S08.E04: Infection (1)

[jewel21]

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A rare but deadly bacteria takes its toll on numerous victims around the city, leaving Chicago’s finest first responders to work together alongside the CDC to resolve the dangerous situation. Following a fire at a local university that ties into the outbreak, Severide has suspicions that something bigger is happening.

Part 1 of a crossover event with Chicago Med and Chicago PD.

Airdate: 10.16.2019

[mxc90]

Whoever advised Jesse Spencer to toss the football under handed, didn't do him any favors. At least they later showed him catching the ball. 

Did they have tickets for the game or were they going to stay outside and watch on that little tv?

Maybe Stuart was trying to get through and infect Aaron Rodgers and some Packers before the game.

Of course, Mouch is the first to bItch about walking in a parade.

The mailman called for the police and dispatch sent an ambulance. No $20 gift card for him.

I don't blame Foster. She should have been scrubbing down the moment she walked in the fire house. Not sure why Sylvie was so calm.

At the gas station, the police didn't bother put a cover over the SUV? I like that the one guy told Burgess "she looked sick", as if he has seen worse.

They weren't kidding by having the lab reinforced. 

Why bother send OFI! Kelly Severide is on the scene.

See ya Chloe! How the hell does this show alway trash on Cruz' love life? At least have her leave/die by infection. She just hopped in the car and sped away. Next time make her pancakes Cruz!!!!!!!

The mother and baby died before Anderson?

Hailey's instincts (if she has any) did not tell her to stay far away from Veronica Song?

Edited October 17, 2019 by mxc90

[LittleIggy]

I thought that was a good crossover. The nut did have a point. Big Pharma doesn’t want to fund development of new antibiotics because they won’t rake in the bucks with those drugs. They would rather tweak patents on maintenance drugs and make huge profits. Wonder how many drug ads were shown during those three hours of prime time? ::putting away my soapbox::

Poor Cruz. She owes him an explanation. I liked the scene at the end of the three hours of the Chief reading to his son.

[Dowel Jones]

I thought the fire scene was actually pretty good, for the budget constraints of the show.  They made an effort to show what goes on at the decon station, but no Slammigan in the fire attack!(snark).  They should have sent for a K-12 saw for that reinforced glass, because all that punching and ramming would have eaten up the SCBA bottles straight up.

Being curious, I wanted to read some material on this bacterial disease, so I started to type in flesh eating bacteria in Google.  I didn't even get to the h in flesh before it popped up.

Since I don't watch PD or Med, I don't know the end of the story, but I can assume that Chloe just wanted to break up with Cruz, and she wasn't really the brains behind the operation?

I don't know if all fire departments work the same general way, but ours, a rural county FD, had preplans for all the businesses in the response area, listing any serious issues that were disclosed by management (i.e., in my area, several thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse), and contact numbers for responsible parties.  I would have thought that the command center would have that information here, too, and would have notified responding units of the dangers, not to mention notifying agencies like Public Health and CDC of the possible hazards.

[doLLish]

3 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I thought that was a good crossover. The nut did have a point. Big Pharma doesn’t want to fund development of new antibiotics because they won’t rake in the bucks with those drugs. They would rather tweak patents on maintenance drugs and make huge profits. Wonder how many drug ads were shown during those three hours of prime time? ::putting away my soapbox::

Yeah it was strange because while the guy was obviously insane he was also right and I found myself agreeing with him at the end when he explained his rationale. The way he went about it was the absolute worst and he deserved to pay for what he did but...I mean...at the root of it, he wasn’t wrong.

Something was up with Chloe, I hope they don’t just drop that storyline.

[Guildford]

Just a question...with the amount of time it took to smash through those two panes of glass with the fire inside how the hell did all those people not die of smoke inhalation?

Okay two questions....the parade was just a plot device so they could shut down a street and make 'history' with filming? When did they get a new mayor? Wasn't he killed over on PD? Or was that the PD mayor & fire have a different one. And any city worth a dime would suspend that parade in a nanosecond.

I don't blame Mouch for whinging....I did love Boden with his new 'assistant'.

Chloe dumping Cruz was brutal....I hope they resolve that in coming episodes because that was cruel. I would have rathered more of that and less of Severide declaring his undying love in the middle of a fireground. 🤮It feels so forced between those two. It's like brother and sister.

[Guildford]

11 hours ago, mxc90 said:

Whoever advised Jesse Spencer to toss the football under handed, didn't do him any favors. At least they later showed him catching the ball. 

That's because he's and Aussie and in Australian Rules Football throwing the ball isn't allowed.

[mxc90]

3 minutes ago, Guildford said:

That's because he's and Aussie and in Australian Rules Football throwing the ball isn't allowed.

Jesse stayed true but Matt Casey isn't from Australia. 

[NJRadioGuy]

9 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I thought the fire scene was actually pretty good, for the budget constraints of the show.  They made an effort to show what goes on at the decon station, but no Slammigan in the fire attack!(snark).  They should have sent for a K-12 saw for that reinforced glass, because all that punching and ramming would have eaten up the SCBA bottles straight up.

Yeah, I was surprised as well. The K-12 or a similar battery-powered device would have made sense. Even the pointed end of a firefighter's pick axe should have gotten through that after a few hearty swings. Mouch had a conventional flat-backed axe. And I know that argon's an inert gas but if that tank had ruptured couldn't that have potentially caused problems?

We did (briefly) see the Slamigan in the 3rd part (PD), being used by Cruz.

Was glad to see they finally showed decent incident command here with Boden directing other apparatus on the fireground, not just his own crews. AND a division chief (4) who I'm 99% sure was a real-life white helmet with a walk-on role, conferring with him. I think the technical advisors might finally be getting through to the showrunners. A retired buddy of mine who was on the job for a long time even gave it the thumbs up for a reasonable portrayal of a hazmat incident. 

Obviously in real life there'd be a lot more masks, helmets and full-body hazmat "moon suits" but you've got to show actor's faces on screen and all that.

Overall, for all three parts, this was a decent story and quite watchable. Now with that said, the ICK factor was off the charts. Kudos to the props department (Med had me actively fast-forwarding through some scenes), but still. ICK.

And unlike a few earlier crossovers, this wasn't 3 distinct shows. PD, Med, and Fire were almost equally represented in all three parts. If you edit out the commercials you have a 2 hour made-for-TV movie basically.

[Waterston Fan]

I liked this episode but haven't watched Med or PD yet. I might just check their messageboards and see what they said. lol 

I wonder what is up with Chloe but I bet they will just drop it. Maybe she isn't worth Cruz's time if she gets upset about an e-mail to an expensive restaurant. 

[dovegrey]

14 minutes ago, NJRadioGuy said:

Was glad to see they finally showed decent incident command here with Boden directing other apparatus on the fireground, not just his own crews. AND a division chief (4) who I'm 99% sure was a real-life white helmet with a walk-on role, conferring with him. I think the technical advisors might finally be getting through to the showrunners. A retired buddy of mine who was on the job for a long time even gave it the thumbs up for a reasonable portrayal of a hazmat incident. 

The Division 4 Chief (Chief Walker) is Steve Chikerotis, a real-life CFD white-shirt, the show's CFD advisor, and the basis for Casey's character. I love it when they have him on the show. 🙂

[dovegrey]

So, I'm gonna be a negative a-hole. Overall, the whole three-hour block was bland and predictable. There was no legitimate sense of danger for any of the main characters. The storyline was obvious, and the twists weren't twisty. To be fair, I can't stand Med and refuse to watch Chicago PD, so "One Chicago" trying to be MCU-on-TV is a non-starter for me.

The cast and crew pulled off a movie while sticking to their regular film schedule, which is mind-bogglingly impressive; IMO, the writers let them down.

The issue with crossovers is, even when this is the most cohesive and cross-show participation they've ever attempted, it still becomes superficially odd with missing cast members in scenes. It just feels off. I don't feel like there was equal representation across all three shows; it seemed to me that Fire had the most cohesion, then Med was primarily PD with a bit of Fire, and then PD was mostly Med with limited Fire (complete waste of the evac scene with 51 in the background). Personally, I much prefer disaster bottle episodes, like the helicopter crash episode, Med's backdoor pilot episode, and the crossover from last year with the incredible tower fire. 

It was cool to see the HAZMAT response. 

The special effects were also well-done.

Based on Boden's conversation with the aid, I'm convinced that Battalion 25 is limited to House 51. It would explain so much about the show.

I think Chloe broke up with Cruz for two reasons. One, he's a manchild, and his nervous antics at the firehouse were a complete turn-off. Two, she wasn't ready to get engaged, but she realized the expensive restaurant reservation was going to be a proposal; so, she broke it off. And/or she cheated on him.

Stellaride is going straight back down the Dawsey road to hell - where Kidd has work issues, Severide provides sweet lobotomized support as his sole storyline, and the two bring their relationship into calls (snuggling on a scene?). This is exactly the kind of stuff that eventually made Dawsey insufferable and nearly ruined Casey as a character.

[SuzieQ]

Am I the only one who hates crossovers?  Granted, a Chicago crossover is light years better than a L&O SVU crossover, but I'd rather watch each show for it's own value.  Chgo Fire used to be my favorite of the 3 and now it's at the bottom.  I still like it, but make no point to watch any of them live anymore.

[iMonrey]

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 To be fair, I can't stand Med and refuse to watch Chicago PD, so "One Chicago" trying to be MCU-on-TV is a non-starter for me.

Room for two at your table? Yawn. Another "cross-over event." Even the name sounds pretentious. 

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Am I the only one who hates crossovers? 

Far from it. I nearly gave up on this show because of them. They're never going to get me to watch Chicago PD. Just seeing a little bit of Voight interacting with Casey makes me stabby. Cause he tried to have Casey killed. And he's still a cop! WTF!

[SuzieQ]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Far from it. I nearly gave up on this show because of them. They're never going to get me to watch Chicago PD. Just seeing a little bit of Voight interacting with Casey makes me stabby. Cause he tried to have Casey killed. And he's still a cop! WTF!

I wonder if Chgo PD was even supposed to be a show at that point?  Maybe Voight was just supposed to be a 1 time guest star? It's the only thing that makes sense, because if they were going to make Voight the lead in a show, why make him a criminal soliciting a murder?  It makes no sense to me.  Did they decide to do a show after his character got a lot of buzz?  I do watch the show and they've whitewashed his character into someone who crosses the lines to get justice as opposed to the morally bankrupt criminal that he was in his original appearance.

[iMonrey]

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I wonder if Chicago PD was even supposed to be a show at that point?

That was back in Season 1 so no, they might not have been thinking of a spin-off at that point. I think when they got around to planning Chicago PD they decided Jason Beghe was just too much of a name and/or too talented to be excluded so they came up with some ham-fisted way of getting him out of jail and shoe-horning him back into the story, expecting the audience would just hand-wave the whole "tried to frame Casey for cocaine possession and then tried to hire a hitman to assassinate him" thing they did on this show.

I'm sorry, he's just not a viable character. Sometime you have to cut your losses no matter how much you like the actor or how big you perceive his fan base to be. (Looking at you too, Walking Dead.) There are some things a character just can't come back from.

[lonestar]

I decided to give this week a pass since I can't stand Chicago Med. I watch Chicago PD, but I'm skipping both this week.  

[jewel21]

I thought this was the best crossover event they have ever done. Usually each show feels very separate but this time they did a good job incorporating characters from all three shows into each episode. I enjoyed that they seemed to put more thought into it than usual. 

That bacterial infection was horrible and the make-up department did a good job with the effects. 

I felt really bad for Cruz. First he loses Otis and now Chloe. Poor guy 😞

[NJRadioGuy]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Just seeing a little bit of Voight interacting with Casey makes me stabby.

He made a great villain and frankly I love PD. But yeah, they should have brought in someone else to head up Intelligence.

On the other hand, we have Cruz, that "lovable goofball" who allowed a (very bad) man to burn up in a fire. Granted the guy whas a complete waste of flesh and deserved All The Bad Things to come his way, but a character we're supposed to root for doesn't do that. And which is why I was wishing it would have been him and not Otis who died in the mattress factory fire. Full circle.

[dovegrey]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

That was back in Season 1 so no, they might not have been thinking of a spin-off at that point. I think when they got around to planning Chicago PD they decided Jason Beghe was just too much of a name and/or too talented to be excluded so they came up with some ham-fisted way of getting him out of jail and shoe-horning him back into the story, expecting the audience would just hand-wave the whole "tried to frame Casey for cocaine possession and then tried to hire a hitman to assassinate him" thing they did on this show.

I'm sorry, he's just not a viable character. Sometime you have to cut your losses no matter how much you like the actor or how big you perceive his fan base to be. (Looking at you too, Walking Dead.) There are some things a character just can't come back from.

I agree with all that. I noped out of PD well before I knew about the Casey/Voight storyline, but the latter would've done it. Antonio/Jon Seda would've been great as the lead for PD.

But. The Casey/Voight storyline was the most compelling, cohesive, excellently paced, and (arguably) well-acted storyline Fire has ever done. I knew Casey ended up fine but was still on the edge of my seat. Spencer and Beghe have chemistry. Those two and Seda launched One Chicago with that one-off storyline. It's a shame that, to my knowledge (and I haven't watched any of the PD crossover episodes), both shows have danced around the Casey/Voight thing since Fire's season 4 and have them sorta around each other but not interacting. Those two have the most compelling history and cross-show relationship, but TPTB won't touch it, because they know it's a live grenade for Voight. I say detonate it. 

And that's related to another criticism I have of this crossover. Beyond the tailgate scene, Med could've been any doctors, PD could've been any cops, and Fire could've been any firefighters/paramedics - with mostly the same results. They've built this great world, and they talk about everyone being this family, but I don't "feel" it on the screen between shows (well, except Trudy and Mouch and maybe Will and Jay). It's very flat, IMO.

[WinJet0819]

14 hours ago, Waterston Fan said:

I liked this episode but haven't watched Med or PD yet. I might just check their messageboards and see what they said. lol 

I wonder what is up with Chloe but I bet they will just drop it. Maybe she isn't worth Cruz's time if she gets upset about an e-mail to an expensive restaurant. 

Well, she is in next week's episode. But this totally sucks for Cruz. Why can't he be happy? He loses his best friend Otis, and then he's finally about to pop the question to his first serious girlfriend, and she dumps him without really an explanation. She owes him that at least. I hope maybe he can win her back, because if she's gone, the showrunners will no doubt try to push him into another in-house relationship.

[CoyoteBlue]

On 10/17/2019 at 12:52 AM, Dowel Jones said:

I would have thought that the command center would have that information here, too, and would have notified responding units of the dangers, not to mention notifying agencies like Public Health and CDC of the possible hazards.

Well, considering they were way the hell out in Schaumburg....

This "event" was fun for location spotting for me. The "college" is the new Zurich building at I90 and Meacham in Schaumburg on part of the old Motorola campus. All those windows? They had to swap out some of the glass for something less reflective to keep from blinding people on the highway heading west during the morning commute. The aborted parade intersection is where my office is and I have no idea how the hell they got the financial district that empty at any time during daylight hours.

[Dowel Jones]

I looked on Google Maps and that would be one hella long response time.

[spunky]

The writers did a good job capturing everyone’s personality during the tailgate party. The writers need to have Cruz adopt a gold fish, at least it won’t drive off and leave him in the midst of a crisis. The cops needed to cover up the mother and her baby, then again we wouldn’t have gotten shocked Burgess. These writers stripped Hailey of all her common sense. That’s the only explanation for her not only entering Veronica Song’s apartment, but also touching her.

[NJRadioGuy]

6 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

I looked on Google Maps and that would be one hella long response time.

Speaking of hella long response times, why are pieces of apparatus from Stn. 51 ever being dispatched to the Loop (downtown) as first due companies? Even with little-to-no traffic that's a 10-15 minute drive from their home base at 1360 S Blue Island Ave, real-life Engine 18's quarters. There would are 4 closer real-world companies; Trucks 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 would have much faster response times.

Fun facts: There's no truck company based at Firehouse 18. Just the Engine, Ambulance 65, the high-rise unit, Deputy District Chief 1, and a Paramedic Field Chief. E18 is under the jurisdiction of Battalion Chief 4, and District 1 (the latter based out of that house).

[SG11]

On 10/17/2019 at 3:12 AM, doLLish said:

Yeah it was strange because while the guy was obviously insane he was also right and I found myself agreeing with him at the end when he explained his rationale. The way he went about it was the absolute worst and he deserved to pay for what he did but...I mean...at the root of it, he wasn’t wrong.

Yes he was. He was wrong. It sucks that companies for profit sometimes think of profit first and not the greater good. Unfortunately, so many people believe they have the right to tell everyone else what the greater good should be and conveniently spend other people’s money to do it, that’s not reality.

The guy was a murdering eco-terrorist who deserved to be shot. He was not “right.”

[Guildford]

4 hours ago, SG11 said:

Yes he was. He was wrong. It sucks that companies for profit sometimes think of profit first and not the greater good. Unfortunately, so many people believe they have the right to tell everyone else what the greater good should be and conveniently spend other people’s money to do it, that’s not reality.

The guy was a murdering eco-terrorist who deserved to be shot. He was not “right.”

Even if this company funded the research into the drug for his superbug, he'd be waiting 15-20 years before it became a reality. That's if the drug doesn't fall over in stage 1,2 or 3 trials and then they have to start again. So by infecting everyone as a protest doesn't mean that suddenly tomorrow there is a cure. The cocktail of antibiotics they pulled together 'slowed' its progress not cured it. 

The guy was a terrorist who thinks his POV is more important than anyone else's...sound familiar? Big Pharma is not the bad guy in this scenario...this lunatic is the bad guy

Edited October 19, 2019 by Guildford

[cinsays]

13 hours ago, Guildford said:

Big Pharma is not the bad guy in this scenario...this lunatic is the bad guy

No, they both are.

[juno]

On 10/17/2019 at 3:18 PM, iMonrey said:

That was back in Season 1 so no, they might not have been thinking of a spin-off at that point. I think when they got around to planning Chicago PD they decided Jason Beghe was just too much of a name and/or too talented to be excluded so they came up with some ham-fisted way of getting him out of jail and shoe-horning him back into the story, expecting the audience would just hand-wave the whole "tried to frame Casey for cocaine possession and then tried to hire a hitman to assassinate him" thing they did on this show.

I'm sorry, he's just not a viable character. Sometime you have to cut your losses no matter how much you like the actor or how big you perceive his fan base to be. (Looking at you too, Walking Dead.) There are some things a character just can't come back from.

So much so that I was never able to watch PD and will fast forward every time his character crosses over to Fire. They messed his character up so much that I found it impossible to walk it back. I agree they needed to cut the losses but consider the mess of Gabby's character I am not surprised.

[Dowel Jones]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

Perhaps that is where Spencer learned how to throw/toss a ball.

I was thinking that the producers originally planned to have him pass the ball, but, with that in mind, his audition was so bad that they had him toss it instead.  Can't have the manly man flub an overhand pass on tv.

[Guildford]

5 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I was watching some Australian Rugby earlier this week.  That was absolutely brutal.  No padding, lots of body collisions.  In terms of violent collisions, that sport makes American football look like a joke.  All underhanded backward passing.  Perhaps that is where Spencer learned how to throw/toss a ball.

Rugby is different from Australian Rules football (AFL) and where Jesse grew up he would have been AFL not rugby and in that game you are not allowed to throw the ball at all. You handball it, which is basically punching it off your hand. If you throw it you are penalised.

It did look awkward what he tried to do, his 'throw' was terrible.

[SnarkySheep]

Best line of the episode was Hermann: "Cindy watches The Walking Dead like it's a documentary."

[anna0852]

Gotta say, this whole 'crossover event' hits way differently now after two years of Covid.