One Chicago Bosses Break Down Crossover: Upstead’s ‘P.D.’ Future, That ‘Fire’ Death & ‘Med’ Conflict

One Chicago knows how to do crossovers. Whether it’s a big event across Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. or one character appearing on another show, it’s seamless and you feel like these first responders know and care about each other.

Over the course of three hours on March 4, the shows brought back P.D.‘s Jesse Lee Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos as Halstead and Upton, put multiple Fire firefighters and paramedics in danger, and had us worried about the future of one Med doctor. TV Insider spoke with the showrunners across all three shows — Fire‘s Andrea Newman, Med‘s Allen MacDonald, and P.D.‘s Gwen Sigan — about the decisions made for some of the key characters. Warning: Spoilers for the One Chicago “Reckoning” crossover ahead!

The action begins when air traffic control loses contact with a plane from Toronto. Upton’s on scene because she’s now an FBI agent and has been tracking drug smuggler on the flight. The plane lands, and with no response from inside, 51 and other firefighters breach — and find almost everyone inside dead from what seems to be some sort of chemical weapon. The only survivor? A pregnant woman, whom Severide (Taylor Kinney) finds after insisting he do a search while they wait on Hazmat and Violet (Hanako Greensmith) and Novak (Jocelyn Hudon) transport to Med, only for Marshals to prevent them from entering. Eventually, Asher (Jessy Schram) joins them in the ambulance to perform a C-section; the baby survives, but the mother does not. Along the way, Cruz (Joe Miñoso), Capp (Randy Flagler), and Novak are all exposed to the chemical, which Upton is able to partially identify through her investigation, and are among those sickest in isolation at the hospital. Two other firefighters, including Macy (Carlita Tucker), the first graduate of Kidd’s (Miranda Rae Mayo) Girls on Fire, die.

George Burns Jr/NBC

Upton, Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), and Voight (Jason Beghe) butt heads with FBI Agent Conway (John Marshall Jones), from the weapons of mass destruction unit for most of the episode; he thinks it’s terrorism, while she’s certain it’s related to her drugs case. And that case? Well, she took it because of a connection to Halstead — he’s been undercover with the group involved, specifically the person she was tracking who died on that flight, and she was worried he’d be at risk if she tried to warn him. When a major lead may get them the answers they need about the chemical so an antidote can be made, Pascal defies Conway’s orders and enters an apartment after an explosion to search for hard drives. When he emerges, he claims he didn’t find anything, but after the FBI arrests him, Mouch (Christian Stolte) discovers he hid a drive in his coat, giving Intelligence — it’s so good to see Halstead and Upton working with their old team again — what they need to eventually solve the case.

It turns out that it all links back to the Heart of Chicago fire from 25 years ago. Voight had been working a meth lab in the building and had enough to shut it down but wanted to wait to get the big players, so he asked Pascal and Cranston, who recently died, to hold off on a routine fire inspection for two days. One day later, the building burned down. Voight had been the first one on the scene and saved the man behind the current attack, Thomas, when he was a young boy, but the rest of his family died. Pascal and Sharon (S. Epatha Merkerson) were also on the scene, as a flashback shows.

When they realize that Thomas’ next target is Cranston’s memorial, Voight’s the one to try to talk him down, taking responsibility, but when it becomes clear that’s not going to work, Upton tackles him, and Halstead grabs the device he was going to use. Voight then must shoot Thomas when he aims his gun at Upton. The antidote is delivered in time to save Cruz, Novak, and Capp. Asher’s labs come back clean; she was just affected by the stress of the situation, and she and the baby are going to be fine.

Afterward, Halstead tells Voight he looked into what happened 25 years ago and notes that the investigators didn’t think that meth started the fire, so it’s not on him. But Voight doesn’t agree. He was young and thought time and justice were on his side. Halstead remarks that he’s different.

As for Upton and Halstead, he does try to talk to her during the investigation, telling her he’d wanted to reach out, but she brushes it off until “later.” That does come after it’s all wrapped up and both are leaving Chicago (she’s now in Detroit). “I stayed to work this case because you were here,” he tells her. “I came here because you were here,” she offers in return, wishing him luck and the best. But he stops her with an apology: “I’m sorry. [For] all of it. I lost myself here, on this team, this city, and I’m sorry I couldn’t find my way back. Sorry for all the wrong I did. All of it. I’m sorry I lost you.” She apologizes, too, and asks when his flight is. “I don’t care,” he says. With that, she asks if he wants to get a drink, and he accepts.

Below, Fire showrunner Andrea Newman, Med showrunner Allen MacDonald, and P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan break down the crossover.

Gwen, you leave Halsted and Upton in a promising place. They’ve apologized to each other. They’re planning to go get drinks. Talk about leaving the door open for their relationship, if there is truly hope there, and the chances of seeing them again.

Gwen Sigan: Yeah, I think there’s definitely hope there. I think they’re different than they were years ago. I think they’re in a better spot, each of them in their own lives. And I think they have new perspective on everything that happened between them all those years ago. So, yes, I think there’s hope. We wanted it to feel very hopeful and positive at the end for the pair of them. And I think the door is always open. We love them. I’m happy to have them any time. They’re busy. They’re quite busy, but we’ll take them whenever they want to come.

George Burns Jr/NBC

Andrea, how did you settle on Cruz, Novak, and Capp being the main members of 51 to be affected by what was going on? And did you ever consider killing any of them off?

Andrea Newman: Killing characters off is always a possibility in the Wolf world. It could happen at any moment. And of course, it’s always in discussion, but I think a lot of it was about how is it going to affect the people around them and the people. Obviously, for Cruz, he’s got this family life that we’ve seen grow. I mean, the great thing about all these shows is the history that we have that is kind of baked into all this. So yeah, Cruz, we had the family to explore. Novak, it was great because she’s got the dynamic with everybody at the firehouse, but she’s also in the middle of this kind of triangle situation. She’s got the Frost [Darren Barnet] of it all. She’s got her closeness with her partner, Violet, and her friendship with Vasquez, too. So all of that, everybody who was affected, I think, it always ripples out to everyone else in all of the rigs and all the units.

And in fact, in all of the worlds and P.D. and Med, too, all these characters know each other now. So for the Med doctors to be in there, I mean, obviously Frost and Novak, that’s particularly rich, but for all of them, I mean, they know each other. We’ve had all these guys cross before. So yeah, we go into it, our fantastic writers and Allen’s been very good about just stepping it out, it’s Victor Teran, Edgar Castillo, and Meridith Friedman, and these guys get together and talk character from the very beginning. That’s where all the stories come from is character with these guys. I mean, there’s always cool action and we know we want that, but yeah, our amazing writers got together to talk about who are the characters we’re really going to dig into. And then those were, for Fire, were some of the ones, but it’s all of them.

Allen MacDonald: We should also shine a light on our wonderful line producers and production crews out here in Chicago that put this all together. I keep saying that one of the huge advantages to the way Wolf does things is that all these shows are on the same lot. I was on CSI a long time ago, and we did a crossover once, three shows on three different lots, but here, we’re all just a few hundred yards, I guess, away from each other. And everyone just kind of, as they always do, just puts 500% into it, and everyone works together. And it’s just like its own little world here where we all kind of know each other.

Allen, you introduced more conflict for Hannah and Archer (Steven Weber), but they were also able to get through it once Archer calmed down. What did you want to do with them in this episode to set up what’s still to come?

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MacDonald: I just wanted — and this story came out of the writers who wrote the episodes. I mean, obviously, the showrunners factor into that as well, but we wanted to really put pressure underneath them because they’re basically friends that slept together one time, and they’re having a baby because of, and they’re trying to maintain that friendship rather than venture into a romantic relationship. And it’s kind of like they’re both saying to themselves like, “Oh, it’s just going to be OK if we just don’t shake everything up too much.” And this episode forces some issues about the different ways they look at decision-making and personal safety. And I think that stuff’s really interesting, as I do the way that they work it out.

Lori Allen/NBC

Talk about relating this case back to fire that Sharon, Voight, and Pascal were all that. And I loved seeing them in that flashback.

Newman: So fun.

Sigan: Yeah, that came from the writers as well. I mean, it started, I think, really early, this idea that there would be a personal connection, and how could we make that personal connection something that brought these three characters who are kind of the leads of each show together. And yeah, that it was something that actually had some real weight to it, that it wasn’t something that just seemed like, oh, it could have been right or wrong. There really is, I think, a lot of weight and stakes to it and a lot of responsibility that has to be taken. It came out of the writers and certainly the flashback, too, was an idea that we haven’t really done a lot of flashbacks on our show. I know, Allen, you’ve done some, but it wasn’t something that we’ve really tried to execute before. So it was a little challenging, but it also felt like the right time to do it. I mean, when in crossover, why not try some fun things? So it came out really, really nicely.

Newman: And again, I think the history of these shows is the thing that’s so rich. So to be able to go back, not just to 12, 14 years ago when a lot of these shows were just getting started, but see what really these characters, the origins of some of these characters are, always informs everything we do. So it’s very rich.

Andrea, we know that Pascal is going to be missing for a few episodes, and this seems to be how you’re setting that up. So can you talk about doing so in this way and what’s next for him as well as 51 as a result?

Newman: Yeah, I mean, he’s really become the leader of 51, the kind of father figure at 51, and that was a chair that nobody thought anybody else could sit in after Boden [Eamonn Walker]. And I think Pascal came in as a real outsider, thinking he wasn’t a part of it, and that turned after he lost his wife, and everyone at 51 showed up for him. He really became a part of it in a way that was much more emotionally connected than he ever thought as a character he would be. So I think ultimately in this crossover and leading into it, he’s making the ultimate sacrifice for 51 and for P.D. as well, for his relationships with Voight and with Goodwin. He’s doing the right thing and putting everybody else first. And that’s going to have real consequences for him in terms of going forward on the show. He’s going to have a lot of struggles going forward with fighting the forces above him now that want him out. So he’s got to battle that and see if he can manage to fight his way back to 51. That’s going to be his challenge.

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Allen, we got some great stuff with Charles (Oliver Platt) in this crossover. And I know you have that “Book of Charles” episode coming up that you had told me about. So did you want to give him this before you’re going to throw some drama at him?

MacDonald: Well, I mean, in a crossover, traumatic things happen, and there’s always going to be moments where characters have to work through something, and he’s always a calming presence in those situations. And so that’s always a good opportunity to bring him in. And so I mean, that’s why he’s there, and we definitely wanted to use him in that capacity.

Andrea, why kill off Macy? We got that really great Kidd and Charles’ conversation, but how are we going to see this affecting her going forward?

Newman: Yeah, it definitely affects her. The Girls On Fire program is so important to her, and those girls are like her children. It’s kind of partly what inspired her to become a foster parent is having these young women under her that she was so responsible for. So yeah, she’s going to have a struggle in terms of how she copes going forward, but she’s a leader, so she needs to figure out a way to process that and also help the people around her who had to deal with that process it. So yeah, it’ll affect her and the Girls On Fire program going forward.

Chicago Med, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC

Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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