Fans of Dick Wolf's Chicago shows have a big night ahead of them this Wednesday, as the big, three-show crossover is going down early in the new season. And, while we already knew that a big fire will play into this crossover, now we also know that some beloved characters will be going through quite a family crises when the drama picks up. Specifically, brothers Jay and Will Halstead will be dealing with a very scary situation. When I spoke with actor Nick Gehlfuss, who plays Will on Chicago Med, at One Chicago Day a few weeks ago, he revealed that the siblings will be worried sick about their dad, Pat.
Here, what happens is, it's part of the crossover. Our father, we're not sure if he's caught in a fire. So, I'm at the hospital receiving patients coming in and he's on the scene, [we're] really trying to find out where our dad is. We moved him to a new building, because our childhood home, we came to find out, was falling apart, so we wanted to give him a better living arrangement. And, it just so happens that a fire starts at this big, high rise building.
Eesh. Talk about a shitty day at work. Can you imagine how (undeservedly) guilty you'd feel if you were trying to help out one of your parents by paying for them to have a much better home, but then that home turns into a towering inferno? Add to that the fact that neither Jay nor Will is going to know whether or not their father was actually caught in the fire, injured or even killed, and you can tell that the anxiety for these two is going to be even more off the charts than usual when dealing with a mass casualty situation.
While the Halstead brothers haven't always had the best relationship, they've been pretty close for some time now. Much of that seems to be due to the fact that neither of them were particularly close to their father growing up or in young adulthood, and, as of a few years ago while Jay was still in the military and deployed to Afghanistan, they lost their mother to cancer. So, they seemed to have mended their relationship as a way to cope with not having much other reliable family to depend on. One of the best parts about watching these two characters has been seeing them grow as brothers, as well as characters in general. It's always nice to watch them banter, stand up for one another or just give each other caring, brotherly advice.
Of course, even though they weren't close to Pat for most of their lives until this point, each brother has recently made great strides to mend the father-son bond with him, as well. And, it's worked well enough that Will and Jay banded together to try to give dear old dad a better life. Let's hope that their efforts, and newly formed closeness to Pat, hasn't ended up impairing his health or costing him his life. Jay and Will would likely have a very hard time getting over that.
You can see how the Halstead family drama gets resolved when Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. air the big crossover tomorrow, starting at 8 p.m. EST on NBC. To see what else you can catch on the small screen, be sure to check out our 2018 fall premiere guide.
