ONE CHICAGO: CHICAGO MED “In the Valley of the Shadows”, CHICAGO FIRE “Badlands” and CHICAGO P.D. “Familia” Episode Round-Up

New partners, trusting your instincts and fighting for what you think is right – there’s never a dull moment in the ONE CHICAGO world. Join us as we look at the highlights from this week’s CHICAGO MED, CHICAGO FIRE and CHICAGO P.D., aka episodes 3 of the new season!

The Rookies

CHICAGO FIRE — “A Real Shot in the Arm” Episode 802 — Pictured: Alberto Rosende as Blake Gallo — (Photo by: Adrian Burrows/NBC)

Each show had its own fresh faced starry eyed newbie this week. On MED, we met Paula, who was brought to Med to “shadow” Maggie. She was super friendly, helpful and full of ideas, but Maggie knew that she was just brought in to quietly keep an eye on her by Sharon to make sure she’s coping okay working and undergoing chemo. Maggie ends up snapping at Paula, something that she doesn’t appreciate and quits.

On FIRE, Gallo is bright eyed and bushy tailed, but Boden is still not convinced he’s going to make it. When Gallo shares his inspiration for becoming interested in the CFD (his home was on fire when he was 12 and a firefighter, who the 12-year-old saw as a comic book hero, rescued him) and also remarks that a higher power above is looking out for him, Boden is concerned that the kid thinks that he’s invincible and doesn’t realise the true dangers of the job. Especially when he makes another risky move during a call. However, when he has a drink with an old firefighter friend at Molly’s, it’s revealed that the fire that Gallo was referring to? He was the only member of his family to survive, so it turns out that he knows a lot about loss. I personally think that Gallo is smarter than Boden gives him credit for. During this call you could see him calculating before he suggested his plan and last week when he made that climb up the building, he mentioned calculating as well. I feel like Gallo could be a maths genius or something. Casey is clearly keeping an eye on him and is on board for mentoring him, so I think Gallo will end up being a fine fit for 51.

On P.D., it’s Rojas’ first day at District 21 and at Intelligence. The young officer, who was pulled from the academy not that long ago, still has a lot to learn like not annoying Platt and learning to work in a team. Barely an hour into her first shift, she’s chasing after a perp from what seemed like an attempted carjacking (doesn’t even have an ID sign to identify herself over the radio at this point!) and the action just keeps on punching from there when the case ends up turning into a drug crew situation. Her impulsive instincts and not calling for backup isn’t appreciated by Voight. He knows that she has the street smarts that can’t be taught at the academy but being part of Intelligence means working as a team and he wants Upton to evaluate her. It seemed like Upton was going to tell Voight that Rojas wasn’t the right fit for their team, but at the end of the episode Upton tells her she’s officially part of Intelligence.

Howdy Partner

CHICAGO P.D. — “Assets” Episode 702 — Pictured: (l-r) Lizeth Chavez as Vanessa Rojas, Tracy Spiridakos as Det Hailey Upton — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

As mentioned, on P.D,, Voight was asking Upton for her take on newbie Rojas. Why? Upton and Rojas are now partners. With Antonio officially gone, Voight decides to play partner roulette with his team and reassigns Halstead and Burgess together (Yay, all these years I’ve been waiting for these two to work more together!) and Upton and Rojas. Initially Upton is not impressed as she and Halstead are great partners (I won’t argue with that!) and that it takes years to build the trust that they have. She comes around though, so much that she offers to let Rojas crash with her as she’s aware that the job doesn’t leave you much time to do anything else. Working and living together is a big call, especially when you barely know each other.

On MED, April is assigned to work with new doc Crockett Marcel and she’s not exactly thrilled as they have very different personalities. The lack of enthusiasm isn’t helped when they don’t see eye to eye during the case they’re on. It looks like April is going to have to get used to working with Dr Marcel, as at the end of the episode Maggie tells her that she’s going to start properly training her as a charge nurse, which means she’ll be working with the hotshot doc a lot more. She already had to step into the hybrid OR with him when Maggie rushed out, so maybe she’ll slowly come around to him?

Trust Your Instincts

CHICAGO MED — “In the Valley of the Shadows” Episode 503 — Pictured: Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton — (Photo by: Liz Sisson/NBC)

Trusting you instincts was a recurring theme in the ONE CHICAGO world this week. On MED, April is suspicious of a woman who comes into the ED, claiming to have just given birth and delivered the baby herself! She tries to share her suspicions with Dr Marcel but he brushes her off. April’s suspicions when right when it was revealed that the woman did not give birth – she had chloroformed a pregnant colleague before forcibly removing the fetus (?!) and tried to claim the baby as her own because she was grieving over the death of her own son that passed away from leukemia.

On FIRE, Brett is back and her first shift involves a call to a juvenile detention center where a young inmate has been severly beaten. Brett suspects that not all is as it seems and the cagey correctional officer does not help ease suspicions. She and Foster do a bit of digging and with help from a social worker are able to prove that the correctional officer has been arranging for attacks to break out. They encourage the other kids at the center to speak out and P.D.‘s Burgess is on the case to launch a full investigation. Also on FIRE, a new system is being installed and Hermann being the old school guy that he is, is not impressed with the way the technicians are in the way at the Firehouse to install it. Why do they need a new system anyway? His arguments are valid when the system goes haywire off shift and they return to find it constantly going off with no clue how to fix it. In the end, Boden has enough and smashes it. Need we point out, earlier in the episode he reprimanded Hermann when he tried to do exactly that, ha!

On P.D. Rojas relies on a lot of street smart instincts while posing undercover on the case that Intelligence is working on. Voight may not like that she disregarded the orders of her superiors but you have to admit that there were times where trusting her instincts was the right call.

Leading and Taking Charge

CHICAGO FIRE — “Badlands” Episode 803 — Pictured: Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd — (Photo by: Adrian Burrows/NBC)

There was also a lot of leading, taking charge and even pulling rank in the ONE CHICAGO world this week. On MED, concerned that Maggie was not only keeping her diagnosis a secret but also continuing to work while undergoing chemo, Sharon pulls rank and arranges for a new nurse to shadow Maggie in case something should happen. (Oh Maggie, even from the start of the episode we could see the toll that working and trying to deal with effects from chemo were taking its toll on you!) The stubborn charge nurse may have ended up pushing the newbie out the door, but Sharon is boss and Maggie compromises and agrees to train up April to help lighten her load. Also pulling rank on MED is Dr Halstead over Dr Manning – he claims to be concerned that Manning is not 100% fit to be practicing on her own and decided as the attending he’s going to oversee her cases when a young patient that she was initially treating for a burn falls into a coma. Dr Manning is frustrated with Dr Halstead and accuses his motivations of being more personal than professional. We can’t help but wonder that too when Manning is able to figure out was wrong with the young patient.

On FIRE, Brett and Foster prove that they are a force to be reckoned with, never backing down during their sleuthing into the incidents at the juvenile detention center. When the officers try to manhandle them, Brett and Foster not only try to fight back, but also yell at the other young inmates to speak up. Even Burgess from P.D. remarks that it takes guts to stand up to those guys. Brett being all gung ho and taking charge in this episode reminded me of how Gabby Dawson used to be. Speaking of taking charge, Boden notices Kidd taking Gallo under her wing and showing him around on her accord. He’s impressed and recommends her to represent the firehouse at an upcoming leadership conference. She’s nervous, which was a fun side of her to see since we’re so used to seeing her so confident.

Couples Chatter

CHICAGO MED — “In the Valley of the Shadows” Episode 503 — Pictured: (l-r) Nate Santana as Dr. James Lanik, Oliver Platt as Daniel Charles, Paula Newsome as Caroline Charles — (Photo by: Liz Sisson/NBC)

There was a bit of tension in the romance department on MED this week. Dr Charles and wife Caroline, aka CeCe are still in their honeymoon phase at the start of the episode, being all cute and all when he returns home to find her preparing to make a Baked Alaska for daughter Robin’s upcoming birthday. The mood shifts when she falls in the kitchen and injures her wrist. They go to Med, where Dr Lanik advises CeCe that she’ll be in a cast for four weeks. She’s not impressed and wants to have surgery for a quicker recovery time but it’s not advisable because of her compromised immune system. She’s insistent and her husband is concerned and thinks that it’s about the dessert. Dr Charles gets called away to a case but asks a colleague to try and stop his wife from having the surgery. Cece is not impressed that he vetoed it. In the end she doesn’t have the surgery. As previously mentioned there is tensions between Halstead and Manning this episode and Phillip popping up at the hospital probably doesn’t help Will’s suspicions either. Here’s the thing about Will, he means well but the way he carries out those intentions isn’t always the greatest. Like this episode, he tells Nat that he has done some research on post traumatic brain stress and pitches some suggestions to her, he then keeps bringing up her injury and second guesses her actions. So when she accuses him of being fixated with her getting her memory back and that it’s more about him than her, we can’t help but side with her. He needs to ease off before there’s no coming back from this. Yes, Phillip appears pretty dodgy but Will needs to bide his time and have actual proof first.

On FIRE, things are a bit more smoother in the romance department. Yes, we have Casey hooking up with “Smart Girl”, (haha, love the gentle ribbing and advice from Severide!) who is from the company installing the new system at Firehouse 51. He may have admitted that he rushed into things with her, but it’s nice to see him not so serious and being a bit more carefree. On the flipside, Severide is continuing his streak of being a model boyfriend. He’s there to ease Kidd’s insecurities and be supportive about her attending the leadership conference. When she starts spiraling and panicking that she’s never been scuba diving, he arranges a date where he teaches her the basics in a rooftop pool. Aww!

Crossover Count

CHICAGO FIRE — “Badlands” Episode 803 — Pictured: (l-r) Marina Squerciati as Officer Kim Burgess, Eamonn Walker as Battalion Chief Wallace Boden — (Photo by: Adrian Burrows/NBC)

P.D‘s Upton pops up on MED, while Burgess pops up on FIRE. On FIRE, Foster refers to speaking to MED‘s April about the patient that she and Brett were tending to. On P.D., it’s mentioned that Antonio Dawson won’t be coming back to Chicago, instead opting to go to Puerto Rico, where he has family. FIRE‘s Gabby left to do mission work in Puerto Rico, so we’re assuming she is the family that they’re referring to. Phew, that was a lot of crossover connections this week!

Get ready for the epic ONE CHICAGO crossover event next Wednesday night on NBC! This special event will kick off with CHICAGO FIRE, followed by CHICAGO MED and concluding with CHICAGO P.D..

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