One Chicago questions of the week: Week of March 13
By Deb Foster
2. Where were the oxygen masks after the bombing?
It’s the attention to detail that can make or break the authenticity of any show, particularly an action-based show like Chicago PD, in which the details are often connected to life or death moments. The rescue of Sergeant Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) after she was trapped in a burning TV studio following the bomb explosion in “Profiles” is one of those moments where the details didn’t add up in One Chicago.
After the shocking explosion, Platt immediately took charge (as we’d expect her to). Although injured herself, she located the lone other survivor and dragged the badly injured woman through the burning to a room that would hopefully provide shelter long enough for them to be rescued. Once they got there, Platt improvised a filter for the other woman to breathe from and then waited for help, coughing and choking on the toxic smoke all the while. Clearly both women would need oxygen as soon as possible.
Severide to the rescue! But wait, he’s entered this burning television studio filled with enormous amounts of electronic and computer equipment that just experienced an explosion of as yet unknown cause only a few minutes ago. So he knows it’s filled with smoke and possibly toxic chemicals, and he doesn’t wear an oxygen mask? Really?
Even if you say he’s tough and can take it, Severide also knows that if Platt is still alive, she has been breathing the same stuff in for a while now and will absolutely need oxygen. And then when he does get to her, all he does is point the way out for the woman who only moments ago was choking for air? Shouldn’t he have brought something for Platt, if not himself?
It’s a small misstep that unfortunately led to the immediate and premature de-escalation of the life-threatening drama the writers had spent the previous ten minutes building up. In many ways, it followed the pattern of cliffhangers without much payoff that we’ve experienced this One Chicago season, because Platt was generally fine just like everyone else before her – and it was distracting to wonder about that one detail in the erm, heat of the moment.