Which One Chicago finale had the best cliffhanger?

Chicago Fire

What happened: Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) finally hooked up with reporter Naomi Graham (recurring guest star Kate Villanova) after she’d been not so subtly flirting with him. But after they shared their night of passion, Casey woke up to find out that somehow, the rest of his apartment was on fire.

What we think: This was the most obvious cliffhanger in the One Chicago universe this week. If the name of your show is Chicago Fire and you’ve gotten all the way to the end of a fall finale with nothing catching on fire, it’d be a bit weird. Something had to go up in flames.

The trailer company executives openly threatening to attack Naomi personally made it easy to tell that they’d try to do something before the end of the episode. And since Naomi had been all over Casey practically since she was introduced, the two of them being together when that happened was a foregone conclusion.

Unfortunately, this cliffhanger felt a little like deja vu, because Casey was one of the characters at risk in a much bigger fire back in season 5. And it’s also tied to a storyline that’s just not that great; is anyone that concerned about Naomi? Even if you are, that plotline has to end sooner rather than later. It’s not something the show can stretch over the back half of the season.

The one interesting thing here was if you start thinking of Casey’s burning apartment as some kind of metaphor for him saying goodbye to his relationship with ex-wife Gabriela Dawson. But we don’t know if that’s what the show actually meant by it, or if it just wanted to light some stuff on fire.

How we’d grade it: 3rd place out of 3, for familiar themes and not as much impact on Chicago Fire past the halfway point.