Find a recap of everything Upton and Halstead got up to during One Chicago’s crossover, as the actors reminisce about their return to Chicago P.D.
At long last, Chihards got to enjoy a reunion between former Chicago P.D. power couple Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) amid P.D.’s action-packed crossover event with Chicago Fire and Chicago Med.
Upstead was a One Chicago love story worth rooting for, so many Chihards were devastating after Halstead moved to Bolivia to accept an undercover assignment in the army, leading to Upton being forced to file for a heart-shattering divorce. We were left with even more tears after Upton turned in her badge in P.D.’s Season 11 finale, leaving Chicago after perusing various job openings. With the couple broken up and out of the Windy City, P.D. fans were left wondering where Upton and Halstead landed all these years.
It turns out that Upton is now a Special Agent for the FBI working out of Detroit. She returned to Chicago hot on the trail of a Bolivian drug mule on board a commercial flight heading toward the Windy City. Confused by the flight’s sudden lack of communication, Upton and the feds called the Firehouse 51 crew for backup on the high-stakes landing.
As it turns out, she wasn’t alone in returning to the Windy City after she learned her ex-husband, Jay Halstead, was entangled in a drug smuggling operation ultimately destined for disaster.
“We’re very excited to get to be back,” Spiradakos told NBC Insider ahead of the episode, revealing that once she and Soffer got a call from the P.D. team, it didn’t take long for either to accept the offer to return. “We both, very excitedly, said yes right away.”
Behind the scenes, the vibes are higher than ever, with the former P.D. co-stars revealing they were treated to a joyful “hip hip hooray” greeting from the entire Chicago P.D. set during Spiradakos’ and Soffer’s first day back.
Hailey Upton returned to Chicago after learning Jay Halstead was in trouble
After a commercial flight landed safely via autopilot, Upton’s agents and the Firehouse 51 prepared for a potential hijacking, but were shocked to discover an entire flight of passengers and crew members dead upon arrival. Upon learning the entire flight had been poisoned, Upton grimly revealed one of the deceased passengers was a famed narco-courier named Omar Bengoa, whom Upton’s unit had been tracking.
The feds were quick to assume biological terrorism after surveillance footage showed Omar dying first on the flight. But Upton didn’t feel the evidence added up to paint a picture of terrorism, especially with the intel she was sitting on.
While hunting for evidence in Omar Bengoa’s Chicago hideaway, Upton’s team discovered a surveillance photo of Omar standing next to none other than Jay Halstead, who appeared to be his accomplice. Upton kept quiet about recognizing the man standing next to Omar, later visiting her longtime mentor Sgt. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) at the Intelligence Unit to connect with him on the case. After Upton revealed her task force had caught wind of a huge meth operation in Chicago, Voight expressed confusion as to why Upton had left Detroit when the Chicago Field Office could handle it.
That’s when Upton revealed that a few weeks earlier, she’d heard chatter on a tapped line about an American drug trafficker who’d been made as an undercover U.S. military operative in Bolivia. It all sounded grimly familiar.
“Halstead,” Voight said as Upton nodded.
Upton’s team of agents teamed up with Voight’s Intelligence Unit to work the case, visiting the morgue with Chicago Med’s Dr. Caitlin Lenox (Sarah Ramos) to learn more about the mysterious toxin that had killed so many passengers. Not long after the first responders arrived, they discovered an imposter among the morgue attendees crudely cutting into Omar’s body. After Lenox flagged the lack of surgical protocol, the imposter revealed himself by setting the room ablaze before fleeing the scene.
Upton wasted no time pursuing the mysterious perp, chasing him through the morgue before being ambushed and hit in the head. The perp then seized Upton’s gun and held her at gunpoint.
Moments before being shot, Chihards everywhere applauded upon the shocking arrival of Jay Halstead, who barked for the perp to drop the weapon. As Halstead made to race after the assailant, he stopped dead in his tracks upon sight of Upton in trouble. Halstead dropped everything to check on his ex-wife, a gesture Upton refused to warmly welcome as the assailant got away.
“It’s good to see you,” Halstead said breathlessly, much to Upton’s chagrin. Despite their icy reunion, it couldn’t be a more different story behind the scenes between Spiradakos and Soffer as they got back into the P.D. groove.
“It’s like muscle memory. It’s an old glove,” Soffer told NBC Insider. “It’s so easy, everybody’s so welcoming, and we’re doing all the same bits and banter and inside jokes from a few years ago. Right away, everybody picked right back up.”
Spiradakos added, “As soon as I got to Chicago and was driving into the city, I was like, ‘It just feels like home’ And then as soon as [Soffer and I] got on set, we start teasing each other right away and getting back into the way we were before we left. And so it felt for me at least, I felt like it was stepping right back into where we had left right away.”
Jay Halstead saved and soon teamed up with Hailey Upton
Following the chaos at the morgue, Halstead swiftly joined authorities on the case, revealing that Omar had been his criminal informant and a renowned drug mule. Once Halstead divulged that Omar had been paid triple for two capsules to be surgically implanted to lower the risk of rupture during transit, the truth hit the Windy City heroes like an anvil. Upton and Lenox successfully deduced that the cabin pressure had compromised the capsule’s seal, killing Omar and everyone else on board.
Upton’s hunch was right: the tragedy hadn’t been a terrorist attack; it was a drug smuggling operation gone devastatingly wrong. After gaining this helpful lead, Upton and Halstead finally exchanged pleasantries after their many years apart. While Halstead had obviously learned Upton was in the FBI now, he was surprised to learn she was only in Chicago after learning about his undercover mission being blown.
“You were trying to protect me,” Halstead said, shocked but clearly honored. “Hailey… there were so many times that I wanted to reach out. I—”
“No. Nope, not here. Later,” Upton said, unwilling to listen to what Halstead had to say.
Halstead obliged, but it didn’t stop him from trying to bridge their immense distance as they worked together on the case. As the situation became increasingly awkward, Halstead tried to talk about their relationship, but Upton encouraged Halstead to leave the past in the past and focus on the investigation at hand. Halstead struggled to leash his protective nature, and while he exercised patience with Upton, her refusal to accept his help ruffled Halstead’s feathers.
The need for speed was at an all-time high. Not only was the nerve agent’s buyer now in possession of the deadly capsule and making moves toward another mass-casualty disaster, but several Firehouse 51 fan favorites had wound up in the hospital due to the toxic exposure from the plane, all showing signs of rapid decline after one firefighter died from the toxin.
The Intelligence Unit raced against time to solve the case and recover the capsule intact to successfully develop an antidote, with Upton and Halstead’s infallible teamwork proving paramount in tracking down the perp as a revenge-seeking Chicago local targeting a CFD memorial. Fortunately, the reunited Intelligence Unit tracked down the assailant and narrowly retrieved the capsule just in time for Gaffney’s doctors to develop an antidote, saving the day yet again.
Hailey Upton finally got her apology from Jay Halstead
With yet another Windy City case closed, Upton and Halstead helped save hundreds of lives, but unfinished business lingered between them. As Upton packed up her belongings, Halstead was eager to know when his ex-wife’s flight left for Detroit. After Upton revealed she was leaving the following morning, Halstead once again found himself with a troubling lack of time.
In an effort to extend an olive branch, Halstead admitted that he’d only stuck around Chicago to spend time with Hailey — echoing her own reasons for returning to the Windy city. The passion between the former P.D. power couple clearly hasn’t been entirely snuffed, but their relationship remains at crossroads. Upton wished Halstead well as she turned to leave, but Halstead refused to watch her walk away with anything left unsaid.
“Hailey, I’m sorry…” Halstead confessed, telling a dubious Upton. “All of it… I lost myself here, On this team, this city. And I’m sorry I couldn’t find my way back. Sorry for all the wrong I did. All of it. I’m sorry I lost you.”
Upton had finally heard the words she’d waited so long to hear: a heartfelt apology. Upton said she was sorry about how it all unfolded, as well. A small smile spread across Upton’s face as she asked Halstead what time his flight left the next day.
“I don’t care,” Halstead smiled before Upton predictably asked if he wanted to grab a drink like old times. Halstead was happy to oblige, leaving the future fate of the Upstead up in the air. Naturally, NBC Insider was keen to learn what this ending meant for the longtime couple. Is a future Upstead rekindling possible?
“For Hailey, I think it was a conversation that opened the door to further conversations for her,” Spiradakos shares. “She was quite hurt by how things were left off, but there is such a big history, even outside of the romantic relationship that they were in. They were partners for such a long time and very good friends. And so I think she was really hurt by how things were left off, but I think this last moment opened the door to more conversations.”
Soffer echoed his longtime co-star’s sentiment, adding that Halstead’s decision to stay in Chicago was a big indicator of unfinished business. “I mean, the guy hung around Chicago, didn’t need to be there,” Soffer said. “I feel like he probably just stuck around and was like, ‘All right, let’s keep talking then.'”
Watch One Chicago Wednesdays on NBC and Peacock.
