About Last Night…CHICAGO MED, CHICAGO FIRE, CHICAGO P.D., and More

Let’s talk about Wednesday night’s TV!

CHICAGO MED: Well, uh, the new doctors sure are making themselves known. And, look, it may not be fair, but Hannah’s past is inevitably going to come up. If it continues to come up in ways like this, where people who knew her when she struggled are wary about her (for whatever their reason, be it selfish or not), that’s probably better than Hannah being a mess.

It wasn’t a huge, huge part of the episode, but I’m glad the show showcased the dangers of aortic dissections, a cause close to star Steven Weber. [For more on why he felt the storyline was “a gift” and a way to bring attention to the John Ritter Foundation, here’s what he shared ahead of the episode.]

THE MASKED SINGER: Still hate this format, but it was fun they had TV people for TV week. And, yes, I guessed the BRADY BUNCH brothers during their clue package.

(But, seriously, Fox, I beg of you: Change the format next season.)

CHICAGO FIRE:

A few things are true:

1. The end sequence/fire was gorgeously shot and executed. Long before the tragedy hit, it was already up there was one of the most memorable fire sequences in my mind, and then, well…
2. Hanako Greensmith was absolutely stunning in the final moments. Like, truly, viscerally upsetting to watch, because her portrayal of Violet’s shock, followed by extreme grief, was so profound. I’ve always loved her on the show, but she’s never been better.
3. When I spoke with the CHICAGO FIRE bosses about the theme for the season, they warned darkness was coming.”It’s felt like a darker time, and people are going through some stuff right now,” Andrea Newman said. “And our characters are gonna go through some stuff. And we had the theme of: When you’re going through something, who do you turn to and who can lift you up? And for our show, and for our guys, it’s each other. It’s the firehouse family…we’re gonna have some darker things go on this year, darker experiences, and darker calls—but also the hopeful side that we really feel like the show represents, which is how do you pull yourself out of that darkness?” she continues. “And we’ll be doing a lot of that—our guys experiencing things and then the others helping them through and helping them get out of that dark place.”

   And from Derek Haas: “One of the hardest things for firefighters is going to these calls and you want to rescue everyone, [but] you can’t save everyone. How do you deal with that? When there’s a loss, it is rough.”

   But, uh, did not expect it to be this soon.

4. I’m confused by why they figuratively pulled the trigger on Hawkins’ death now.

Look, objectively, in hindsight, it was kind of a brilliant twist. I was spoiled right before it happened, but if I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have seen it coming. So much of the episode was Violet feeling guilty about Brett’s breakup—and Brett going out of her way to arrange a lunch date for herself, Violet, and Hawkins—that the distraction/last bits of happiness didn’t actually feel like heavy-handed foreshadowing.

But given the show just lost Brettsey, I really didn’t think they’d end Hawkins and Violet this soon—or this permanently. Did I think they were endgame? No. Which is said with no offense to them, but it’s harder to have a couple be really long-term if only one is a regular and the other is recurring and they’re in the same field of work. (So, yes, a number of the firefighters have mostly off-screen spouses, but that’s a very different dynamic.) But….they were together-together an episode, really.

Even if Hawkins’ ultimate fate was always intended to be this, I’m surprised they didn’t play with couple shenanigans a little longer. We didn’t get a lot of Brettsey in their “newfound love” phase because of Jesse Spencer’s exit, so I thought we’d get Hawkins and Violet. Welp.

I would also like to say that I’m glad if Hawkins had to go, he died a hero and it was not in service of saving a firefighter. When Gallo looked to be in trouble, I was worried—somehow—Hawkins would sacrifice himself for Gallo and that would have been very, very tough…especially given Violet’s clear panic when she thought Gallo might not be okay. This triangle has almost always been messy, so I’m glad it didn’t end in a way that would have made things significantly worse for Violet.

(Sorry to the rest of the episode, which was good, but those last few minutes ended up being IT. Haas did an absolutely bonkers job with this.)

CHICAGO P.D.: Since the news of Jesse Lee Soffer’s exit was made public, it’s been hard to imagine the show without Jay Halstead. He frequently was the one to stand up to Voight, he is married to Upton, he’s got ties to CHICAGO MED (via his brother Will), and it felt like he would be one of the harder pieces to lift cleanly out.

And, well, that was the case.

Prior to the episode airing, showrunner Gwen Sigan told me, “We did our very best to keep it fully grounded and authentic to who Halstead is. And really wanting it to be a showcase for Jesse, who has done such great work for 10 years, and wanting him to go out [on a high point]—which he did. He put in this beautiful performance. So we tried to take it really seriously.”

What I had been prepping myself for was something tied to Voight. Either Voight crossing a line Halstead could not allow—though it would be much harder to justify the other team members sticking around, admittedly—or Halstead realizing he would be more efficient elsewhere, perhaps training the next generation of officers or something. The duo had been on a collision course for so long, it felt like the natural conclusion.

Instead, they did a parallel to the team’s last accidental murder, Halstead couldn’t live with the guilt and re-enlisted. (And left…that night?!)

Look, it was always going to be messy for all of the reasons above. And if Upton and Halstead had broken up, I would have been annoyed, because it wouldn’t have felt earned. (No matter how he was treating her.) It’s just an instance where I’m confused by him absolutely bolting. I wish we had gotten a final scene with the Halstead brothers. I wish we had more stuff with Halstead and the team, even if it was a group goodbye. Upstead may be the loves of each other’s lives, but him being like, “Bye, I’m going to Bolivia for eight months—see you when I get back!!!!” is rough! She’s in a dangerous job and he just changed her entire life with no warning. And while the team has her back, he also literally just saw Voight pull himself off the edge…if I was Halstead, I’d be worried about how the team would look when he got back.

But…that eight(-ish) months away sure feels telling. (That’s approximately May/finale time.) So even though this was the end of Soffer’s regular time on the show, I sure do hope they’re able to recontextualize things a little more later. (And, uh, I hope they don’t Brettsey Upstead whenever he does return.)

Which shows did you watch last night?

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