Chicago P.D. Star Teases An 'Exciting' Move For #Burzek — Plus, Scoop On The 200th Episode And Voight's Spiral
Some good news, Chicago P.D. fans: We're finally getting answers about where Burgess and Ruzek stand this season (premiering this Wednesday at 10/9c on NBC).
Showrunner Gwen Sigan reveals to TVLine that Episode 2 of Season 10 will be centered around #Burzek and address the question of whether they will move in together, what that would look like and how it will affect their family dynamic with Makayla.
"We'll get some answers," Sigan tells TVLine. "They're kicking off and getting a little more stable and surefooted in that second episode of this season."
Marina Squerciati, who plays Burgess, notes that the Intelligence officer will "come to a point where she'll decide whether to do it or not, whether to move forward in a relationship with Ruzek or not. There's a lot more to work on, but it's an exciting move for both of them."
Squerciati spoke to Sigan about why Kim had been reluctant to lean into a relationship with Ruzek, and the Chicago P.D. boss explained that Kim being shot at the end of Season 8 affected her in a way she had not yet understood.
"She'll come to understand that it has really fractured her and hurt her, and that has affected her relationship with Ruzek," Squerciati shares of Sigan's explanation. "She needs to solve herself before she moves forward with him."
Read on for more scoop on Chicago P.D. Season 10:
Halstead's 'impactful' departure
Season 10 will see Jesse Lee Soffer depart the series as Det. Jay Halstead. According to Sigan, his impending exit won't be a sudden thing.
"Hopefully, it all makes sense when everyone sees the episode that he's departing in, and we did build to it, and we did have a chance to do that," she says. "We tried to keep it as grounded [as possible] and do justice to Jesse and how great he is. He puts in a very good performance in all of it. It's going to be really impactful."
Halstead's departure will have a big impact on Upton, who will have to deal with not having her husband around. "It's going to be really interesting, something new for her character to have to combat," Sigan teases. "It's a challenge and she's going to have to get through it. We'll see her go in some interesting places and how it sort of manifests itself."
Ringing in an 'exciting' 200th episode
This season, Chicago P.D. will reach its milestone 200th episode, and that hour promises to be a memorable one. "We want to do something really special," Sigan teases. "We want to do something exciting and fun, action, character-based... Just a ride is what we're going for. It should be fun."
Torres has entered the chat
Benjamin Levy Aguilar joins the series full-time this season as officer Dante Torres, who we previously met in the April 13 episode "New Guard."
"He's got such a different perspective coming in," Sigan says of the newbie cop. "He's just young, and he hasn't been in the CPD very long at all, and so he's coming into this elite unit with people that have known each other 10 years, so there's a lot of growing pains."
Torres has some stuff to figure out while adjusting to Intelligence, and we'll see him forming new relationships with each character. "I think that it highlights and brings out parts of each character that we already know [and] love," Sigan adds, "But we get to see them in a different way through him."
One new dynamic to look out for is the one between Torres and Atwater, which Sigan calls "really special." They have plenty in common, given that they both have a unique connection to the streets, but they're also very different.
"Atwater [has] been on this job so long, and he's been through so much, and he really knows what the job means to him now," Gwen says. "He struggled last season with identity, but now he's coming in at this place this season where he knows who he is. He knows he's never going to lie again. He's not going to do what he did last season. To put him up against somebody who is still figuring things out as far as where he stands in [his] career and how to do this job and Intelligence in the way that he wants to, it's a really nice mentee-mentor relationship."
A different side of Voight
Prepare to see a new side of Voight, who enters Season 10 grieving Anna's death. (She was shot and killed by Upton in the Season 9 finale.) Much of Season 10 will find him still grieving that loss.
"[Anna's death] happened in this way that was so brutal, and I think he feels responsible for it, and he feels an amount of guilt for how it happens, and that's a common thread to Voight's life and [his] relationships," Sigan explains.
"He made a choice last season to open himself up in a way that I don't think we've seen him do since Olinsky [who died in Season 5]. He's been closed off, and then to see it fall apart in this way, he's definitely in a raw space, and he's emotionally going to have to deal with this for some time. In true Voight fashion, we'll see him going to interesting places because of it and how he deals with that."
Jason Beghe, who plays Voight, says the P.D. chief is "doing his best, and he's not certainly not functioning at full capacity." The new season finds him uncharacteristically second-guessing himself and trying to ensure that Anna didn't die in vain.
"It's not very logical, but it's the best he can come up with, so it's causing a problem within the whole organism of the unit," Beghe adds. "He was obviously vulnerable for a moment when Olinsky died, and when his son died. But I think it's been a war of attrition of these moments, and [Anna was] kind of the last straw. The floodgates have opened a little bit, so it's not something that he's able to get control of."
New romances?
Could there be love in the air for Atwater after he and Celeste broke up last season? "The door is always open to his love life," Sigan says. "We loved that relationship last season with Celeste, and it was such a nice thing to see Atwater in that way. So yeah, the door's always open to that."
As for Voight, Beghe says there is potential for Voight to snag a new love interest on the show. The sergeant's most significant romantic relationship thus far has been with his wife Camille, who died years before Season 1.
"There was some talk about it," Beghe says of a possible romance for Voight. "I actually talked to Gwen [Sigan] about it, and it may happen."
What do you hope to see in Chicago P.D. Season 10? Sound off below.