‘Chicago P.D.’: What to Expect When Season 9 Returns

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Chicago P.D. may not have ended its winter finale with a cliffhanger, but the first part of the ninth season did set up quite a few interesting storylines.

“No Way Out” closed with Detective Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) eloping, after he ensured that she didn’t have to worry about the FBI finding proof she killed Roy (to save Jason Beghe’s Sergeant Hank Voight last season). Moving forward, “we spend a lot more time with [other] characters and we start building some of those storylines out and we leave the marriage to the side,” Soffer told TV Insider.

So what are those storylines? And what do we know so far heading into the 2022 episodes (beginning January 5)? We recap below.

Intelligence Finds Out About Upstead’s Elopement

Let’s start with the happy news first. Since Halstead and Upton eloped, the rest of the unit doesn’t know they’re married. While there won’t be a celebration, the others — specifically Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) first — will put it together in the next episode when the partners show up wearing rings.

Atwater’s Relationship Gets Complicated

In “Burnside,” the fifth episode of the season, Atwater met Celeste (Amanda Payton), and while the two connected both before and after spending the night together, he withheld one piece of crucial information: He’s a cop. And while he planned to come clean at the end, he couldn’t do it after she blamed the cops present — he was one of them — when a student of hers was killed.

After the episode, Hawkins confirmed Celeste will be back. “Hopefully by then, we can see how the relationship or the rhythm of the relationship has developed,” he said. “I hope that we notice a difference in Atwater’s energy, a light or peace that he has that he may have struggled with historically because he didn’t really have a safe space or someone to share his life with.”

Lori Allen/NBC

As for how long he can keep that secret that he’s a cop, we’ll have to wait to find out — and to see the consequences for his relationship.

More of Burzek’s Undefined Relationship

The exes may have broken up, but Officer Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) has been helping Officer Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) with Makayla — when it came time to pick someone to care for her daughter in the event of her death, she chose him — and their relationship remains very much undefined. While discussing some upcoming storylines, Soffer did note them “dealing with [their] interesting dynamic.”

After all, they may not be together, but Squerciati has pointed out that the couch in her character’s home is made up to be Ruzek’s bed. “It’s this really amazing, weird, complicated relationship that I love because they’re so screwed up,” she said. “They’re just in it…they’re just sort of living in the weirdness of it in the fact that they’re both committed to Makayla. They haven’t figured their own thing out.”

Lori Allen/NBC

With Chicago P.D. already renewed through Season 10, there’s plenty of time for them to figure things out, so we wouldn’t be surprised if nothing really changes when it comes to Burgess and Ruzek’s very strange dynamic anytime soon.

A New Dynamic Between Halstead & Voight

After choosing to use the blackmail material Voight had gotten on FBI Special Agent North (Alex Morf) to get him to back off his investigation into Roy’s death, Halstead paid his boss a visit in the winter finale. Things would be different going forward, he insisted. “You always say tell me the truth so I can lie for you,” the detective said. “From here on out, you tell me the truth. You bring me in so we don’t have to lie anymore. So I can protect you from yourself. You understand me?” Voight agreed.

Spiridakos did tease we’ll see “a bit of” what that means for their relationship going forward, with Soffer adding, “we start to build that dynamic in a different way, which has been interesting and fun to play out.”

Related

10 Burning Questions for One Chicago in 2022

Something tells us it won’t take long for Voight and Halstead to clash over this.

A Cold Case for Upton

Spiridakos has also teased a “really fun case” coming up for her, one which requires her and her stunt double (“more Kelli, let’s be clear, than I”) to go in the Chicago River in January. She’s “very excited about it,” she said. “It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be freezing.”

So now the only question is: Is Upton following someone into the river or did someone possibly push her in?

Chicago P.D., Returns, Wednesday, January 5, 10/9c, NBC