 10/9c and CHICAGO FIRE Thursdays at 10/9c. All three shows air on NBC.

RELATED LINKS:

ONE CHICAGO Women: CHICAGO MED “On Shaky Ground” (3×09) & CHICAGO P.D. “Anthem” (5×14) recap
ONE CHICAGO Women: CHICAGO P.D. “Chasing Monsters” (5×13) & CHICAGO FIRE “Law of the Jungle” (6×11) recap
ONE CHICAGO Women: CHICAGO MED “Lemons & Lemonade” (3×08) & CHICAGO FIRE “Slamigan” (6×10) recap
ONE CHICAGO Women: CHICAGO MED “Over Troubled Water” (3×07), CHICAGO P.D. “Captive” (5×12) & CHICAGO FIRE “Foul is Fair” (6×09) recap