Yahoo Lifestyle #OneChicago Showrunners Preview the 'Insane' Three-Way Crossover Episodes (Exclusive)
Not since Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over the lantern that allegedly started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 has the Windy City seen the likes of the fire on the #OneChicago three-way crossover.
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However, the cause of the explosion in the “In the Trenches” episodes is much more modern. It takes place in the server room of a subbasement of a high rise, and the fire is so hot that the sprinkler system is overwhelmed, starting a disastrous chain reaction of events.
“Our 51 guys are first on the scene of this explosion that has rocked the city,” Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman tells Parade. “They’re there to take over the scene and try and get people out of danger. The stakes just keep rising, and the danger just keeps growing. We have to try and wrangle it as best we can, get people safe and get out this fire, and try and stop this massive collapse from happening.”
There are 500 people working in the high rise, 10 of whom get trapped in the basement. But the fire and the ensuing rubble also stops one of the commuter subways running underground, so all the people onboard are also trapped. To raise the emotional stakes, entombed along with them are Fire's Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and P.D.'s Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger).
The special effects on the episode are quite spectacular from start to finish, movie-worthy, actually. And to make it happen, a little extra was put into the budget to give the team a little more to play with.
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“We have the most amazing group of special effects people on the planet led by John Milinac,” Newman explains. “He created this fire geyser. We don’t do the vis effects; we don’t add it in post. This was a real fire geyser on the streets of Chicago that was three or four stories high. It was insane. When we had drone shots, they had to move around it because the drones started to melt because the fire was so hot and so high.”
Of course, as part of the Firehouse 51 team, Violet (Hanako Greensmith) is on hand doing triage. But also, Chicago Med’s Dr. John Frost (Darren Barnet) just happened to be doing a ride along so he is also on the scene immediately, before being joined by Dr. Archer (Steven Weber) and then the rest of the staff of Chicago Gaffney take over when the ambulances discharge the wounded at the hospital.
“There’s a lot of casualties from that incident. And the ones that are still alive end up being rushed to Med,” Chicago Med showrunner Allen MacDonald tells Parade. “There is a bit of a mystery played out of what really happened behind the scenes, was this an accident? Was it not an accident? There’s a little suspicion that it may not have been, and when the P.D. characters specifically are exploring that, they’re asking questions of everybody, and they're trying to interview victims at the hospital. And so a lot of the survivors from the explosion end up in the hospital.”
The episodes are so integrated that it feels like a movie, rather than three episodes of TV. You watch it from start to finish (with commercial breaks) because the order of the shows is rotated for the night: Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and then Chicago P.D., whose Intelligence squad is tasked with searching for the two culprits responsible for starting the fire, which caused the explosion that led to structural collapse.
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What makes it flow so well is that, initially, three writers–Fire's Victor Teran from Fire, Med's Stephen Hootstein, and P.D.'s Joe Halpin–were assigned to put their heads together and germinate the idea. Then, after approval from Dick Wolf, each wrote their scripts. But. in order to keep the characters from shows other than theirs true, the scripts were given what MacDonald calls a “voice pass.”
“For example, P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan along with Joe Halpin," he explained, "and went through it and would say, ‘We think that [Hank Voight] would actually say it this way.’ All the shows did that to the other two shows. They all worked together.”
This three-way crossover was five years in the making. There were a lot of reasons behind the delay, such as COVID protocols and the writers and actors strikes. So, will it take that long for it to happen for a third time?
“It all depends on how well it does and how it’s received,” MacDonald says. “I know I’m incredibly proud of the three-hour crossover and I think everyone in the #OneChicago world feels that way. As far as it happening every year, it’s a pretty big thing to pull off. I think in success you can anticipate another one coming up quicker than five years. I don’t know if it’ll be next season but maybe not long after that.”
The #OneChicago crossover starts tonight at 8 p.m. with Chicago Fire, followed by Chicago Med at 9 and then Chicago P.D. wraps it up at 10 on NBC. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
