The 2025 One Chicago Crossover Featured A Pairing I Didn't Know I Needed After 9 Years
Spoiler alert: The following article contains spoilers from the 2025 One Chicago crossover, "In the Trenches."
After more than five years, the One Chicago TV shows finally reunite in 2025, and the three-hour episode focuses on one pairing that surprisingly never worked together in previous crossovers. The event begins with a mysterious gas explosion at a government building. Consequently, characters from Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med join forces to rescue victims and investigate who is behind the attack. Throughout the highly anticipated crossover, many lives are at stake (including those of a handful of familiar faces) as Firehouse 51, the Intelligence Unit, and Gaffney Chicago Medical Center race against the clock to save their own.
New episodes of One Chicago air on Wednesdays on NBC, with Chicago Med at 8 pm ET, Chicago Fire at 9 pm ET, and Chicago PD at 10 pm ET.
Thankfully, every One Chicago character makes it out alive. However, it's touch and go for a few of them for a long time, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats for three hours. One of the perpetrators shoots Chicago PD's Trudy Platt in the back, leaving her in critical condition until Chicago Med's Dr. Caitlin Lenox and Dr. Mitch Ripley save her. Meanwhile, one Chicago Fire character and another from Chicago PD are stuck underground on a train. The two, who have never been paired up before, work together to ensure the safety of all the passengers and ultimately survive the disaster.
One Chicago's 2025 Crossover Features Kidd & Ruzek Working Together For The First Time
The Chicago Fire & Chicago PD Characters Get Stuck Underground
2025's One Chicago crossover starts with Chicago Fire, and the hour ends with Stella Kidd and Adam Ruzek trapped underground. A train crashed into rubble after the explosion. So, Kidd and Sam Carver head down to get the passengers to safety. While Sam escapes with one injured civilian, Kidd gets stuck with the others on the train as the tunnel collapses, cutting off their exits. Before it does, though, Ruzek is chasing one of the suspects, who leads him to the underground train. As a result, Kidd and Ruzek are forced to work together for the first time in One Chicago's history.
One Chicago TV Show | Season(s) | Episodes | Creators | Backdoor Pilot Premiere Date | Release Date | Finale Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago Fire | 13 | 263 | Michael Brandt and Derek Haas | N/A | October 10, 2012 | TBA |
Chicago PD | 12 | 232 | Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead | May 15, 2013 | January 8, 2014 | TBA |
Chicago Med | 10 | 187 | Dick Wolf and Matt Olmstead | April 7, 2015 | November 17, 2015 | TBA |
Chicago Justice | 1 | 13 | Dick Wolf | May 11, 2016 | March 1, 2017 | May 14, 2017 |
Kidd and Ruzek tend to the wounded and contact their coworkers above to help everyone escape the tunnel. Unfortunately, they don't get saved until the very end, leading to a few close calls throughout the three-hour event. However, Kidd and Ruzek prove to be a great duo, despite their little onscreen interaction before the crossover. Before the premiere of "In the Trenches," Patrick John Flueger, who plays Ruzek, discussed finally getting to act opposite Miranda Rae Mayo, who portrays Kidd, while speaking with TV Insider. He said:
"Miranda and I have been quite close for a long time. We travel together, we're pals outside of everything. So getting to finally actually act with her, which I've never done before, and if we have, it's been with a lot of people around, so to do a little one-on-one with her was really fun. We had a good time, really supportive of each other, and I think we found things that weren't necessarily on the page, and we had a really good team that we worked with as far as the day players and even the background folks that we were working with were incredible."
Why Ruzek & Kidd Have Never Worked Before Despite Being In One Chicago For So Long
Miranda Rae Mayo Didn't Join One Chicago Until 2016
Whereas Flueger's Ruzek has been with the Chicago PD cast since season 1, Mayo's Kidd joined Chicago Fire in the middle of season 4. Consequently, Ruzek and Kidd didn't cross paths during the first One Chicago crossover featuring all three TV shows — "The Beating Heart" in January 2016. However, the two characters still never directly worked together in other crossovers once Kidd entered the universe.
As Flueger mentioned during his interview with TV Insider, Ruzek and Kidd might have shared scenes while in big groups in previous crossovers, such as "Infection" in 2019. The two characters never interacted with each other one-on-one until "In the Trenches," though. The opportunity for Ruzek and Kidd to team up seemingly never presented itself. Nevertheless, after surviving the 2025 three-hour event side-by-side, Ruzek and Kidd are bonded for life in the One Chicago universe.
Ruzek & Kidd's One Chicago Crossover Partnership Is Exciting For Their Respective Storylines
Both Characters Are A Part Of 2 Iconic One Chicago Romances
The One Chicago producers chose to stick Ruzek and Kidd together for a reason. Both belong to two of the biggest couples in the franchise — Kidd and Severide from Chicago Fire and Ruzek and Burgess from Chicago PD. By trapping Ruzek and Kidd underground, the writers created much more tension because of their strong relationships with other prominent characters, who were both anxiously awaiting their rescue while on the surface. It was also great for each couple's storyline, as Kidd and Severide are discussing having a family, while Ruzek and Burgess are getting married soon in the One Chicago universe.
- Created by
- Derek Haas, Michael Brandt
- First Episode Air Date
- October 10, 2012
- Cast
- Jesse Spencer, Taylor Kinney, Monica Raymund, Jason Beghe, Jon Seda, Sophia Bush, Jesse Lee Soffer, Nick Gehlfuss, Yaya DaCosta, Torrey DeVitto, Rachel DiPillo, Philip Winchester, Joelle Carter, Monica Barbaro, Carl Weathers, Yuri Sardarov
- TV Show(s)
- Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Justice
- First TV Show
- Chicago Fire
- Character(s)
- Matthew Casey, Kelly Severide, Gabriela Dawson, Brian Zvonecek, Henry Voight, Antonio Dawson, Erin Lindsay, Jay Halstead, Will Halstead, April Sexton, Peter Stone, Laura Nagel, Anna Valdez, Mark Jefferies
Developed by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, One Chicago is a multi-series television franchise that combines various public service/government organizations in Chicago, Illinois. Each series shares a timeline and universe, with multiple characters crossing over occasionally. The One Chicago universe began with Chicago Fire in 2012, with P.D., Med, and Justice comprising the remainder of one of NBC's most successful primetime franchises.
Source: TV Insider
