One Chicago’s Latest Crossover Didn’t Need To Toy With My Emotions Like That

The recent One Chicago crossover, “In the Trenches,” is a winner, easily leading the TV ratings for the week. Thrilling from beginning to end, our heroes from Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. all get drawn into the utter chaos that begins with a series of underground gas explosions around Chicago’s City Employee Benefits Department building. The cause of the explosion is a mystery that has everyone on edge, acting atypical — or, in Hank Voight’s (Jason Beghe) case, pretty much on brand — and driven with a palpable urgency. But what the serious f**k, NBC? Why would you toy with our emotions by killing off Sergeant Trudy (Amy Morton), the strongest and arguably the most fascinating character in the One Chicago franchise? To quote one Taylor Swift, “Why you gotta be so mean?”

‘One Chicago’s Sergeant Trudy Platt Gets Taken Down “In the Trenches”

The aforementioned explosions are a disaster in every sense of the word. People lay on the streets with varying degrees of injury, including one poor fellow whose legs need to be amputated to save his life. Others are trapped, none more alarmingly than a train full of people in the subway tunnel, with the tunnel threatening to collapse in on them at any time. But thanks to Chief Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), Sam Carver (Jake Lockett), and Darren Ritter (Daniel Kyri), the gas leak is stopped, taking at least one threat off the table.

Sent into the subbasement to find the source of the fire, Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Herrmann (David Eigenberg) locate it in a server room and quickly realize it was arson, meant to cover up the theft of a data storage drive, storing $250 million dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency, belonging to the Employee Pension Fund. That brings the 21st District Intelligence Unit in to investigate, including Sergeant Trudy. As she’s looking over security footage, Severide radios, explaining that he found two of the robbers trapped, but they got away. Trudy, Ruzek (Patrick Flueger), and former PD officer Lauren Bates (Jennifer Regan) head to the sub-basement and split off, searching for the offenders. Trudy corners one, but just as she goes to cuff him, she’s shot in the back. She’s taken to Med, only she codes, and the doctors can’t restart her heart. Sergeant Trudy Platt is dead.

Don’t Mess Around with ‘One Chicago’s Sergeant Trudy Platt

Despite getting shot multiple times in the back and actually clinically dead, Dr. Ripley (Luke Mitchell) suggests a risky procedure that involves cooling Trudy down to “pause” her death, allowing Dr. Lenox (Sarah Ramos) time to fix the holes before restarting her heart. The procedure works, and Trudy is revived, much to Mouch’s (Christian Stolte) relief (especially given how their last encounter before her death involved him remembering he totally forgot her birthday).

Now, the likelihood of three bullets not causing significant, permanent damage is pretty farfetched, but we don’t care: we got our Sergeant Trudy Platt back. But why would you even think to endanger Trudy? Despite her role being criminally underwhelming in recent years, Trudy is still a cornerstone of the franchise. She takes no guff, she exudes confidence and authority, she’s empathetic when she needs to be, witty, and sharp when it’s called for. She’s one of the franchise’s most well-rounded characters, thanks in large part to Amy Morton’s amazing grasp of the character.

It’s why we’re so attached to her and why her death in the crossover event hit so hard (my wife literally had tears in her eyes). Trudy’s been around since the beginning, and as such, we’ve developed an attachment to her that’s uncomplicated, unlike other long-standing characters who’ve done at least one or two things that lead us to question their character. But the bait and switch just might lead to what we’ve wanted all along: more Sergeant Trudy. Being resuscitated after such a harrowing event is going to impact her future, and it would be a disservice to the character and to Chicago P.D. if that wasn’t explored. Does she go back to business as usual, does she become more hesitant, or, like how Ruzek was so torn by Detective Martel’s (Victoria Cartagena) death, only for it to be largely forgotten after a few episodes, will Trudy get a few episodes to deal with her trauma before it, too, is left by the wayside? So, NBC, as long as we get more Trudy on Chicago P.D., I’ll let this travesty of justice go. But don’t f**k around with Trudy again. Meanies.