‘They’ll Have to Go Through Me,’ the final part of the Dick Wolf crossover, closed things nice and neat, but lacked that punch the three-episode arc needed.
The episode begins with Voight’s main witness in Chicago executed along with a cop that was guarding him. Now, we never see this cop get shot, but supposedly it’s a huge deal. I’ll throw my hands up and say I am not a regular viewer of Chicago P.D., so I might be missing something here. The cop seems to be someone everyone knows, but nothing is ever mentioned about him outside of the fact everyone knows him. It’s sad, I get it, but why dedicate the beginning and so much of the ending to a character we know nothing about. Again, maybe I’m missing something here and I’ll be the first to admit it.
Sophia Bush was markedly better in this episode. She evolves from weepy background player to the emotional core of the episode, taking in a young girl rescued from the ring. She becomes the girl’s friend and protector (for the episode) and it’s actually a very sweet relationship.
Meanwhile, Amaro (Danny Pino) and Rollins (Kelli Giddish) show up in Chicago…and don’t add much. Amaro does have a nice chase scene, but otherwise these two do little to add to the series. So, of course, we need to bring in Benson to help Voight. This seemed a little forced at first, but man these two are just so good together. So good, in fact, that you even see a little romantic chemistry between the two (or maybe you’re even hoping for some?). In fact, if one of these shows ever got cancelled they should just make a super mash-up series with Benson and Voight solving crimes and have Ice T (who was literally on screen for 30 seconds) as their wise-cracking boss. That’d be money.
The suspense and action was definitely more ramped up in this series than SVU and that really made up for the lack of suspense here. At times, ‘They’ll Have to Go Through Me’ felt forced, a tacked on ending so we could have a three-series crossover. Luckily, Beghe and a well-placed chase sequence really do the trick here and save a ho-hum episode.
Overall, I think Chicago P.D. is a good companion piece to SVU, it’s more rough and tumble and there’s some interesting characters here.
As a crossover, the whole thing works because of the chemistry between Voight and Benson and an engaging storyline. The supporting characters really get pushed to the side, except for Sophia Bush, and her performance is pretty uneven. Another crossover could definitely work with these shows, but let’s hope it’s in the distant future and doesn’t become a go-to gimmick for both shows.
