'One Chicago' Crossover 2019: 'Chicago Fire' starts the night on an explosive note with tension growing by the hour
The 'One Chicago' Crossover is finally here! The night starts with an episode of 'Chicago Fire' during a Chicago Bears game. It's a pleasant day to start with: Matthew Casey and Jay Halstead are tossing a football, Kelly Severide and Stella Kidd are having a good time, and people are getting food prepared for the game. But then Casey spots a man collapsing and the people of 'Fire', 'Med' and 'P.D.' rush over to him. The man seizes while saying "BRT". When Dr. Natalie Manning looks at his leg, there is a gruesome wound and 'Infection' Part 1 has officially begun.
The man is rushed to Med and Dr. Will Halstead goes right in. Maggie wonders whether BRT is the man's initials but they don't have any information and we'll call him John Doe for now. Will tells everyone that it is a flesh-eating bacteria that is affecting the man and Jay says he will try to run prints and figure out who the man is. The next day as those of Firehouse 51 go back to work, Boden informs them that 51 will be on duty during the October Fest parade much to everyone's disappointment.
Meanwhile, Cruz is caught cooking at 51 by his girlfriend, Chloe and he begins to ramble. When she asks him why he is being weird, he dodges the question but Mouch and Brett know something is up and later, Cruz tells them that he is planning on asking her to marry him. Concurrently, bodies keep turning up and Sharon has called the CDC because the strain of the bacteria is not something they know and there is general suspicion with so many victims.
There's another emergency where the squad, ambulance, and truck are called. This time it's a fire in a science building where a fire is raging -- people are trapped but a woman demands that the firefighters make sure that the second floor is not destroyed; there are billions of dollars worth research in there. Then suddenly, a green fire explosion occurs and the episode suddenly feels like it should be in a different genre altogether. Truck 81 manages to rescue the people trapped and have also brought the fire under control. Severide also finds out that the lab was paid for by BRT Health Industries and Boden understands this might be a crime scene as well. Everyone who was inside the building is rushed to a local decontamination center and Boden speaks to a research fellow to figure out what's going on. He tells Boden that they do microbiological research and he makes a call to Voight to let him know what he learned.
We also get scenes of the Intelligence Unit working on it -- Halstead and Ruzek go through all the files they got to get any relevant information. They manage to unlock the phone of the first victim, Stewart Anderson (whose infection is spreading) and go through his recent messages. What they discover is enough to make them elevate Anderson to a suspect -- he sent anonymous messages saying something apocalyptic is planned for the city. When Upton and Burgess go to Med to get an update on him, they learn that he died. We also learn that the fire at the science building was arson and things are looking more sinister ahead of the second hour of the crossover. When Upton goes to a suspect's house to interview her, the woman, Veronica Song, collapses on her and the blood gets on Upton -- Song is also a victim of the flesh-eating bacteria.
The stage has been set and all the players have been introduced. Derek Haas's promise of the biggest crossover yet is certainly being lived up to. 'Chicago Med' and 'Chicago P.D.' follows with the second and third hours of the crossover event.