Which One Chicago finale had the best cliffhanger?

Chicago PD

What happened: While struggling with his drug addiction, Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) found the drug dealer slash rapist who had abducted his daughter Eva. In the process of getting a few well deserved shots in, the perpetrator went through a boarded-up window and fell to his death. The near-instant wail of police sirens implied that his death would need to be covered up.

What we think: This cliffhanger wasn’t as obvious as the one on Chicago Fire, but any One Chicago fan who’d been following the episode could connect the dots. It was to be expected that Antonio would want a piece of the man who shoved his daughter into the trunk of a car, and it’s not that hard to see how that could easily go south. At least the show didn’t go to the extreme and have Antonio beat the guy to death.

But this is the ending with the most potential, because it has the most ways that it could go very wrong. It’s obvious that the next episode will pick up in the immediate aftermath of this accident. Now Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) has to cover for Antonio, when Antonio didn’t cover for him after last season.

Voight will do it; he even tried to give the perp what he wanted earlier in the episode just to set Antonio’s daughter free. And Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) has already made his stance on covering for his teammates very clear. But how much can they cover up? The crime, probably, but what about Antonio’s addiction? And oh yeah, Antonio still has to get over said addiction.

Unless Chicago PD does some sort of handwave later in the season and skips forward, the issues set up by this cliffhanger won’t be resolved easily. Between lying about how a suspect died and a good cop with a terrible problem, these are things that take time. The potential for how much the show could dig into these questions is exciting.

Especially if this mixes with the ongoing political subplot and Deputy Superintendent Katherine Brennan (recurring guest star Anne Heche) gets wind of exactly how messed up Antonio is. She wouldn’t be happy, because that would make him a liability.

How we’d rank it: 1st place out of 3, for a cliffhanger that has the most story potential and felt the most organic.

Do you agree with our assessment that Chicago PD had the best One Chicago ending of all the fall finales? Let us know your thoughts on this week’s cliffhangers in the comments, and tune back in on Jan. 9 to see how they get resolved.