ONE CHICAGO: CHICAGO MED “Can’t Unring That Bell”, CHICAGO FIRE “It Wasn’t About Hockey” and CHICAGO P.D. “Ties That Bind” Episode Round-up

The intensity factor was high in the latest instalments from the ONE CHICAGO world! Before the big FIRE/P.D. crossover tonight, catch up on what went down in the most recent CHICAGO MED, CHICAGO FIRE and CHICAGO P.D. episodes…

COMINGS & GOINGS

CHICAGO MED — “Can’t Unring That Bell” Episode 414 — Pictured: Torrey DeVitto as Natalie Manning — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

After much wondering what’s the deal with Ian Harding’s supposed multi-episode arc on MED, lo and behold, widow Phillip Davis is back when something is not quite right with his newborn baby. Also back on MED? Maggie’s old neighborhood pal Sydney is readmitted to the hospital. Then we have Dr. Charles making a new lady friend. Over on FIRE, the girls have the shift off for a Galentines trip to Fowlerton (which we learned was deliberately planned to avoid being stuck in the bunkers after what would no doubt be a large consumption of beans from the chilli contest – well played Brett!) so McAuley and Ogle are filling in as paramedics. On P.D. we meet smooth talking political consultant Blair Williams (played by THE ORIGINALS and YOUNGER star Charles Michael Davis), who tries to charm Platt but she’s immune. Burgess on the other hand… it turns out the pair met at one of Commissioner Kelton’s events and now Williams is asking Burgess out. Watch this space folks!

RISKY BUSINESS

CHICAGO MED — “Can’t Unring That Bell” Episode 414 — Pictured: S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

When MED‘s Maggie realizes that Sydney is on the bottom of the transplant list because of her occupation being a sex worker, the charge nurse decides to get herself tested to see if she’s a match. Goodwin finds out and thinks Maggie is crossing boundaries and that it’s an ethical violation. She even warns Maggie that she has no sick leave left so she would lose her job if she took time to recover. Nonetheless, Maggie is undeterred and pleads her case. At the end of the episode we see her being prepped for surgery.

CHICAGO FIRE — “It Wasn’t About Hockey” Episode 714 — Pictured: Annie Ilonzeh as Emily Foster — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris)

On FIRE, Brett and Foster driving along a foggy road on their way to Fowlerton at night when they pull over to help a man stranded after his vehicle breaks down. Out of nowhere, a school bus comes speeding out of the fog from the opposite direction, flips onto its side, narrowly missing the girls who thankfully leapt out of the way. Their car isn’t so lucky, nor is the man’s leg. On the bus is a boys hockey team – most are okay. One boy has dislocated arm so it takes a while to get him out and as they do, they realise another student hasn’t made it off the bus – he’s trapped at back of bus with part of seat piercing into him. Later on, another kid passes out because it turns out he has blunt force trauma. Yep, this situation just keeps getting worse and worse. By the way, did we mention that there’s no cell phone reception in the area and the nearest residence is miles away? It’s time for the girls to get creative with what they packed for their trip, with an eyelash curler, tweezers and a bottle of tequila being put to good use but not in ways that you’d ever think! Don’t forget it’s pretty cold conditions and at night so Brett and Foster (plus Kidd when she eventually joins them) are freakin’ superheroes! Thankfully all the boys survive too. Phew!

On the latest P.D., Burgess and Upton are kidnapped and need to maintain their cover while the boys try to figure out where the heck they’ve disappeared to. At one point Upton tries to convince one of her captors to loosen her zipties. As he’s doing so, she fights back but he overpowers her. She takes a couple of hits to the face and the zipties get upgraded to chains. It ain’t pretty!

TENSION IN THE AIR

CHICAGO MED — “Can’t Unring That Bell” Episode 414 — Pictured: Colin Donnell as Connor Rhodes — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Remember that time on MED when Rhodes was tending to a victim that was part of all the drama that the two Halstead brothers were caught up in? Well that case is dredged up again when an anonymous complaint is made that Rhodes’ methods during the case were not exactly by the book. Who is the rat? Money is on Dr Lannik but by the end of the episode, it’s evident that perhaps not. Before then though, Rhodes has to deal with facing a peer review for his actions. That’s not his only problem – this episode he treats a teen who was caught up in a shooting and advises the family that surgery isn’t the best option. However Dr Halstead (wracked by guilt since it was his stolen gun that shot the teen), goes behind Rhodes’ back and convinces the family to push for the surgery. Rhodes is not impressed with Halstead nor is neurosurgeon Sam, who advises Halstead to get his head out of his ass. Between the dramas with Halstead and then the issues with Goodwin and Maggie, there is a lot of tension in this episode and they seem to be tied to a lot of stubbornness and feelings of guilt. Clearly recurring themes this week!

Offsetting the serious drama on MED, we have fun tension over on FIRE with competitive edges coming out during the annual chilli contest! Then on P.D., Burgess finally finds out that Ruzek and Upton are a thing. Upton tries to talk to her about but Burgess says it’s fine and that she and Ruzek were a while ago so she doesn’t want to talk about it. Then the whole kidnapping thing happens but at the end of the episode when Upton tries to bring it up again, Burgess realizes that she can’t avoid having the conversation. Burgess agrees to talk over whiskey and the girls clear the air like grown ups. It was refreshing to see women being able to have a mature conversation about an awkward situation and not get petty about it. TV writers, take note!

UNDERCOVER ANTICS

CHICAGO P.D. — “Ties That Bind” Episode 614 — Pictured: Tracy Spiridakos as Hailey Upton — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein)

On P.D. Burgess and Ruzek pose as siblings Sherry and Chris. They keep up the siblings ruse throughout the ep even when things go south. Upton also becomes a part of their story as Ally, a friend of Burgess’ persona.

ROMANCE ROUNDUP

CHICAGO MED — “Can’t Unring That Bell” Episode 414 — Pictured: Oliver Platt as Daniel Charles — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Following last week’s breakup on MED, Dr Halstead is pretty snappy towards Manning and unsurprisingly gets defensive about the gun situation. His reaction is pretty harsh though – “Why do you even care? … You said we were done” – and we wouldn’t blame Nat at this point if she was just completely done with him. We think she’s pretty close to it after her former fiance lashes out at her after watching Nat and Phillip hug and asks her if she broke up with him because there’s another man.  She’s understandably outraged. Will, you need to get a grip cos you’re being irrational! We do wonder though if Will’s less than stellar behavior will end up pushing her towards Phillip further down the track…

Also on MED, Dr Charles is getting back in the dating game with a woman he meets online. She seems nice enough for a first date, but boy does he get more than he bargained for when they go back to her place and her recovering addict daughter is locked outside. Dr Charles realizes that something is not right and the daughter is admitted to Med. Although denying it at first, it’s then revealed that the daughter slipped off the wagon. Oh boy, what a first date! The drama doesn’t stop there on MED though. Things are a bit awkward between Dr Rhodes and Dr Bekker after her HIV encounter last week and he’s starting to soften towards her. However, when she covers for him during the whole investigation saga, he starts to feel uneasy by her behavior and also starts to question why his case is being brought up again now after all this time. He begins to suspect that she was the anonymous source! “ You’re like a pyromaniac that sets fires to put it out.”  She’s outraged that he thinks she would risk her health like that but he points out, “Like you said, you’d do anything… I think you need help.” Only time will tell who is right but is the damage too far gone at this point?

On FIRE, with the boys on shift and Brett’s beau Kyle in Atlanta on a conference, there’s no romance this week. Unless you count Otis and Cruz talking about doing a double date. (We would like to see this btw.) The girls’ Galentine’s trip that doesn’t quite go to plan but at least they could enjoy a glass of wine after everything. P.S We’d would love to see a VDay mixer or something at Molly’s next year! On P.D. the cat is out of the bag with Burgess stumbling on Upton and Ruzek getting flirty. (No offence but these guys do a terrible job at trying to keep their relationship a secret – they need to work on being better at being discreet. They clearly didn’t learn their lesson from Halstead overhearing them the other week!) We also learnt that Upton previously dated a sergeant in her old unit and when she got promoted, her colleagues assumed that she slept her way there so now she’s wary of sharing her private life. I repeat, if you’re so wary, you may want to work at being better at being discreet IMO!

ALL THE FEELS

CHICAGO P.D. — “Ties That Bind” Episode 614 — Pictured: (l-r) Patrick John Flueger as Adam Ruzek, LaRoyce Hawkins as Kevin Atwater, Jon Seda as Antonio Dawson, Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein)

On P.D., I wasn’t expecting Voight’s speech to the team after Burgess and Upton had been rescued that they can’t take risks like that and that the object of the game is to come home alive, to hit me in the feels. It felt especially poignant after all the loss they’ve been through after all these seasons, particularly with the death of Olinsky.

CROSSOVER COUNT

Jay pops up on MED to inform his brother that the gun involved in the shooting of the teen in his family’s convenience store, was Will’s stolen gun.

WORTH MENTIONING

CHICAGO FIRE — “It Wasn’t About Hockey” Episode 714 — Pictured: Eamonn Walker as Wallace Boden — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris)

Between FIRE and P.D. there was a serious amount of girl power in the ONE CHICAGO world this week and we are here for it! Let’s also take a moment to appreciate how resourceful and Macgyver like Burgess was with her attempts to get her and Upton away from their captors. Between her methods of wearing down her zipties to setting a fire outside, not to mention the way she pounced on the bad guy as he was about to shoot Upton – if we ever god forbid get kidnapped, we’d want Burgess with us!

While on the subject of P.D., I feel like Voight giving the unit the talk about keeping things personal at home should have happened a while ago considering how many in-house relationships have happened throughout the years. Yeah those couples were warned by him separately but I think this needed to be addressed to the unit as a whole much sooner. Also, we got a scene of Halstead and Burgess partnering up but I’d love to see more please!

On FIRE, there may have been no fires to put out this episode but I enjoyed the more light-hearted storyline involving the men of 51. I do have a question about the fairness of this chilli cook off though – the original teams were Hermann and Mouch, Otis and Cruz, Cap and Tony and then Ritter and Tuesday. Is that fair for Ritter to be partnered with a dog rather than a human though? A bit of a disadvantage if you ask me!  I loved seeing Casey and Severide sneakily get into the comp but how did McAuley and Ogle even have time to make theirs?!