The Chicago P.D. Season 9 Episode 5 Scene Fans Thought Made No Sense
Contains mild spoilers for "Chicago P.D." Season 9, Episode 5: "Burnside"
"Chicago P.D." is the police-themed corner of NBC's "One Chicago" franchise. As such, while it's ostensibly a police procedural, it's still instrumentally a "One Chicago" show, with all the overall themes and crossover potential this entails. The show's Season 9 is well on its way, but the most recent episode, "Burnside," has caused some fans to voice their grievances about a certain scene.
Detectives Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) are something of a fan-favorite couple among the "Chicago P.D." faithful, to the point that their relationship is known as Upstead, and has its own page in the "Chicago P.D." fan wiki. What's more, this season has brought significant developments for the pair — but fans aren't really feeling one of their moments in the new episode. Here's the "Chicago P.D." season 9 episode 5 scene fans thought made no sense.
Fans think the episode should show, not tell
In the beginning of the episode, Detectives Hailey Upton and Jay Halstead briefly discuss the events of last night, and Halstead casually mentions that he let her sleep when he left because they "talked all night." According to Twitter user @thingthatworks, this is more than a little underwhelming. "'we talked all night' OK WE NEED THE FOOTAGE???" they wrote, and other users agreed with the sentiment.
The pair's relationship has been a pretty important part of the series as of late, and as such, some fans clearly feel that a casual mention of a long, meaningful late-night conversation between the two without actually showing said conversation is a violation of the "show, don't tell" policy of storytelling. Some fans even go as far as to insinuate that this is something of a recurring problem. "This show is notorious for dropping big plot points or character moments at the most inconvenient times. The writing will never not be frustrating," @AcunaAndrew tweeted.
To be fair, though, this particular episode largely focuses its storytelling lens on Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins). It's highly likely that "Chicago P.D." will still give fans plenty of Upstead-centric moments in the future, so perhaps the season will eventually deliver on that promise of deep, late-night dialogue between the two.