Starring Jason Beghe as Sergeant Hank Voight, Chicago P.D. follows the Intelligence Unit, as well as some of the uniformed officers, in the 21st district of Chicago. This elite team works to bust the more calculated variety of Chicago’s criminals, including drug dealers, traffickers, and murderers. Throughout its 11 seasons and counting, Chicago P.D. has delivered both gritty, emotional cases and complex characters that captivate audiences and leave them coming back for more.
In its most recently completed season, Chicago P.D. has said goodbye to a series regular, progressed a longtime on-again-off-again relationship into more serious territory, and introduced a new character, an SVU detective who possesses different talents than the rest of the team. With a mixture of standard episode-long cases and cases that took the majority of the season to crack, season 11 of Chicago P.D. gave fans some of the show’s classic bread and butter, while throwing in some new material.
13 “Unpacking”
Episode 1
At the start of Season 11, the Chicago Police Department is making it a point to institute some measures that will help the police engage more efficiently with the community, without overstepping their bounds. Intelligence isn’t too happy about this, but Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) is nonetheless shadowing some mental health professionals on a call. When they arrive at an apartment building and see a man who seems to be having a psychotic break, Upton zeroes in on the fact that he has blood on him. She makes an arrest, despite the protests of Dr. Mitchell (Jason Bowen), the mental health professional in charge, but this arrest leads Intelligence to a case of abuse.
This season premiere shows fans where their favorite characters are at since they last saw them: Hailey is having a hard time adjusting since the end of her marriage, Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) is still struggling to get back in shape and pass his re-qualification test after getting shot at the end of last season, and P.D. is trying to implement some more reform. This episode of Chicago P.D. doesn’t deliver the biggest shocks, but lays a nice foundation for the rest of the season.
12 “Retread”
Episode 2
The second episode of the season focuses on Adam Ruzek’s tough road back to Intelligence. After having a really difficult time sitting for his reinstatement exam, Adam decides to blow off some steam by attending an underground poker game with a criminal informant (CI), which ends in a shootout with two dead bodies. Voight is able to get the case under control and stop the questions that are heading in Ruzek’s direction, but Ruzek’s partner, Officer Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati), is not so easily convinced. By the end of the episode, both Ruzek’s CI and the man who orchestrated the shooting are dead, Ruzek’s cover is safe and he has passed the reinstatement exam.
Adam is playing a game of self-sabotage in this episode and resorting to bad old habits like gambling, lying and covering it up. But despite Ruzek’s bad behavior, the only people who really pay the price are his CI and the shooter, which is a bit frustrating. While the police force around him is trying to improve, Ruzek drags his feet and jeopardizes his job and his relationships for a quick fix, slowing down the longtime character’s development.
11 “The Water Line”
Episode 11
When an old CI calls Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) claiming to know who committed the robbery and homicide that the team just got assigned, Atwater has to trust that his old CI can handle the job. Atwater and the team come up with a plan and the CI, Butchie (Petey McGee), introduces him to the suspect. When this suspect gives up the name of who actually committed the robbery and homicide, things start to go downhill, as Butchie realizes that the man who committed this crime also killed his cousin.
This episode centers on Atwater’s storyline this season, with a callback to his guilt over how an earlier case turned out. It’s always interesting when the audience gets a glimpse at the inner workings of a criminal enterprise, especially with the addition of a supporting character in a CI. Fans of the show have seen a CI go rogue before, but it always adds an interesting twist to a standard case.
10 “Survival”
Episode 6
Audiences get a new storyline for Sergeant Voight in “Survival” when he stumbles upon a crime scene unexpectedly on his way home. The victim, a teenager named Noah (Bobby Hogan), has been kidnapped and is identified through some drugs found near the scene. The team traces the drugs to a dealer, but after not being able to make the charges stick, Voight and the team realize that the injuries sustained by Noah don’t match the man they originally thought kidnapped him. Noah actually has a stalker, and he is the one who took him.
After picking up this case, Voight makes it a point to look after Noah because no one else is. When Noah’s parents learned that he was gay, they kicked him out of their house and that is why Noah is in Chicago. Voight takes Noah into his home to give him a place to stay, and intends to do whatever he has to do to find his stalker before he strikes again. This case is set up to be a season-long story for Voight, and gives a personal touch to the procedural nature of the show.
9 “The Living and The Dead”
Episode 7
In the episode following Noah’s introduction, he refuses to talk about what happened to him. In the absence of Noah’s testimony, the team starts to piece together the common threads of his stalker’s victims. The stalker who is discovered to be a serial killer staples his victims’ eyes open and leaves them in oil drums, typically with another victim. With this information, the team realizes that Noah must not have been tortured alone. Once they get him to speak, Noah shares that after he was taken, he was told to call the person he loves the most, and when this person shows up, the offender tortures them both.
The episode ends with Noah being lured back in and killed by the serial killer, who pretended to be the person he loves the most. This dark episode presents a sad ending to Noah’s character arc, but fuels the fire for Voight to capture the man who did this to him. Fans also get to know a new supporting character in this episode, an SVU detective named Josephine Petrovic (Bojana Novakovic), a welcome addition to the team who will bring in a new perspective.
8 “Escape”
Episode 4
Intelligence finds an in to track down a big drug dealer in Chicago in “Escape,” and places one of their own, Officer Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar), undercover in order to build a case. After Torres and Atwater chase down a man who was willing to die in the chase before getting his boss’s product confiscated, the team discovers that the drugs belong to Rafael Perez (Julio César Cedillo). Once Torres is put under, he is able to gain the trust of Perez and meets Perez’s wife, Gloria (Yara Martinez). Torres catches Gloria stealing money from her husband and convinces her to help Intelligence in order to buy her freedom from Perez.
Torres, a recent addition to Intelligence, gets a new storyline for this season through his undercover operation. He meets and develops feelings for Gloria Perez, giving fans an insight into him and his backstory, as well as upping the stakes of the operation for both Torres and Gloria. Chicago P.D. does a good job of incorporating CIs into their stories and giving them interesting and convincing character arcs, and Gloira Perez is no exception.
7 “On Paper”
Episode 8
Both Upton and Voight are struggling in this episode, with Voight reeling from the loss of Noah, which reminds him of his late son, and Upton continuing to have trouble adjusting to her new life. Petrovic has caught on to Upton’s self-punishing behavior through intense exercise, but she has some vices of her own. When a suspect in the kidnapping of a nine-month-old baby starts to run, Petrovic loses him and doesn’t shoot him. Claiming she didn’t have a clear shot, Upton checks the security camera footage and discovers that Petrovic lied. Secrets start to unravel when Upton does a bit more digging into her new colleague.
Petrovic’s reasons for not working in the field come to light as she is an alcoholic, and her name being noted down on any official paperwork could jeopardize her cases. As Petrovic’s name has already been involved with this case, and it’s important that the team solves it, Upton agrees to keep Petrovic’s alcoholism between them, and Petrovic agrees to keep Upton’s recent behavior quiet too. The alliance between these two characters was interesting to see, and the layers added to Petrovic’s character made her more interesting to watch.
6 “Somos Uno”
Episode 9
The Rafael Perez undercover operation reaches a fever pitch in “Somos Uno,” when Torres, finally trusted to make a drug run for Perez, gets ripped off and then tasked with finding the money that was stolen from him. During this search, Burgess finds out that Torres is sleeping with Gloria Perez and asks him to end it for both of their sakes. Rafael, who has been suspicious for a while, finally calls in both his wife and his newest recruit to answer some questions. The interrogation ends with Torres killing Rafael’s cousin and Gloria killing Rafael.
Viewers were in for a high-stakes ending to the Rafael Perez storyline, and it did not disappoint. Torres and Gloria teamed up at the perfect moment, when Rafael had finally realized what was going on with his wife, and Torres took the fall for Gloria so that she did not face any charges for killing her husband. Though realistically, Torres and Gloria can’t possibly stay together, Gloria is able to remain in Chicago without fear of her husband and Torres is able to cease his undercover work.
5 “Split Second”
Episode 5
This aptly titled episode starts with Atwater witnessing the robbery of a jewelry store and jumping in to help. Making a split second decision, Atwater helps the store owner over a man who was trapped between the two security doors. The second man succumbs to his injuries. When Atwater needs to ask the wife of the man who died, Teresa (Patrice Covington), some questions, as she is their best witness, she doesn’t want to help for fear of retaliation and anger that Officer Atwater did not choose to help her husband.
Some very interesting questions about how a police officer might make a split second decision and how those decisions affect the people who are helped or who are not are raised by this emotional episode of Chicago P.D. Additionally, Atwater’s attempts at being the best police officer he can be are clear in this episode. Consistently, Atwater has questioned how he can be of service to his community in Chicago P.D., and this episode shows fans how he reacts when he feels he has failed to do the impossible.
4 “More”
Episode 13
The season finale brings audiences, and Voight, face to face with the man responsible for the abduction and murder of Noah: Frank Matson (Dennis Flanagan). After being drugged at a bar, Voight is taken from his home by Matson and endures the same fate that Noah and Matson’s other victims were forced to endure. When Voight refuses to call the person he loves the most, thwarting Matson’s typical procedure, Matson grows angry and finds the person Voight loves the most himself, Hailey Upton, and brings her to Voight to finish the job.
Matson does not succeed in his attempt to kill both Voight and Upton, and Voight actually kills him. Despite the intensity of the episode, the season finale sees an acknowledgment of the relationship between Voight and Upton, who have been close for several seasons now. Along with the ending of the serial killer storyline and the all-too-short recovery of Voight and Upton, fans say goodbye to Hailey Upton as she tells Voight that she needs to heal, and she can’t do that in Intelligence. The conclusion of the season was satisfying and gave series regular Hailey Upton a send-off that made sense and did her justice.
3 “Safe Harbor”
Episode 3
Officer Kim Burgess is working with a new partner, Officer Danny Alvarado (E.J. Bonilla), during an extra shift at a refugee shelter when a drive-by shooting occurs, killing a young woman. Alvarado seems to be a good police officer, as he was seen helping the victim, so when he asks Intelligence to help to solve the case, nothing feels off. It’s not until Alvarado shoots a suspect, and claims it was to protect Burgess, that she starts to realize Alvarado knows more than he is letting on about the victim and the shooting.
This episode sees Officer Burgess take control of a tricky situation and doing her best to take care of the victims and protect them from a dangerous man. She understands the risk that the victim’s friend would be taking on to help take down Alvarado and does what she can to make her comfortable, even risking her own job to do so. Fans get to see another series regular showing the lengths she’ll go to help the people she has sworn to protect, and fans of Burzek get to see a big step in their relationship too. Adam proposes to Kim at the end of the episode, giving viewers new hope for the security of their relationship.
2 “Inventory”
Episode 12
The penultimate episode of the season sees Hailey Upton and Josephine Petrovic starting to lean on each other when they have no one else. Petrovic is detoxing in rehab and calls Hailey for support, while Hailey stops over-exercising and starts to visit Petrovic more often. She also throws herself into her work, which helps the team track down a lead on Noah’s serial killer. Kiki Dunn (Kristin Dodson), arrested for being an accessory to murder, gives the team this lead when she tells them some information in exchange for her charges to be dropped: the killer is a cop. Before Kiki can share any more information, she’s shot, but another suspect who is connected to Kiki puts the final piece together.
A weeks-long story arc is getting closer to a conclusion in this episode, and the piecing together of information through different sources makes for an intriguing watch. The answer does not come easy, but when Intelligence finally discovers that the killer looks like a cop because he wears a uniform, but is actually just a lock-keep, meaning he is actually a civilian, the ins and outs of his M.O. come together in a very satisfying way.
1 “Buried Pieces”
Episode 10
The cold case of the disappearance of Ruthie Zamora (Justine Rose) gets solved when a young girl walks into the 21st district asking for help and hands Detective Upton a note that says that her mother is Ruthie Zamora, and she is being held prisoner. Detective Petrovic has notes from when the case first opened which mention something about a couch. This seemingly inconsequential note ends up pointing to Ruthie’s mother, Sonia (Vanessa Martinez), as the culprit, because she purchased a new couch not long after her daughter disappeared. This purchase was made with the money Sonia made from selling her daughter.
“Buried Pieces” presents the most interesting standalone case of the season in the disappearance of Ruthie Zamora, and gives the audience a happy ending for Ruthie and her daughter. When Chicago P.D. nails its procedural formula of new cases each episode with some weaving in of the storylines involving the main cast, like how Petrovic’s alcoholism and Upton’s tough love are incorporated into this episode, it makes for excellent TV with thought-provoking and enticing stories.
