Chicago PD’s Hailey Upton gets culture shock in FBI crossover

Chicago PD’s Hailey Upton joined the FBI for their season finale, and it didn’t go well. Find out what happened in the Chicago PD and FBI crossover.

Tuesday brought Dick Wolf fans a crossover between Chicago PD and FBI, in the form of Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) dropping in during the FBI season finale “Emotional Rescue.”

Upton arrived in New York for what was described as a few weeks of an “interagency training program.” She was partnered with Special Agent OA Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) to investigate the killing of a college student named Aman Patel.

The two interviewed the first suspect, a racist man named Frank Pritchard who had harrassed the victim, and Upton was diplomatic—to a point. She told Frank that if he harrassed anyone else, “I’m going to come back here, and I’m going to break your arm.”

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That wasn’t the first time that FBI made reference to the questionable tactics of Chicago PD‘s Intelligence Unit. “You guys have been in the news a lot, and not for good reasons,” OA said to Upton not long after they were first introduced. Upton demurred, saying their issues were “being addressed.” (But are they, really?)

And Upton mentioned her “different rules” in an interview with their next suspect, a member of the Latin Players gang that’s been referenced before on Chicago PD.

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But “Emotional Rescue” wasn’t all about how Upton’s methods didn’t work in the much less morally flexible world of the FBI. What first appeared to be a hate crime was actually a drug case involving Aman’s roommate Lucas Reed (guest star Jon McCormick). And drug cases, particularly if they involve gangs, are something the Intelligence Unit knows a lot about.

With Tracy Spiridakos in almost every scene of the episode, Upton made several contributions to the case. Her past as an abuse victim, which was brought back up during the Chicago PD episode “Intimate Violence”, was also utilized here as she got Lucas’s girlfriend Harper Quinlan (guest star Carolyn Braver) to cooperate.

She also saved OA’s life by pushing him out of the way of a bullet in an earlier scene, and the hour ended with her earning his respect when he invited her out for a drink—an invite she accepted.

One Chicago viewers certainly got plenty of Upton by watching the crossover, and the fact that she was so heavily featured was no surprise (given that FBI‘s Missy Peregrym was not in the episode). It definitely should satisfy Chicago PD fans, who are used to seeing Hailey in the middle of action scenes and interrogations.

But the ideological clash between the two sides, while discussed, felt kind of forgotten by the end, and the true test will be if Upton behaves any differently in future PD episodes, because she didn’t seem like she had changed by the conclusion of “Emotional Rescue.”

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