Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 11 premiere of Chicago P.D., called "Unpacking."
Chicago P.D. is back on NBC for Season 11, and the premiere wasted no time in finally resolving the frustrating Ruzek cliffhanger from back in the spring of 2023. He is alive and well, but not quite well enough to pass the tests to return to his job in Intelligence... yet, anyway. He's on the road to physical recovery; the member of the team whose emotional recovery is in question is Hailey Upton. She's still struggling to move on from Halstead leaving, and she leaned on Voight in an emotional final scene. Showrunner Gwen Sigan shed some light on why he was the right choice for her as the 2024 TV schedule kicks off.
Upton's Reveal To Voight In "Unpacking"
In "Unpacking," Upton was assigned to shadow a crisis prevention team, and it was going well... for a couple of minutes, anyway, when she went against that team's protocols to arrest a man covered in blood and behaving erratically. While moving forward against recommendation meant Upton was in time to save a woman's life, it was also the beginning of Upton going all-out in proving the man's guilt, only to eventually learn that his brother was the real killer. She was appalled at what she'd missed, all while she was struggling personally.
By the end of the six-month time jump, she had filed for divorce and gotten the papers back from her husband, but didn't send the papers in to make the split official until Voight called her out. She had also moved out of the apartment she'd shared with Jay, but had barely unpacked, and managed to cut her hand on a broken light bulb by the time Voight showed up. As Gwen Sigan had previewed, viewers were along Upton's ride with her, and she finally revealed to her boss that she didn't know what to do and doesn't know why she's so angry, and wanted him to tell her what to do.
While it was an incredibly emotional scene with excellent performances by Tracy Spiridakos and Jason Beghe, I was also struck by how seeing Upton confiding in Voight would have been unthinkable as of just a couple seasons ago. In Season 9, Voight's insistence on hiding the truth about the man Upton killed and body he'd hidden left her unraveling on the job, having panic attacks and scratching herself bloody. Voight was the worst possible influence on her at the time, but the tables have turned by the beginning of Season 11. So, when I spoke to the showrunner, I seized my chance to ask about them.
What Gwen Sigan Said About Upton Confiding In Voight
An awful lot has of course happened in the seasons between Upton's panic attacks and the new status quo of Season 11, and her reaction to Atwater asking if she wanted to go for a drink with him and Burgess makes it pretty clear that she's not confiding in either of them. When I asked Gwen Sigan why Voight was the right person to fill the role of confidant for Upton, the showrunner shared:
I love them together. I think that the actors have this really nice chemistry on screen. They push each other and they're just great together. I think what's happened with their characters is probably indicative of what's happened in their lives, in the actors' lives, where they are just so good on screen together. And I think they really enjoy acting together, and it comes across on screen that these two characters have a soft spot for one another. They're also really honest with each other in a way that Upton can call Voight out, Voight can call Upton out.
Voight certainly didn't hesitate to call Upton out in "Unpacking," when he pointed out that she'd left the divorce papers that she hadn't yet mailed just sitting out on her desk for all to see. Seemingly as much out of a desire to prove him wrong as to take that step, she responded by slapping a stamp on the envelope and mailing it. She wouldn't confess what was really going on to her boss until the very end of the episode. Gwen Sigan continued:
They're pretty similar in the fact that I don't think these are the most emotionally tuned people. They're not the most introspective. They're not the most willing to deal with themselves. So it's really fun to have them be together in that way, because they don't necessarily know how to navigate it. But they're in it together, which is a great place to be.
I don't think any Chicago P.D. fan would argue with the point that they're not the most "emotionally tuned people." Upton was getting much better about opening up before Halstead left, and she was left floundering after he returned to the army in early Season 10 and threw a wrench in the Upstead love story. While it was heartbreaking to end the premiere with Upton desperate to know what to do next, I noted to the showrunner that I thought Tracy Spiridakos delivered a beautiful performance. Sigan agreed, saying:
Yeah, I loved that. Love that last scene. They're so good in it.
It remains to be seen how much Season 11 will focus on Upton's journey of recovery and finding herself again. Tracy Spiridakos is leaving Chicago P.D. at the end of the season, which is expected to last for thirteen episodes. I'm still hoping to see P.D. promote Atwater up to detective status, and nobody has given up on Ruzek passing the CPD tests to qualify for a return to duty. A lot happened over the six-month time jump, and the stage seems set for an eventful eleventh season.
Keep tuning in to NBC on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET for new episodes of Chicago P.D., and check back with CInemaBlend for more from Gwen Sigan about Season 11. You can also revisit earlier episodes of One Chicago streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription now.
