Saying goodbye to a fan-favorite character, particularly one which has been a part of the sequence for the reason that starting, isn’t simple.
And with Chicago PD Season 10 Episode 3, solely the third installment into the season, that is what they did by giving Jesse Lee Soffer’s Jay Halstead a sendoff.
It’s arduous to explain how we’re speculated to really feel about it, although.
Two issues will be true on the identical time. One, Jesse Lee Soffer gave us a really unimaginable efficiency all through the hour and was a pleasure to look at. And two, that sendoff was rushed and weird.
The information that Jesse Lee Soffer could be leaving had followers of the sequence in utter shock, dismay, and denial.
The lack of any info surrounding the character of the departure has solely fueled the hearth. We could by no means know the whys surrounding the exit; all we all know is the affect that it will go away on the sequence and viewers.
But a departure of such a staple of the sequence and one of many authentic characters earlier than a midseason finale or finale is solely uncommon. It’s hardly ever achieved for a cause.
It takes time to present a staple character the sendoff they, the actor, and the followers deserve. It’s one thing that must be deliberate effectively and thought out.
There’s been an inflow of mind-boggling exits on primetime as of late, and it has been arduous to swallow. No, there is no appeasing everybody, however a superb story is an effective story.
As a daily installment, the hour was action-packed and entertaining. The case was riveting, and it was arduous to take my eyes off the display screen with every part that transpired.
As a closing installment for a beloved character (assuming that the open-ended shut does not result in visits), there is no getting round how rushed the entire thing was.
They had three installments to develop a storyline that may result in Halstead exiting the sequence, leaving a job he loves behind, abandoning his place as Voight’s proper hand, and strolling away from a brand new marriage.
And they did not feasibly give us sufficient to work inside these three installments. They crammed weeks price of buildup right into a single episode and shipped Halstead off to Bolivia by the top.
With extra time and respiratory room, even when it wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea, they might’ve made this precise ending work by fleshing it out extra and maybe reaching this related conclusion by the midseason.
After all, we spent your entire first half of Chicago PD Season 9 watching Hailey’s descent into darkness and anxiousness over her actions in that season opener.
I did the precise factor when it counted. Didn’t I try this?
Lenny
Halstead deserved that kind of time, and so did viewers.
Because it was a rushed hodgepodge of issues it felt like have been lacking items of the puzzle on Halstead’s headspace, how all of this caught as much as him, and the turning level he made in being a person who could not fathom returning to the army and was indignant at Mouse for his selection, to mirroring it.
It felt like they borrowed bits and items from earlier plots. Halstead heading to some military unit as a result of the world is extra black and white, and that is what he wants — it is an actual reproduction of how Mouse exited the sequence.
And possibly it was an intentional callback meant to showcase how Halstead got here full circle with reaching that very same conclusion. Something he did not perceive again then, he will get all too effectively now, and there is an intention poetic impact to that.
Halstead loving Hailey however abruptly leaving her for a job alternative and for what’s finest for him rips off Erin’s exit, which is unlucky contemplating the discourse over time that led to parallels drawn between the 2 relationships all the time.
Halstead: One dangerous act does not make you a foul particular person. You and I each know that.
Hailey: What? Jay, can I speak to you for a second? This is not you.
Halstead: What is not?
Hailey: Everything!
At least Halstead’s exit wasn’t as terrible or out of character as Antonio’s, however the notion that Halstead did not wish to change into like Voight or reasonably did wish to change into him had tinges of Antonio’s descent in these final days.
If it wasn’t obvious how a lot of a rush job it was, the dearth of any closing goodbyes between Halstead and the opposite group members was jarring.
Credit the place it is due; they at the least gave us a uncommon Halstead and Burgess scene early within the installment. You can rely on one hand the quantity of these we have gotten in 10 years.
But it sucks that they drove the break up group dynamic into the bottom, and it caught even for Halstead’s closing moments. Why could not Halstead say goodbye to Burgess, Ruzek, or Atwater?
Why did not he get a second with Trudy, who’s just like the Den Mom of the squad and has private connections with all of them and would’ve had a assured, candy, emotional second?
Why did not Halstead get to say goodbye to his new mentee, Torres? A small scene of him giving the child some parting phrases would’ve been endearing and made for a beautiful passing of the torch second.
Why did Halstead present up at Chicago Med twice and nonetheless did not get a scene together with his brother?
They at the least supplied us with closing moments with Hailey and Voight. But in doing so, it was obvious how typically these dynamics have been pitfalls.
Not as a result of they weren’t good ones, however as a result of Halstead bought caught in a rotation with those self same two characters, and we missed out on a lot, and he suffered narratively due to it.
By now, it is no secret that this reviewer is not an Upstead shipper or was invested a lot in that relationship. But I sympathize with those that are and nonetheless admire wise storytelling.
Soffer and Spiradakos gave their all throughout that goodbye scene, and their feelings livened up the weird writing, however even with their finest efforts, they could not make this make any sense.
It felt like they have been setting them up for a wedding that fizzled out or some type of breakup. Narratively, it most likely would’ve made extra sense in the event that they caught with that.
Whether you loved the pairing or not, there have been so many unresolved points and communication issues between them that it felt like that ought to’ve gone someplace.
In the previous couple of installments, the gap between them was pronounced. Halstead had shut down on her utterly. And they merely by no means did something with that.
They might’ve spun it into one thing about them getting married too quickly or unpacked some trauma or no matter else. Instead, it simply went unaddressed.
Halstead instructed her that she was the love of his life, and so they hadn’t ended their relationship. Still, he additionally primarily emotionally manipulated her into agreeing that she ought to let him go if she actually cherished him. He deserted her for an indeterminate period of time by leaving the nation that very same day.
Halstead: We’re doing it once more.
Voight: What?
Halstead: We’re doing it once more.
Voight: Listen, we do not have a variety of time. Now give me the knife.
Halstead: What the hell am I doing?
And he did that after he went to the Chief with out talking to her about his plans and resigned with out a lot as discussing together with her. I imply, she’s his spouse, so all of that is bizarre as hell.
Hell, I do not understand how Hailey is meant to course of any of this. For the story and character’s sake, it is one thing that begs to be explored — the abandonment scars listed below are astronomical.
But I am unable to say that I’m excited to see that side of the season unfold, despite the fact that it is necessary. Halstead is gone now, and I am unable to say I’m in a greater place to know Upstead, the place this leaves them, and why they pushed so arduous to marry them off if it ended up like this.
And are we supposed to carry out for some Dear John letter down the highway? It’s just like the Gabby/Casey state of affairs and the Casey/Brett state of affairs on Chicago Fire.
I do not know what to make of Halstead’s closing scene with Voight both. He sounded confused himself. He desires to be Voight, so he has to depart.
The two of them have a sophisticated relationship, and so they turned the Boy Scout, Voight’s Keeper bit on its head with these phrases. It felt extra true to Hailey than to Halstead.
But Halstead is gone, and Voight has misplaced one other particular person he respects and cares about, so the theme stays that Voight retains dropping his individuals.
If the weirdness round this serving as an exit weren’t so outstanding, this may’ve been a rattling good episode.
Ironically, this was probably the most fascinating Halstead has been in years, and that is as a result of they gave Jesse Lee Soffer extra to do. It’s a pity they gave him all this materials for his closing installment. He actually delivered.
That opening montage with the nervous tapping of the ring finger and the rising distance between Halstead and Hailey was superbly shot and directed.
The motion on the pharmacy was pulse-pounding, and so was Halstead’s time in that warehouse. When he repeatedly stabbed Watts, my jaw was on the ground in shock.
And you might inform that Halstead had checked out and was in shock for a bit, which felt like a short callback to his long-abandoned PTSD, and it made me want that these little issues have been explored extra over time.
Halstead crossed all kinds of traces with this case, however he was dedicated to it the second he entered that pharmacy. His instantaneous reference to Lenny added that private aspect that makes a case good.
Halstead: I assumed you hated lengthy goodbyes.
Voight: You might have any job you need within the division. You do not want me. You’re previous that. If you do not wish to be me…
Halstead: No, it is worse than that. I do. I do wish to be you. But it is such as you all the time instructed me. I’m not, and I should not strive.
Halstead went off the deep finish a couple of occasions, and everybody seen it. His no-knock entries into the meth-head home, the deal he could not ship on whereas interrogating him, the selection to depart issues out from Voight — all of it was intense.
Ironically, it did not really feel as out of character as it could appear to some followers as a result of we have seen how Halstead will get when he is passionate a few case earlier than, the way it can cloud his judgment, and the way he can bend the principles.
He simply took it up a couple of notches. It was certain to land him in some type of hassle. Hailey tried to be his voice of cause your entire time, however she could not get via to him.
But it is like they’ve all been via and achieved too many issues to drag one another’s card, and possibly that is on the core of the issue.
It’s arduous for Hailey to play an ethical compass when he is aware of what she’s achieved and might’t push that out of his thoughts. Of course, he’d go to the lengths he did to guard Lenny after his bond with him.
It was a cycle that needed to break. Halstead ended up in the identical state of affairs that required Voight and Hailey to develop cowl tales to guard him from his actions.
They could not maintain happening that route over and over. Understandably, he needed to put an finish to it. While he nonetheless did not get to personal his actions due to the Chief, he bought to stop on his phrases and go into one thing he felt suited him higher. Lenny’s phrases about how he did the precise factor when it counted caught with him.
Halstead placing an finish to that cycle is noble, and it stays true to him because the Boy Scout, even when a lot of the opposite stuff was wonky. Halstead felt so misplaced, and I want there was extra buildup or a deeper dive into that as a result of it might have been much more compelling with time.
Halstead: We’re doing it once more.
Voight: What?
Halstead: We’re doing it once more.
Voight: Listen, we do not have a variety of time. Now give me the knife.
Halstead: What the hell am I doing?
It’s no query that Halstead’s absence will go away a void within the sequence.
Over to you, Chicago PD Fanatics. How did you’re feeling about Halstead’s departure? Sound off beneath!
If you wish to relive the very best Halstead moments, you may watch Chicago PD on-line right here through TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior employees author for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
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