Over the past decade, Chicago Fire, Chicago Policeas well as Chicago Honey only gaining popularity. So much so that they are now the most watched dramas in the medium. And with their gripping storylines and likable characters that easily win people over, it’s not hard to see why. People One Chicago what holds this family together. And when a loved part of that family leaves, the pain of their loss can go deep.
Jesse Lee Soffer made up the majority Chicago family ever since his character Jay Halstead first appeared in ChicagoFirePremiere of the second season. Jesse recently confirmed that PDThe tenth season will unfortunately be his last, with the final episode airing in the fall and fans are devastated. Throughout his time on the show, Soffer has made an incredibly powerful impact on fans with his phenomenal performance as an intelligence detective. Jay Halstead has broken our hearts countless times over the years, and it’s safe to say that season 10 will add some devastating punches to the gut after he’s gone. Jesse’s loss Chicago Police will leave a hole in the family, and it will be heartbreaking to see him go.
When he was shot at in “Endings”
The 2018 One Chicago crossover was an ordeal for the Halstead family. Trouble between Jay and WillNick Gelfuss) with Father (Louis Herthum), a fatal fire in a high-rise building, arson and shooting of one of ours, and all this happens in such a short period of time.
After discovering that the devastating fire was arson, Jay goes on a revenge mission hell-bent on finding the man responsible for the deaths of his father and Will’s father. After tracking him down, Jay chases him into a tunnel and the two exchange gunfire. Jay shoots the suspect, but not before he gets shot twice. Between Upton (Tracey Spiridakos) and Ruzhek (Patrick John Flueger) finding him bleeding on the ground and being able to lose him in such an emotional way was hard to watch.
When he went undercover in “Getting Under Fire”
In the seventh episode of the fifth season, Jay’s military past is explored a little deeper. When Jay tries to go undercover and get information on a man suspected of being involved in a string of kidnappings and extortion, he ends up bonding with him due to their shared trauma in the Rangers.
Near the end of the episode, Jay convinces Luis that neither of them can bear the burden of another child’s death and tries to save the victim. A shootout ensues between the ex-Rangers, the kidnappers, and the rest of the intelligence, and there is nothing Jay can do but watch Luis get shot in the head. Jay passes out, starts CPR, and when Hayley tries to talk to him, he pulls a gun on her, not understanding where he is in PTSD. Later, Jay arrives at Luis’ sister’s house and, trying not to cry, embraces him as guilt and heartache are put on his face.
His first kidnapping in “Life is Fluid”
Season 3 started off with a bang. While trying to capture Chicago’s most wanted, Jay ends up kidnapped when the man discovers a police wire attached to his chest. After he is kidnapped, the team is sent a video of him beaten and bloodied, hung by his wrists, and subjected to multiple tasers.
Lindsey returned to help after Olinsky (Elias Koteas) told her what had happened and offered to trade each intel file for Jay’s life. Jay was carried out as proof of life during the exchange, bleeding and burned and looking like hell, and it was hard to see him in so much pain. Although he was eventually fine after the ordeal, being tortured the way he was didn’t make it any easier.
When his friend got shot instead of him at the Weighing Station
We learned early on that intense emotional trauma was not something Chicago Police was afraid to expose us, and the third episode of season 2, “Weighing Station”, was no exception. When Jay shoots the drug lord’s brother in the previous episode, he puts a $100,000 bounty on the detective’s head. While Jay escapes unscathed, some of the people around him are unfortunately not so lucky.
At the bar, while trying to de-stress at the end of “Get My Cigarettes”, the shooter opens fire in an attempt to kill Jay. Physically unharmed, his girlfriend Maddy is shot in the neck amid the chaos. This episode ends with Jay confessing to Brett that he has seen people shot at before, but has never seen anyone take a bullet meant for him. After being told she’ll be fine, Jay slides down the wall and falls in the heartbreaking final shot.
When his friend Terry died in “Forty Babies”
Terry Egan worked as a security guard at a legal marijuana business. He first appeared in the fifteenth episode of the third season, and finally in the seventeenth episode, entitled “Forty Caliber Breadcrumbs”. He and Jay bonded quickly due to their military backgrounds and became close friends. Unfortunately, while transporting over $260,000 to the bank, the two become victims of a robbery that quickly goes wrong.
Jay and Terry find themselves under heavy fire and, unfortunately, Terry is shot in the neck in front of Jay, who begs him to stay with him. When Olinsky later informs him that Terry was bleeding heavily and died from his injuries, Jay immediately blames himself and becomes angry. Before the end of the episode, Voight (Jason Beg) tells Jay that he is lucky to have him in his squad. Unable to contain himself any longer, Jay leaves, heads to the bathroom, and finally breaks down. And we were next to him.
His nightmare in “Escape Under Fire”
As many people with PTSD know, nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks can take a heavy toll on your body, both mentally and physically. Jay’s military background was never fully revealed, and the writers gave us only snippets of information from the last ten years. But the seventh episode of the fifth season went a little deeper into the storyline that we wanted from the moment it was first mentioned.
“Care Under Fire” opened with a side of Jay that we rarely see. When Ruzek arrives at the station early, he finds the former ranger asleep on the couch, wiggling, crying and whimpering, apparently having a nasty nightmare before jumping in fear when Ruzek wakes him up. Seeing this usually tight-knit character so scared and vulnerable was heartbreaking, and the image of Jesse trying to cope with PTSD throughout the episode was heartbreakingly brilliant. Don’t be afraid to talk about how you feel.
When he accidentally shot a little girl in Reform
After a shootout with a suspect, a little girl was accidentally caught in the crossfire and shot to death. Although the bullet was initially thought to have been fired from the suspect’s pistol, after a ballistics report it was revealed that it was fired from Jay’s pistol.
Jay is understandably distraught, especially as Burgess later informs him that the little girl unfortunately died from her injuries after losing too much blood. Jay immediately heads to Honey to see Will, who has been treating her. A disconsolate Jay pushes his brother away when he tries to comfort him. From the heartbreaking shot of Halstead in the car discussing the conversation with his parents to the final scene in which he apologizes and returns the necklace to her, this whole episode hit hard.
When he was kidnapped again and shot in Absolution
When a beloved character from a long-running series leaves, it’s heartbreaking to see him go. Especially if that character helped build that universe from scratch. So whenever something threatens to take that person out of the show, the scenes and storylines surrounding him are accompanied by a certain level of crippling anxiety.
The Season 7 finale in the middle of the season had us going through an emotional turmoil, building up that anxiety to the point of failure! In “Absolution”, Jay passed out and was kidnapped after someone tried to do the right thing after things went very wrong. He was tortured and beaten by his captors and then shot in the chest by the same man he was trying to help. Ending with a painstaking cliffhanger in which Jay struggles to breathe, we had no choice but to wait almost two months to see if he would live or die. Despite the fact that Jay came out of the test alive, albeit beaten, bruised and shot, it was no easier to see him on the verge of death.
When he discovered that his father supported him in “Endings”
Jay’s relationship with his father was not easy. On the few occasions when they were on screen together, more often than not, they never saw eye to eye. But, despite the shaky relationship between father and son, they still cared about each other. And after the death of Pat Halstead in season 6, the truth came out about how much they had done.
When a multi-story fire engulfed the building where Pat lived, he inhaled heavily in smoke, in addition to the complications associated with recovering from open heart surgery. Jay was under the impression that his father never supported his decision to join the CPD. But in a cruel twist of fate, when he and Will are sorting through their father’s belongings, he stumbles upon some photos from his graduation at the academy. The realization of his father’s support for him became too much for Halstead’s older brother, and pure emotion finally broke through.
When his and Will’s father died in “When to Let Go”
Losing a parent is one of the hardest things anyone can go through. The pain of losing a loved one can cut so deeply that you feel lost, confused, devastated, hurt, and everything in between. It’s hard to understand if you haven’t experienced it.
The second part of the 2018 crossover ended with a crushing blow for the Halstead brothers. Jay and Will’s father dies after being caught in a high-rise building fire. Perhaps the episode’s most heartbreaking moments came when Jay struggled to come to terms with the news. Denying and upset that his last conversation with him was a fight, Jay lashes out and the brothers disagree on how to proceed. In the last crushing scene between them, they agreed to let him go, and the sheer heartache on Jay’s face was enough to make you reel.
Source: Collider
