Spoilers ahead for Episode 10 of Chicago Fire Season 13, called "Chaos Theory."
The Chicago Fire team wasn't kidding with the title of "Chaos Theory" for the latest episode in the 2025 TV schedule, because one character went through some serious highs and lows before making a decision that may have cut him from the upcoming One Chicago crossover event. Joe Cruz came clean about the Flaco situation, more than a decade after he first left the gang member to die in a fire, and it could be a couple weeks before fans see Joe Mińoso again. The actor had some funny comments about crossovers when he spoke with CinemaBlend, though!
Has Cruz Been Cut From The Crossover?
Cruz's guilty conscience got the better of him in "Chaos Theory," which was good timing, because the truth seemed bound to come out after he was shot in the arm and Severide started digging once Chief Pascal showed interest. After hearing Javi boasting about having a heroic firefighter for a dad, Cruz came clean to Severide and declared his intention to turn himself in to CPD.
Fortunately, Severide had science on his side: the temperature was too high in that house all those years ago, and Flaco would have died whether or not Cruz has closed that door on him. Still, Cruz went to Chicago P.D.'s Atwater to admit what he'd done, and he was ready to pay the price for his actions... until the state's attorney informed him, Severide, and Pascal that there wasn't evidence to prosecute him.
That wasn't the end of the story, though, because Pascal knew that Cruz had lied many times and decided to suspend the Squad firefighter for two weeks without pay for "conduct unbecoming, effective immediately." Cruz agreed that his actions of lying and withholding information had been unacceptable, saying that he'd told Chloe the same thing and he was ashamed of what he'd done.
Pascal didn't seem to think less of Cruz by the end, though, when Cruz confirmed that he came clean despite learning from Severide that nobody would ever have to find out what he'd done if he never said anything. "I want to be the man my son thinks I am," explained Cruz, and that seems to be the end of the story.
And Pascal ended the scene by telling him that he'd see him in two weeks, and the One Chicago crossover is just one week away on January 29. So, does that mean Cruz won't be part of it? Well, if we account for NBC delaying new One Chicago episodes last Wednesday, January 29 would have been the two-week mark. Still, a suspension could mean that Cruz just won't be on the job when everything goes sideways for the three series.
Basically, we just don't know if his suspension means Cruz won't appear in Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. next week, but there are certainly reasons to wonder. And either way, I love what Joe Mińoso said about One Chicago crossover events.
Joe Mińoso's Take On One Chicago's Event
I spoke with Joe Mińoso in early January as part of NBC's One Chicago winter premiere event about the "fully ridiculous" way Chicago Fire revisited Season 1 and what still terrifies Cruz after all this time. Since he's been part of the franchise from the very beginning, I wondered: did he have any advice for the newer cast members who haven't been part of a three-show crossover before? He first joked that other One Chicago stars should "get as small a storyline as you can, because it means the most days off," then said:
No, be yourself. Have fun. These things are always sort of like visiting your cousin's house and playing with their toys, and cousins have quirks. And so we all come with our own individual quirks. Fire has many of them, and hopefully we don't tear down Med's set. Steven Weber, he has it so good. Everything is so clean over there, mostly heated all the time. They're walking around in comfy scrubs. I don't need to give them advice. They're living the life up there. We call it Club Med, actually, on Fire, so they don't need my advice. They're doing just fine without me.
Chicago Med certainly is the One Chicago show that usually keeps the cast indoors and dressed in comfy clothes! In fact, S. Epatha Merkerson commented that the Med doctors and nurses get to basically work in "pajamas and slippers" while she had to wear "suits and high heels" as administrator Sharon Goodwin. Fire also causes a lot more destruction than the other two shows, so there can be trouble on the Med set if much of the crossover is set there.
And in a funny twist, Joe Mińoso shouted out Steven Weber specifically because Weber was representing Chicago Med at the same One Chicago winter premiere junket that the Fire actor was part of. In fact, I'd spoken to Weber just minutes before I was able to interview Mińoso, and asked for Fire actor's take on Weber's suggestion that the upcoming event is "the One Chicago version of Avengers: Endgame." Mińoso jokingly responded:
It's funny that he says that too, because I remember when we first started the show and the first crossover we ever did, that's exactly what I was saying. I was like, 'Oh my god, this is exactly like the Avengers.' But I was saying that about the first Avengers movie. I was like, 'We're basically TV's Avengers, because we're doing all this crazy crossover stuff.' So of course Steven Weber would steal my line. That sounds just like him.
Joking aside, all signs point to an exciting night of primetime for the crossover, which will be the franchise's' first three-parter since the pre-COVID "Infection" event of 2019. (You can find "Infection" streaming with a Peacock subscription now.) We may have to wait until it airs on Wednesday, January 29 to be sure about whether or not Cruz will be part of it, though!
