‘Chicago PD’ Boss on Halstead & Upton’s Relationship, the Burzek Baby & More

Meredith Jacobs January 8, 2020, 11:00 pm

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 7, Episode 10 of Chicago P.D., “Mercy.”]

Following Chicago P.D.‘s fall finale, fans were pretty worried about Jay Halstead’s (Jesse Lee Soffer) fate. Angela (Vicky Jeudy) didn’t take the truth of what happened to husband Marcus West (Sammi Rotibi) well, and shot the detective she saw as responsible (Jay) for his death. (She’s going to keep quiet, however, with the threat of what would happen to her if she was charged with the attempted murder of a police officer hanging over her head.)

But while Jay took a bullet and is only discharged from the hospital at the end of the winter premiere, he’ll be fine. However, some things may change as a result. Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) was the one who stayed at the hospital waiting for news. “It’s hard because you love him,” Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez) told her. And it seemed like Hailey was about to talk to Jay about their relationship — until Angela’s son called his phone and he made a move to answer it.

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Also in “Mercy,” Burgess (Marina Squerciati) decided she’s having her and Ruzek’s (Patrick John Flueger) baby.

Here, executive producer Rick Eid teases what’s next after the winter premiere.

Will everything with Marcus West and Angela cause Jay to re-evaluate the way he does his job going forward?

Rick Eid: Yeah, he’s affected by what happened and a little more cautious about certain things. Halstead’s a guy who feels a lot for other people and tries to save people. That comes into play in Episode 15. His desire to do the right thing and to help people and save people and get justice sometimes doesn’t work out well, and we’ll see that.

(Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Is Angela no longer a problem, or might that come back to bite Intelligence?

It may come back. It’s not an immediate problem. It goes away for a while, but we like lingering problems that may come back some day, so that’s always a possibility.

What did you want to do with Voight and Crawford’s dynamic to make it unique from what we’ve seen in the past in terms of Voight and authority figures?

We have tried very hard to make it feel like it’s not repetitive of any of those relationships. We’ll see an episode coming up where these two are in conflict, but their relationship is different in that there’s no vendetta, there’s no personal grudge, neither one is necessarily trying to destroy the other. They’re just both trying to do what’s best for the city. In our minds, it’s a more harmonious relationship than relationships past.

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Hailey seems to reconsider talking to Jay after opening up to Rojas about her feelings. Has that just been put on hold or is she completely rethinking things?

They have a very strong relationship and a very strong connection and it’s a very complicated relationship given the fact they work together. Hailey is very aware of Jay’s tendencies and issues and so she’s mindful of moving forward.

What did you want to do with that relationship, as we’ve seen both have other inter-team romances?

We’re waiting to see where it goes. We try not to make predetermined decisions and say they will be romantically involved by this episode. We try to just write each episode and see what happens and then just look at it and think about what is the most honest result of their relationship or the most honest consequence.

(Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Speaking of team relationships, there’s Burgess and Ruzek and the pregnancy. Can you talk about balancing the baby and their romantic history?

They’re more focused on the present. When something major like that happens, when you’re pregnant, you focus on what’s in front of you and what’s happening as opposed to the past. So we intentionally tried to keep it about now, but the past obviously affects how Burgess is treating it in the present.

When will we see the rest of the unit find out?

Soon. I think it’s Episode 11 … Everybody’s surprised.

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Atwater got a surprise when his brother came back in town and then got caught up in the case. Is he just not answering Atwater’s calls at the end of the episode or is there reason to be concerned?

There’s always a reason to be concerned. His brother’s in over his head a little bit here, and so Atwater is very concerned.

We haven’t seen Atwater in a relationship like we have the other characters. Will that change?

We’re hopeful we’ll find some sort of romantic connection down the road. He and Rojas have an interesting relationship. We just need to see more episodes between them. That’s something that’s possible.

(Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Intelligence gained a new member in Rojas this season. Is there anything you wanted to do with her character that you hadn’t yet with others, in terms of introduction or joining the unit?

She’s the new person in town and she’s trying to fit in and find her role within the unit. What separates her from some of the other characters is she grew up in a really uniquely hard situation and without parents in her life and came up through the foster care system and had a really hard upbringing. Of all our characters, [she] had one foot in the criminal world more than others. That’s why she’s so good at being undercover and it’s such a natural fit. She’s somebody in search of stability and a family, and she’s hoping that Intelligence gives her just that.

Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC