The 5 most painful One Chicago breakups
2. Lindsay and Halstead, Chicago PD
Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) may have started out with their own separate love interests on Chicago Fire, but they wound up becoming the central couple on Chicago PD before off-screen changes led to the demise of “Linstead.”
Lindsay was briefly one of the many love interests for Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), while Jay had an equally short-lived romance with Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund). But after those didn’t work out, it wasn’t long until sparks flew between them on Chicago PD, and they formed the core relationship over the show’s first four seasons.
Linstead deserve props for being together almost all the time and yet somehow not getting sick of each other. Not only were they a couple off the clock, but they were partners on the clock, so when one of them was in a scene there was about a 75 percent chance the other one was there, too.
And so when Sophia Bush chose to leave Chicago PD after the fourth season, One Chicago had a big problem—one that it handled badly. The show had to find some way to end the Linstead ship since it would no longer have Lindsay. Its solution? Give Halstead a previously unmentioned ex-wife whose arrival prompted him to declare he needed to move out and, apparently, end things with Erin. Huh?
It got worse. Though they never said on-screen they were done, Jay decided he wanted Erin back and that he was going to propose—leading to Sophia Bush’s final scene being Lindsay not picking up the phone while Jay was waiting with his mother’s ring.
This one hurt so much, because we could all feel how much of a gut punch this had to be for Jay. He’s ready to ask Lindsay to marry him and she either doesn’t show up or tells him no? That’s the kind of thing that hurts someone for a long time. But it was also hurtful for the fans, because there was no need for all of that drama.
We have no problem with Lindsay and Halstead breaking up; that’s what the show had to do because of Sophia Bush’s departure, which in turn was what was best for her. But couldn’t they just break up like normal people?
Adding in an ex-wife, PTSD issues (that weren’t even really explored until Chicago PD season 5), and a marriage proposal just added salt into what was an already painful wound.