Chicago PD - The Number Of Rats - Review

While the lead-in to the crossover seen on Chicago Fire was great, the two hours spanning Chicago PD and SVU were, for me, the best crossover we’ve seen of the shows. If you don’t normally watch SVU, I recommend doing so as critical information for Chicago PD moving forward happened in the SVU hour. If you don’t want to watch, no worries, I’ll recap here.

Picking up where the Chicago Fire portion left off, the Chicago PD and SVU crews are on the hunt for a serial arson/rapist/murder who has been at it for over a decade in both New York and now Chicago.

Voight and Olivia begin by questioning the burn victim, a Chicago Med nurse (Victoria), who is barely hanging on. Unfortunately, she doesn’t remember much about her attacker except that he was white and under 6 feet. The team does know that the killer wears medical scrubs and probably works in the medical field and that he applies green nail polish to his victims’ fingernails. Sadly, they can’t get any more from Victoria, as she dies soon after they speak with her.

While Antonio and Ruzek ask people in the area for anything they might know, Chicago Fire’s Casey walks Lindsay and Halstead through Victoria’s burned apartment. Because Victoria was so badly burned, they were unable to tell if she had green nail polish on her fingernails. Lindsay finds the burned bottle in the apartment, which officially makes Victoria the serial killer’s latest victim.

Things take a turn when SVU’s Carisi lets Olivia know that Dr. Will Halstead may have a connection to the murders. He went to med school with the first known victim in New York and his recent reappearance in Chicago makes him look a bit suspicious. Olivia asks Voight for permission to ambush Will without Jay’s knowledge. This can only go badly…

Jay starts to suspect it’s more than just a friendly questioning before Will does. When he realizes that Voight signed off on the ambush, his anger level surges and he grabs Will to leave. Will, however, is reluctant to leave. “I saw what happened to that girl, and if it were my sister, or my daughter, or my mom, I’d want you to do exactly what you’re doing right now. Ask me anything you want.”

Jay is much less willing to let his brother cooperate and forces him out the door. Moving forward, Jay tells Voight and Olivia that while Will insists on giving a statement, everything he gives will go through him first. Will is soon cleared as a suspect, however, and thank goodness for that.

When Antonio and Amaro follow a lead, they meet a girl who was nearly made a victim by the killer. She lets them know that while she didn’t see much of his face, he does drive a green Subaru. Progress! We’re getting there, slowly but surely.

Thanks to Mouse’s wonderful technical skills, he’s able to find the owner of the car. Burgess and Roman approach the man, Greg Yates, for questioning but can’t get much from him. Yates is brought in to the station on bogus charges, but the team isn’t able to get anything from him. We’ve seen some dark and scary cases and killers on this show, but I think Yates is by far the creepiest. You just know he’s guilty! He’s intelligent, manipulative, and in complete control…for now.

While at the station, Greg seems to take a liking to Lindsay. Because the team can’t get anything on him (he’s meticulous with his crimes, doesn’t leave any evidence) and has to let him go. But he later contacts Lindsay and asks for a private meeting. Of course, she agrees and of course, everyone’s worried. Sure, the team is there waiting in the shadows, but Yates is smart!

Unfortunately, Yates doesn’t give anything (or enough) away for them to arrest him. He’s clearly the killer and is just taunting the team at this point. Thankfully, no harm comes to Lindsay. Rather, she was all part of Yates plan for an alibi as another victim is found shortly after their meeting.

Meanwhile, Nadia is planning a surprise birthday party for Erin! I love how close these two have grown. Nadia is doing so well, and Erin’s a huge part of that. But as Yates leaves the station, he takes a creepy glare at Nadia, one that clearly shows he’s interested. Shoot.

In the final minutes of the first hour, we see Nadia getting out of Erin’s car carrying what turns out to be a birthday cake. As she turns, Yates is there. No! He says hello, knocks her out, and shoves her in the backseat before driving away.


If you haven’t seen the final hour of the crossover and don’t want it spoiled, don’t keep reading. Because it pertains to Chicago PD, I’ll briefly recap the conclusion below:

When the team tracks Yates’ movement with Nadia back to New York, the SVU team heads home to continue the case. Voight, Lindsay, and Halstead also travel to New York hoping to find Nadia before it’s too late. Yates, at this point, seems to be spiraling. He’s getting messier (not much) and losing control. Eventually, he gives the team enough information and they find his burial ground. Sadly, they didn’t get there in time to save Nadia.

Voight, Lindsay, and Halstead stick around for Yates’ incredibly speedy trial, where he acts as his own attorney. He makes it personal, and it’s physically maddening (if that’s a thing? That’s how I felt!) to watch how he twists the events and turns it against the team. Thanks to a tricky move by SVU’s Barba, Yates gives himself away and is convicted of rape and murder in the first degree.

Losing Nadia was not only surprising, but will be much more difficult to cope with than I thought. I sincerely believed that come next season, she would be promoted to series regular. We’ve seen her grow immensely; when the show first began, she was a drug addict and an escort arrested by Erin. Since then, we’ve seen her fight to get clean, change her life, and work towards becoming a police officer. Her death will be difficult for the whole team, but for Platt, Voight, and Erin in particular. Nadia made this weird yet fantastically hilarious relationship with Platt and I will miss that the most. Voight views his team as a family, of which he is the “father”, and to him, it’s like he lost one of his own.

Erin will by far struggle the most, and I’m afraid she has a dark road ahead. She came from a dark place much like Nadia and I hope that losing her doesn’t derail her.


What did you think of the crossover? Do you want to see more or less crossovers next season? Did you expect Nadia’s death?

About the Author - Meghan Reynolds

A Colorado native, Meghan was born a raised a Denver Broncos fan. Aside from football, she loves storytelling, whether it be movies, television, books, or music. Some of her favorite shows of the past and present include LOST, Friends, The Office, Scandal, Chicago PD, and Chicago Fire. She is excited to be reviewing two of those shows for SpoilerTV, Chicago PD and Chicago Fire.