I want to know why jay and his dad didnāt speak for two whole years? Like I know they had a testy relationship but that canāt have been the only reason they didnāt speak for two years something must have gone down. They mentioned it once in willās first episode and then suddenly a couple years later him and his dad are magically talking again after zero mention of him for so long after that comment
ugh same. i think part of the issue is that this is info from a mix of med and pd and idk how often the writers correspond about this type of thing.
thereās the part in willās first episode on pd where we have the whole ātwo yearsā āprobably moreā interaction. then a few seasons later, on med, will tells connor that his dad wasnāt supportive of him going to school after graduating instead of just going straight into the workforce, and tells connor that jay and his dad have their own problems (and jay did go straight into the military and then became a cop, which seems like a career path his dad approved of)
i headcanon it to have something to do with his mom, her cancer, her death, and how jay was there alone with her. as well, i suspect that his dad might have been sort of unsupportive when jay was dealing with whatever he was going through when he left the military.
anyway, all speculation. answers are coming, i hope, but probably not tbh
i would love them to address the parallels because thatās what jesse/jay seserves..but tbh these writers have such a long history of writing things that should link up to current plot lines and instead just completely ignoring them and writing something else random. wouldnāt be surprised if they completely forgot erin lindsay exists and joined an fbi task force dkdkd
who knows, maybe theyāll surprise me but tbh i really donāt trust these writers to follow through on storylines that it seems like theyāre starting and they should really just hire me so that they donāt keep filling jayās arc with plot holes
things we deserve on chicago pd but will never get:
(warning for very long post and slight rant on why jay halstead deserves more than the shitty writing he gets)
follow up on the corson family, if jay still sees them every year on benās birthday, how theyāre doing now that they have closure
when erin and will were talking in the hospital, and will mentioned thatĀ āmouse was the one who dragged [jay] home when he was-ā and then they never followd up on it...what was will about to say?? was jay depressed, dealing with ptsd, dealing wtih substance abuse, dealing with the aftermath of vegas, what??Ā
also: if will and jay were essentially estranged at the time, how did will know about it? did jay tell him in later years after they had begun to piece their relationship back together? was jay speaking with his dad at the time, and his dad told will?Ā
(i would love a halstead brothers bonding scene where we see jay talking through some of his deep-rooted issues with big brother will)
is jay still like...married? did we ever sort that out? papers signed? iām assuming it worked out because he wouldnāt have proposed to erin if he wasnāt divorced yet but that whole last episode of season 4 was a mess and i donāt really trust it for anything
mouse?? how the fuck is he doing?? has jay gotten a chance to speak to him recently? has he come home to visit at all in the last two years? did jay tell him about abby or luis or jake? is he even alive? he must be alive because otherwise we would have seen jay find out about his death or go to his funeral but honestly i donāt even trust the writers to give us that so he could have been kia back in season 5 for all we know
what happened. onĀ āthat day.ā we know mouse and jay were in the lead humvee of a convoy, and we have theories that there was an ied and explosion. we know that this incident gave mouse his medical discharge.
mouse said he did two tours, and jay said that he did as well. My best assumption is that they did the same two tours and likely left at the same time. the likelihood that mouse being medically discharged while jay was uninjured if they were in the same humvee is very very slim, so i believe he was injured on that day as well. the big question there is: was he injured enough to be medically discharged, or did he choose to leave?
mouse said that theyĀ āwent through the exact same thing on that dayā and jay had seemingly recovered from it while mouse hadnāt. same thing. and we know that jay didnāt escape as mentally well as mouse had thought, and that he didnāt have everything together. but what did they go through?
what happened with the little boy in landigal? there are theories that jay accidentally killed him, because it came up in an episode with a dead child. i donāt think it was jay who killed the boy, but i do think there was a boy (in theĀ āmud hutā) who was killed. the thing is, this is just one of the moments from their time in afghanistan that mouse brought up. it affected them, but itās only a hint at however many other things contributed to how jay feels about his time overseas.Ā
i really really want mouse back. i thought he was going to be such a window into jayās past and at first it seemed like thatās where they were going, because he brought up little stories about afghanistan all the time (hollingsworth, that suspect who wasĀ āspitting distanceā from them in kandahar, etc.) but then he left. and so i thought that him being back in afghanistan would impact jay and lead to a bit more answers, but the writers apparently forget that greg gertwitz even exists.
what is the timeline on his mom dying?? was it in between his two tours, did he take leave in the middle of one to come be with her, was it after they were both over...when?Ā
we got sniper! halstead once last season which i appreciate so so much and had been asking for for literal years. but. is he coming back again? please? last season also had episodes with both hailey and adam being the team sniper, which always struck me as weird. In the first few seasons, it was always jay. jay was a sniper in the rangers and thereās no question that he has the best training. this is a man who is a trained killer and has been shown to be a talented sniper. so why keep giving the position to other members of the team, when jay has the highest probability of doing a good job?
also, iāve reseaerched a bit about what it takes to become a sniper in the rangers. it includes mental evaluations, and the ability to stay still and focussed for long periods of time is something that jay was obviously able to do. i have a theory that heās one of the best on the team at stakeouts because when theyāre sitting in a comfy car for hours, thatās nothing compared to him having to lie on a rocky cliff or in a sand pit.Ā
anyway i would love to see sniper! halstead on my screen again
honestly, i just want answers. this show doesnāt ever tell us about jayās past. they hint at it, they begin plotlines, and they never follow up on them. i used to think they were just taking their time setting up a huge arc that would explain everything, but they arenāt. they just use jay as a way to keep people engaged because they know jesse is a phenomenal actor who does incredible things with the crumbs of storyline that he gets. i donāt trust the writers to give us any answers and if they decide to iām worried weāre going to end up with a hidden set of twins or something
anyway, my hopes arenāt up. this season in particular is focussed on kevin, as it should be. this was clear from the way season 7 ended, even before all of the blm protests and police brutality that erupted this year that theyāre obviously touching on. last season seemed to be jay focussed, at least more than previous seasons, and honestly i think the writers believe that theyāve shed enough light on his past and weāre not gonna hear about it ever again.
āI have my convictions. And I donāt give a damn what anyone thinks of me. You have yours as well, Jay. I know that. And I respect that.ā
this is at the end of 1x14, after jay had been challenging voightās methods throughout the episode.
i think he meant that while voightās beliefs are that he can do whatever it takes to get the bad guy to confess and solve the crime, he respects that jay prefers to do things the ārightā way. jay generally has consistently stuck to this belief throughout the seasons, while we see other characters like antonio, erin, hailey, and adam fall into similar patterns as voight. i think itās telling that despite everything, jay knows that voight respects his values and sticks to them. and i think it might have been super early forshadowing that jay is going to be the one to take over for voight one day. because there have been multiple instances of us seeing how much voight consistently respects jay, which we donāt see for the other characters. i think voight likes that jay has this inherent goodness in him, and that he sees it as an asset. anyway this got a bit rambley and iām supposed to be doing a lab report right now, so iām gonna end it there.
i feel like chicago pd doesnāt really know what to do with jay. i suspect that this season is going to be similar to his plotline from seasons 3/4, in that him and haileyās relationship is finally going to start, and thatāll be his main storyline.
but iām worried that they feel as if heās run his course, and that they donāt feel the need to continue with episodes that help explain his past. if that is the case, theyāre very very wrong because they seem to be unaware that theyāve given us literal crumbs and have answered almost none of the questions iāve had for 7 years.
this season is 100% going to have a focus on atwater which i support fully, as long as they do it in a way that is an accurate portrayal of what a black cop is going through in this time.
however, i think it would be interesting if the writers explored a little bit of jayās bias stemming from his time in the military. we saw it in the scene where he told hailey āi got six friends who died for that flag. i got no respect for these guys.ā in regards to the people protesting america/the flag. jay is a good person who i fully believe supports blm, and from what we saw in 8x01 he seems to understand what role police should be taking up in these times. but a big discussion that has arisen in lieu of the movement to defund the police has also been a similar look at the military, and there have been a lot more people becoming open of the way they dislike its high budget and morals.
iād like to see maybe a few moments where jay, who had been through so much in afghanistan in his aim to help his country, has to realize that itās not only his current job that people are angry with but his previous one. iād like to see him struggle between defending what he did because he dealt with so many bad people and lost so many friends, while also acknowledging the issues people have with it. i think there could be a nice upstead moment where, over drinks, he says something like:
āall i wanted was to do good for my country. i didnāt want to kill people. i didnāt want to help drop bombs or destroy villages. but over there.. sometimes there isnāt another good option. and i have to live with that blood, both enemy, ally, and friend, on my hands for the rest of my life. i didnāt realize half of my country would end up hating me for it and reminding me about the lives i took, though.ā
(mayhaps iāll write a fic)
idk. with 5x07 and 6x07, it does sort of feel like theyāre trying to wrap up jayās military backstory and related plot lines. i still have so many questions (if nothing else, wtf happened on āthat dayā), but i donāt know if they care to give us answers.
i love to talk about this stuff though so please please send theories or questions or wishes you have for jay this season because iād be more than happy to continue this discussion :)
ellievsbear
amandla
gamechangershow
stormborns
theartofmadeline
titsay
