A breakdown of the One Chicago season finales

Wednesday was a spectacular night for the close of season for One Chicago as all three finales left us gripping, grieving, wondering, and worried to death. Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. each aired their fall season finales and each one dropped major bombshells. 

The One Chicago fans put life on hold Wednesday night to catch the finales of all three of their favorites — fully prepared for an evening of nail-biting adventure and expecting to be left hanging in gripping suspense at the end.

Warning! Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D.’s season finales that aired on Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Here’s a recap of all three finales:


Chicago Med Does One Door Close and Another One Open?

One Chicago finales


The episode begins with Dr. Grace Song (T.V. Carpio) and Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) explaining to Dr. Crockett Marcel (Dominic Rains) that he wasn’t responsible for the patient Richard Evans’ death, and that it was due to the malfunctioning of the AI 2.0. Marcel went directly to Jack Dayton (Sasha Roiz) to tell him about the malfunctioning AI and Jack tells Marcel that he would “figure out” what to do about it and thanked Marcel for bringing it to his attention. 

Daniel Charles (Oliver Platt) was tasked with assessing a couple that ran off the road while the woman named Janice Anderson (Jessica Tuck) was driving and the husband named Fred Anderson (Bruce Nozick) grabbed the wheel. It was assumed that he was attempting to kill them both, but he had actually suffered a stroke, which caused his arm to suddenly pull the steering wheel. The husband was assuming that the wife was having an affair, but she was preoccupied over getting results of a biopsy. 

Marcel is shocked to discover that Jack was still scheduled for surgery with the AI 2.0 after he told him how dangerous it was. Jack tells Marcel that he has to use it because it would look bad for the IPO if he didn’t. Marcel initially refuses to do the surgery with 2.0, but Jack tells him that after the IPO is launched, he will sideline the project until he can work out the kinks. 

Marcel discusses the surgery with Song and Halstead, who strongly oppose doing the surgery with the AI. Halstead goes to Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) to tell her all about the malfunctioning AI and the IPO. Goodwin tells Halstead that she can’t stop the surgery. 

In the meantime Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber) treats his son Sean (Luigi Sottile) who fell off the wagon. As his son is getting discharged, he tells Archer that he is a match and that he wants to donate his kidney, however, he can’t because he needs to be clean and sober for 6 months before they can harvest the organ. 

Marcel does the surgery along with a presentation of how 2.0 works and Goodwin and Halstead observe, along with a full gallery. The surgery is a success, but only because Marcel didn’t listen to the AI which was telling him that Jack had a 90% chance of death. Song shuts down 2.0 and Marcel finishes the surgery without the aid of the malfunctioning AI. 

In a shocking turn of events, after the surgery, Halstead goes to Goodwin to hand her his resignation after she confronts him about hacking 2.0 with Song. He denies Song had anything to do with it and takes the blame himself. Goodwin tells him that she doesn’t want to accept it, but she has to and warns him that there will be professional repercussions for his actions. 

As Archer deals with his own health issues, he, Maggie Lockwood (Marlyne Barrett) and Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) secretly perform surgery on a woman who could not otherwise afford it. 

The biggest surprise of the Chicago Med final was the departure of Nick Gehlfuss. If Halstead had to leave the series at least they let him go in a way that fans approve of, and with the opportunity to reappear if only for an occasional guest appearance. Once Gehlfuss let the creative team know he was leaving, they knew the best way out was to rekindle the relationship between Halstead and Dr. Natalie Manning (Torrey DeVitto) who has been gone from the show for two seasons. The two will live happily ever after along with her son as he joins her in Seattle to start over. 

(Photo by: George Burns Jr/NBC)


Chicago Fire Red Waterfall

One Chicago finales


The episode begins with Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) meeting with the teen mom Amber (Maxine Wanderer) so she can try and convince Amber to give her legal guardianship of her baby so Brett wouldn’t have to go through the usual channels to adopt the baby. The teen tells Brett that she will think about it. 

While on a rescue call, Herrmann helps a woman from her car. She claims she is a psychic and gives Herrmann a palm reading. He’s skeptical but she pulls his hand, looks him dead in the eye, and tells him that he is about to experience “great pain.”

At the same call, one of the cars involved in the accident was abandoned by whoever was in it. Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) investigated and found an armor piercing bullet under the carpet. Once she gets back to the station, she calls Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) who tells her that she’s not overreacting and that an anti-government group is planning an attack. Casey returns to 51 to help Kidd!

Herrmann is shaken by the psychic, but everyone at the station tells him she’s a fraud and not to worry about it. He worries about it. He tracks down the psychic and asks her to elaborate. She tries to charge him $75 for a full reading and he leaves in a huff. 

As Brett gets increasingly anxious about Amber’s response, her friends gather to seek out Amber to be character witnesses for Brett in hopes they might sway Amber into letting Brett become the baby’s legal guardian. Casey and Brett still obviously have feelings for each other when they interact at the station and catch up with each other. He joins Mouch (Christian Stolte), Violet (Hanako Greensmith), and Kidd on the side quest to Amber’s house. They were successful and Amber calls Brett to tell her that she will help her get the baby. 

Brett’s boyfriend Dylan (Christopher Allen) breaks up with her because he knows she still has feelings for Casey. They seem to end on good terms and he wishes her the best. 

As it turns out, the terrorist group did follow through with an attack and the heroes of 51 immediately head to the scene. The terrorists shot up a substation with large caliber bullets. As they are trying to assess the situation, they are shot at by the terrorists. When Matt Casey comes back to Chicago Fire, he goes big. Armed with a sledgehammer, Casey takes a small team to a nearby rooftop where a sniper is shooting at our heroes and causing destruction to the substation. The sniper is not alone and Casey’s team loses the element of surprise and they are shot at by the terrorists. P.D. shows up, they capture one of the shooters as P.D. chases down the other one. As everyone begins to do their jobs to put out the fire at the substation, Mouch reveals that he’s been shot. Herrmann rushes to his aid.

After the commercial, everyone is gathered at the station waiting to hear Mouch’s prognosis. Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) arrives to tell everyone that Mouch will be ok. Herrmann goes to visit Mouch after his shift is over and while they’re chatting, he realizes that Mouch is bleeding profusely. We are left not knowing if Mouch will live through this. 

Near the end of the episode, Kidd packs up a bag and says she’s going to go get her husband and bring him back to Chicago. 

With all the excitement, drama and worrying, the series finished with a happy moment. As we were all hoping, when Casey pops over to Brett’s place and says he has to give her something before he goes back to Portland. He proceeds to take a knee and propose to her and we are left on that cliffhanger! Will Brett say yes? Will Casey return to Chicago? Will Brett leave for Portland? How will this all play out?

(Photo by: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC)


Chicago P.D. A Better Place

One Chicago finales


Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) shares with Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) that he’s having issues surveilling Richard Beck (Lee Tergesen) and the monotony of it all. 

Samantha Beck (Caitlin Mehner) calls Ruzak and he goes to her. She is frantically packing up her belongings to get out of town and advises that he does the same. She informs him that her father has moved up the date. Ruzek presses her for more details and she says that she doesn’t know anything except that many people will die on that day. Desperate for details, Ruzek pulls a gun on Sam and forces her out of the car, totally breaking his cover and outing himself as a cop. He brings her in for questioning.

Ruzek Explains to Voight (Jason Beghe), Burgess, and Trudy (Amy Morton) what happened. Ruzek tries to offer Sam and her son a deal, but she refuses because she is absolutely terrified of her father. She fears he will kill her if she betrays him to the police. Voight tries to promise her that they can keep her safe. Ruzek tries to appeal to her as a father. She finally starts to cooperate as the team gets the warrants they need to take Richard down. 

Ruzek and Sam go to pick up her son Callum (Graham Harvey). They tell him that they’re going camping and that he needs to pack a bag. Unbeknownst to Sam and Ruzek, Callum was given a burner phone by his grandfather and was told to call him if his mother attempted to take him out of the city. 

The rest of the team moves in to one of the terrorist’s headquarters, but Richard was tipped off by his grandson and was no longer at that location. While searching the building, Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) realizes that the building is rigged to explode and gets everyone ut with seconds to spare. 

Not only did his grandfather give him a burner phone, he also gave him a gun, which he uses to shoot Ruzek in the upper abdomen. Sam rushes towards the sound of the gunshot, fearing for her child, but she discovers that Callum shot Ruzek. She takes Ruzek’s ringing phone from his bloody hand, takes Callum and flees, fearing that her son would be incarcerated for shooting a cop. The mom and son leave Ruzek for dead. 

Much like what Burgess went through when she was shot and left for dead, Ruzek had to crawl to save his own life. He threw himself down the stairs to get to his phone, but his hand was too bloody to unlock the screen. He manages to call Burgess who rushes to rescue him. He is barely conscious when Voight arrives. Burgess rides with him to the hospital and promises him that they would find Callum and keep him safe from Richard. 

Burgess finds Sam and Callum and agrees to say that Sam shot Ruzek instead of Callum. Before Burgess can take Sam into custody, Richard speeds in and rams the car Sam was attempting to escape in, narrowly missing Sam and Burgess. He grabs Callum and uses him as a human shield in a standoff against Voight as Voight tells Burgess to put Sam in the car. 

Richard tells Voight that Callum is ready to die for his cause and before the two can hop back into Richard’s pickup truck, Atwater takes him out with a head shot, leaving Callum physically unharmed. 

As the season closes Ruzek’s status is unknown. We do not know if he survived the shooting. 

One Chicago finales
(Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC)

The One Chicago series has certainly given us a lot to process over the summer! We will continue to cover One Chicago news during the hiatus. Watch for our coverage of the cast during this break.


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