‘Chicago P.D.’: Jason Beghe & Marina Squerciati on Losing Jay and Jesse Lee Soffer

Intelligence is about to lose one of its original members, with Jesse Lee Soffer exiting Chicago P.D. after playing Detective Jay Halstead since before the series, now entering Season 10, even premiered. (The character first debuted on Chicago Fire.) So how will the unit be handling the loss? How worried should we be about Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) without Jay there to pull him back?

“I’m worried about Jason without having Jesse to pull him back,” Beghe said during a junket to kick off One Chicago’s fall season. “I’ve always said that we’re one organism, so it’s kind of like an amputation for all of us, and it will be a difficult adjustment. I think all of us — probably [Jay’s partner and wife] Upton [Tracy Spiridakos] the most — have to cope with this void and it’s not easy and it will be a difficult thing for all of the characters and for all of the actors.”

Marina Squerciati (Officer Kim Burgess) agreed, though, “it’s not terrible for my character,” referring to the internet joke about how Burgess and Jay don’t talk. “But as an actor and as a friend, I have shed many tears. Jesse is so wonderful in so many ways, I’m really going to miss him,” she said. “The unit will suffer, for sure, but also we have Ben [Levy Aguilar], who’s coming in [as Dante Torres, who debuted last season], new voices, and new dynamics that will ultimately change the unit. And like any job and any relationship, things end and it’ll be interesting and different. We will all miss him.”

Jay’s exit is coming at a time when Voight is entering the season in a pretty bad place after Upton was forced to shoot his CI Anna (Carmela Zumbado) in order to save him. “What’s interesting is that Voight has been somewhat unemotional — unless you include fury,” noted Beghe. Though Voight is “becoming more vulnerable,” the actor admitted, that does make him uncomfortable.

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“He’s broken, and he’s lost, and he feels like he’s lost control, and that’s not his comfort zone and so he’s finding ways to try to affect a sense of control, and these kinds of coping mechanisms only work to some degree,” he continued. While he’s having fun playing that onscreen, “it’s creating a problem [for Voight]. He’s not doing his job as well or responsibly.”

Could Season 10 be when we see exes Burgess and Officer Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) finally figure out their relationship? According to Squerciati, the ball’s in her character’s court. “Ruzek has had this outstretched hand for so long, and how long can you have it there with it being continually smacked away before you withdraw?  I think this season’s going to be exploring why Burgess is doing that and if she’ll be able to step up.

She concluded, “I think in the second episode, you get some resolution as to will Burgess be able to finally step up or will she take the final step back?”

Chicago P.D., Season 10 Premiere, Wednesday, September 21, 10/9c, NBC