ONE CHICAGO: CHICAGO FIRE “Going to War”, CHICAGO MED “When to Let Go” and CHICAGO P.D. “Endings” Episode Round-Up

We may only be two weeks into the new TV season but the ONE CHICAGO world didn’t waste any time in pulling off a big crossover between CHICAGO FIRE, CHICAGO MED and CHICAGO P.D..With the shows now airing back-to-back on one night, it was like watching a movie. It was hard to tell where each show ended and where the next one began! Here’s what went down…

COMINGS AND GOINGS

CHICAGO FIRE — “Going to War” Episode 702 — Pictured: Annie Ilonzeh as Emily Foster — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

Firehouse 51’s latest addition, Emily Foster, seems to be settling into the house nicely and we appreciate the fact that she’s taking the time to get know the Firehouse’s history. She’s also pretty observant on what is taking place in the present too – Severide and Kidd making out in corners, the tension between Brett and Casey. We also see the return of the Halstead brothers’ prickly Pops, who ends up playing a significant role in the three-way crossover. He passes away halfway through the crossover, which fuels younger brother Jay to nail the people responsible for the massive fire that lead to his father’s death. After admitting that she’s been avoiding him because she’s angry that he let Dawson leave and that she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, Brett is touched when Casey gives her a photo of herself and Dawson with a message from Dawson on the back.

Over at Med, new Chief of Trauma, Dr Lanik, is making his presence felt with his constant digs at Goodwin and questioning Dr Choi’s choices. That being said, he proves himself to be not so bad when he steps in to help save a patient. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Med’s COO Gwen Garrett, who tries to pull one over the Halstead brothers regarding their dad, just so she can prevent the liability of the hospital. Not cool.

RISKY BUSINESS

CHICAGO FIRE — “Going to War” Episode 702 — Pictured: Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

This crossover was filled with danger and edge of your seat incidents! We had Severide dangling from a 20-storey window with a child holding onto him for dear life as the building they were in continued to burn. This was no green-screen either – actor Taylor Kinney really was performing that stunt! Then we had Kidd ignoring the fact that her oxygen tank was empty and continuing to work through a blaze when she heard Severide was in danger. This ended up with her passing out and a haemorrhage in her lung with quite a significant amount of blood loss. She became thisclose to losing a lung in order to save her life, but thankfully Dr Rhodes managed to pull off a unique procedure that avoided this outcome and saved Kidd’s career! Kidd wasn’t the only member of Firehouse 51 admitted to Med – after finding a mother and her baby singed alive, Otis took it pretty hard to the point where he ended up with shaky hands and passing out not long after. He tried to blame it on low blood sugar but the ever observant Dr Charles suspected that it was PTSD. Although he ended up being released, something tells us that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this story arc for Otis…

CHICAGO P.D. — “Endings” Episode 602 — Pictured: Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Then we have Jay Halstead, who displayed plenty of reckless and impulsive behavior throughout the three-hour crossover. He was ready to run into the burning building to find his dad at the start, which thankfully Chief Boden was able to stop him from doing. Then at Med, when brother Will suggested that they take their father off life support after he took a turn for the worst and was seemingly braindead, Jay was less than impressed with this suggestion and took a hit at his brother! He also put his hands on a person of interest and lashed out at partner Hailey, and then by the crossover’s end, end up getting himself shot (and called an ambulance for the guy he shot yet not for himself). Thankfully it was a through and through bullet, but that didn’t stop boss Voight from seriously reprimanding Halstead for disobeying his orders. Voight told Halstead that he should be dead and is lucky that he’s alive, also that it’s his job to keep Halstead alive and to look out for him (anyone else feel like Voight was being extra protective of Halstead because it’s what Lindsay would have wanted) and that Halstead needs to get his head on straight.

TENSION IN THE AIR

CHICAGO MED — “When To Let Go” Episode 402 — Pictured: (l-r) David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Colin Donnell as Connor Rhodes — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Kidd’s injuries certainly resulted in a lot of tension throughout the crossover. First, Severide was furious with Herrmann for letting Kidd continue without oxygen in her tank (to be fair though, Herrmann didn’t know just how little oxygen she had left), to which Herrmann retorted that Kidd was only in the burning building for as long as she was because she was trying to save Severide. Ouch. Then as Kidd’s situation is looking pretty serious and her family can’t be reached, Dr Rhodes and Dr Choi make the call to remove her lung. Severide protests because that will signal the end of her firefighter career. Things get pretty heated to the point where Choi calls on security to escort Severide out. Least to say, April is not impressed with the way her ex is treating her childhood friend. (Remember that? Yeah we forgot about that little fact too considering we have barely had any Severide/April scenes in the last three years!)

CHICAGO P.D. — “Endings” Episode 603 — Pictured: Tracy Spiridakos as Hailey Upton — (Photo by: Adrian Burrows/NBC)

Jay Halstead has a lot of tension and conflict happening throughout the crossover too. There’s the tension between him and his dad (although to be fair, there has always been tension between these two) and Jay’s last words to him was calling him a “thankless old prick”. Yowch! This then turns into tension between him and his brother Will when they can’t see eye to eye on how to handle the fate of Papa Halstead. Then after Pat Halstead passes away, there’s quite a bit of tension between Jay and partner Upton. She gets annoyed when he doesn’t stick to the plan and shortly after he says some pretty mean things to her like accusing her own daddy daughter issues affecting her judgement, which is the last straw for her and she tells him that she’s done being his punching bag. This whole exchange was not pretty guys!

ROMANCE ROUNDUP

CHICAGO MED — “When To Let Go” Episode 402 — Pictured: Brian Tee as Ethan Choi — (Photo by: Elizabeth Sisson/NBC)

Seeing as they’re sneaking kisses in the hallways at work, it’s safe to say that things are still going pretty well between Severide and Kidd. When Kidd is seriously injured during the call, Severide is understandably concerned but even moreso when it looks like her career could be in danger. He knows how important firefighting is to Kidd and argues with the doctors’ choice of removing her lung which will effectively end her career. He protests so much that he ends up being kicked out of the hospital but even that doesn’t stop him from continuing to fight on Kidd’s behalf. Dr Choi is the man responsible for having Severide escorted out and it’s an action that doesn’t sit well with his ex April, who has a history with Severide. She does her best to intervene with the Kidd situation, leaving Choi wondering if she’s being an advocate on behalf of Kidd or behalf of Severide. Is that a bit of jealousy we detect?

Thankfully, the other Med relationship is doing better and although they’re sad circumstances, we’re treated to do scenes between Will Halstead and Natalie Manning where she supports him as he struggles to come to terms with what has happened with his father and in turn with how he has treated his brother.

ALL THE FEELS

CHICAGO P.D. — “Endings” Episode 603 — Pictured: (l-r) Patrick John Flueger as Adam Ruzek, Tracy Spiridakos as Hailey Upton — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

MVP this week definitely goes to Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead. Poor Jay was definitely put through the wringer with everything that happened with his father. We saw anger, fear, regret, vengeance, sadness – it was almost a little weird seeing him as the emotional one as Will usually tends to be the more emotional one out of the brothers. That end scene where Jay is going through his father’s belongings and discovers the photo of himself at his police academy graduation (an event that he thought his father missed) and then breaks down into uncontrollable sobs definitely hit the feels hard!

Also getting the feels, Jay’s partner Upton bursts into tears after seeing that he’s okay after being shot. Colleague Ruzek lends her a shoulder to cry on and tells her it’s the adrenaline rubbing off. Then we have Fire’s Severide, who showed some pretty passionate pleas on behalf of girlfriend Kidd. The way he fought for her and her future was definitely worthy of inducing the feels.

WORTH MENTIONING

CHICAGO MED — “When To Let Go” Episode 402 — Pictured: (l-r) Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead, Nick Gehlfuss as Will Halstead — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

It’s ironic that we’re now up to season six of P.D. and yet it’s through the other ONE CHICAGO shows that we learn things about Jay Halstead. While we’re grateful that the franchise is able to provide those extra tidbits to us loyal fans, it leaves us wondering what would happen if there was no ONE CHICAGO world? C’mon P.D., why you gotta skimp on the backstories like that for? Also, I don’t know about you guys but seeing Jay Halstead go through everything he did with his dad sure made me wish that Lindsay was around for support. Those feelings of nostalgia weren’t helped seeing Jay and Severide team up or Voight looking out for Jay and telling him to take some time out after his father passed and then later yelling at Jay for disobeying him and how his job is to look out for Jay – my first thought in those scenes was ‘aww if Erin could see them right now!’

CHICAGO FIRE — “Going to War” Episode 702 — Pictured: (l-r) Kara Killmer as Sylvie Brett, Annie Ilonzeh as Emily Foster — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)

Other things that popped up during the three-hour crossover that are worth mentioning – we delve into newbie Emily’s history – she was a surgical resident but was kicked out of the program when she was caught cheating on her boards. It was during a time where she was going through some personal stuff. It was sweet seeing Mouch mentoring the young firefighter – could that be a career possibility if Mouch does eventually end up retiring? He did pretty well boosting the morale of the young firefighter! Speaking of nice, I enjoyed seeing Burgess and Halstead partner up at the start of PD’s hour in the crossover. It was a little brief so I would love to see more partnerships and scenes between them! And while on the subject of seeing more – are we going to see more interaction between Severide and April now because let’s be honest – the lack of scenes between them these past three years had me forgetting that they were childhood friends and were almost a couple at one point too!

CHICAGO MED,CHICAGO FIRE  and CHICAGO P.D. air Wednesday nights on NBC.

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