One Chicago: Every Chicago PD/Chicago Fire crossover, ranked
By Deb Foster
2. “Three Bells” (Chicago Fire) and “A Little Devil Complex” (Chicago PD)
The crossover that takes our second spot also happens to be the second crossover for the franchise and the first two-night event which aired on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, 2015. It consisted of the Chicago Fire episode “Three Bells” and the Chicago PD episode “A Little Devil Complex” with the story all centered on the death of paramedic Leslie Shay (Lauren German), which still ranks as one of the most shocking and impactful events in Chicago Fire’s tenure.
When Kelly Severide uncovered suspicious clues involving the fire that claimed Shay’s life, he reaches the conclusion that arson was the cause of the fire. Following his discovery, Firehouse 51 worked with Intelligence to apprehend the arsonist suspected of killing her.
The event sends Severide to prison where he visits former 51 firefighter turned arsonist Kevin Hadley (William Smillie), horribly disfigured from burn scars, who claimed to have evidence related to the case. That evidence proved fruitful in leading them to the real arsonist who they linked to several other fatal arson fires in the past; however, the CFD Fire Investigation yielded too little evidence to pursue the case.
Fortunately, Dawson went straight to her brother Detective Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) and Chicago PD picked up the case in Part 2, ” A Little Devil Complex” which presented One Chicago fans with one of the most sinister bad guys the franchise ever saw: arsonist and murderer Adrian Gish (played with ice-cold precision by guest star Robert Knepper).
We would find out that his name wasn’t actually Gish, but that he was Ross McGowan. After this discovery, McGowan planted a bomb in Burgess and Sean Roman’s (Brian Geraghty) squad car right under their noses and blew it up as they spoke with him. However, there was still one more major plot twist in McGowan’s identity. As it turned out McGowan wasn’t his true identity either. He was really Trent Lamont, who had survived a fire started by his father which killed everyone else in the family causing him to become an arsonist.
The crossover came to a terrifying conclusion when Gish/McGowan/LaMont trapped Dawson in an elevator, doused her in gasoline and was about to set her on fire when Antonio shot and killed him.
The crossover served as a final goodbye to Leslie Shay who had been the heartbeat of Firehouse 51, showed us once again how tight Gabby and Antonio are and served as an example of how thrilling a crossover event could be.