Will Ruzek Go to Prison on ‘Chicago P.D.’? (RECAP)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 7, Episode 2 of Chicago P.D., “Assets.”]
Going into Chicago P.D. Season 7, Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) is facing prison time after covering for Antonio (Jon Seda). He’s refused help from Voight (Jason Beghe) at every turn, and his sergeant has had to let him deal with it on his own. But that changes in Wednesday’s episode.
Ruzek may be out and awaiting his trial date — likely “sometime next year” — but he’s struggling with the reality of his situation. He even broaches the topic of a cop choosing to be in general population in prison with Voight. “If I lose, I don’t know how well I’ll do 23 hours a day alone in my cell,” he admits. That’s a concern for later.
And one that they may very well have to speak about because Internal Affairs Detective Heller (Matthew Rauch) approaches Voight to “clarify a few statements.” Voight, however, wants him to make the case go away, especially since Kelton’s the one who wanted him to open it and he’s dead. “I don’t care about this case,” Heller says. “But the ship has sailed. It’s with the state attorney’s office.” He does agree to see if the ASA is really invested in the case.
Meanwhile, Platt (Amy Morton) must intervene when Ruzek “tries to help” stop a dealer selling in front of children by punching him in the face and throwing him to the ground. Ruzek protests that the dealer swung first, but Platt reminds him he’s off the job and doesn’t have any authority. “You can’t get involved in things like this, not anymore,” she tells him. She can see he’s struggling and goes to Voight with her concerns. “As tough as he is, he’s not going to last a month on the inside,” she says.
That doesn’t bode well when Heller returns to Voight with an offer from the prosecutor: 12 months, and he’ll do six. If he goes to trial, he could be looking at three to five years. “What happens when I’m out?” Ruzek asks. “My career’s over. I gotta find a new job. All I know is being police. That’s who I am, it’s all I got.” That means they have to fight it.
Fortunately for Ruzek, Intelligence’s case gives Voight what he needs to help Adam. It benefits the police to keep a kingpin of a drug syndicate on the streets helping them arrest his competitors. Interim Superintendent Jason Crawford (Paul Adelstein) gets to talk all about those arrests and may even be able to lose the temporary tag to that position, Voight points out. Crawford agrees, as long as there’s plausible deniability across the board. Voight just has one condition.
The episode ends with Voight bringing Ruzek his gun and badge and informing him that the ASA is dismissing the charges based on “insufficient evidence.” Ruzek wants to know what he did, but Voight tells him, “all that matters is it’s done.”
Ruzek’s returning to work, but the door is left open for Crawford to come after him or Intelligence in the future. It’s hard to imagine something not going wrong with this deal and Crawford not happily turning on Voight and his team to benefit himself. Plus, we’ll have to see if Ruzek can just bounce back after what he’s been through. We expect to see at least Platt keeping an eye on him.
Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC