Chicago PD season 7 midseason report: Jay Halstead
By Kari Highman
What it means
Since Chicago PD connected the dots between “False Positive” and “Absolution” for us, there’s not much else to report regarding those episodes. They did a fantastic job explaining the professional connection Jay had, as well as exploring his feelings surrounding the case.
The biggest question for Jay Halstead right now is if the case with Angela will literally be his last, or if he will live another day to fight the criminals of Chicago. It does bode well that NBC sent Jesse Lee Soffer out to do interviews regarding the fall finale; but that “To Be Continued” has some fans worried for the detective.
If Jay doesn’t survive, the show will be changed indefinitely. Chicago Med’s Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) would lose his brother, not to mention the only family he had left. Upton would lose her partner again. Voight would lose another member of the unit, and Intelligence would be irrevocably affected. With the passing of Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas), not to mention the exits of Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda), Voight’s unit could definitely crumble.
If Jay does pull through, he will still have a long road ahead of him. Even when he heals from the physical gunshot wound, his mental health will be the bigger hurdle. Season 5 saw him finally get help for his PTSD, but having two (one being in last year’s crossover) near-death experiences over the last two years could really set him back.
He will need all the support, both from his family and his co-workers if he is to overcome the mental complications. What it could mean for Jay though is that we would finally get to see him really open up more in a normalized setting. We see Chicago Med’s Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) treat people with psychotherapy, but the last time Jay got help it was almost entirely done off-screen. It’d be nice if we saw something like that on-screen this time.