[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chicago P.D. Season 12 finale “Vows.”]
Considering the episode title, it is surprising that in the Chicago P.D. finale, we don’t see Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) exchange theirs.
Don’t worry, though, because they are married when Season 13 begins. What’s less certain? The status of Intelligence. After all, Reid (Shawn Hatosy) did open up investigations into their actions, and yes, he was dirty. That is now clear, thanks to Voight’s (Jason Beghe) actions, including moving the pieces into place for the son of the drug dealer Reid had killed to fatally shoot the deputy chief, but any fallout remains up in the air.
Below, executive producer Gwen Sigan breaks down the finale, explains why we didn’t see more of the Burzek wedding, and teases what’s to come.
Will we see the parts of Burgess and Ruzek’s wedding we didn’t?
Gwen Sigan: Probably not, no. I mean there’s a version of this, yeah, sure, where we could jump back into the wedding, but I doubt it.
Lori Allen / NBC
With the episode titled “Vows,” why not show the vows and were any written?
We thought a lot about writing the vows for sure. I think as we were going through the process of sort of putting all these storylines together, you have this very high-stake situation for Voight, for the full team. In so many ways, this is really a Voight episode, and so to also want to marry it with this wedding was tricky, and we wanted the right tone. We wanted to juxtapose the best we could this really emotional ending in Chapman [Sara Bues] and Voight and this cost, and then also have this happiness and the promise of more to come and the reason why Voight took the actions he took, to see all of that happiness and at the same time, you’re seeing this heartbreak. So the vows themselves are so sweet that it just felt like it wasn’t the right juxtaposition. It felt like it was a little too jarring. So that’s kind of why we ended up going in this direction that we chose to really lean more into this conversation between Chapman and Voight.
So those vows, could we possibly see them at some point in some capacity?
Yeah, I mean, who knows. They’re definitely not shot. We definitely didn’t shoot anything. So yeah, they’re not just hanging out for us to put out there, but who knows? You never know, I suppose, where we could take the next season.
Was there any plan to bring back any past characters for the wedding and that didn’t work out for any reason, or did you not go that route because of everything you just talked about?
Yeah, I mean, I think there was a moment where we were like, “Oh my gosh, what if we could bring back everybody and have Upton [Tracy Spiridakos] and Halstead [Jesse Lee Soffer] show up?” It ends up just becoming about production at the end of the day. We would’ve loved that, but to have these big actors come back for what amounts to really one scene doesn’t make sense. But we definitely thought about it. I think there’s a version of that wedding where everybody in one Chicago would’ve been there across all three shows. It would’ve been cool.
What are you looking at doing next season with Burgess and Ruzek now that they’re finally married?
We’re not in the room yet, so I think everything’s an option at this moment, but I think it’ll be really fun to write a married couple. We haven’t had a married couple on the show, really, since Halstead and Upton were married, but their marriage was very fraught. So this will feel a little bit different. And yeah, I think it’ll be a challenge, and I think it will be just an interesting dynamic to see play out at home, but also at work and sort of what they could be pushed into because they have that stability at home, kind of taking risks at work could be really fun and different.
Lori Allen / NBC
Why kill off Reid and in the way that you did with Voight arranging it?
I think we sort of always knew that when Shawn signed on that it’d be a one-year thing, and what we really envisioned that character as was this funhouse mirror to Voight because that’s really what we wanted him to be. And the idea was he was going to be testing Voight at every single turn and sort of testing, has Voight changed? Has he evolved? Who is he now? And to kind of really test that, we needed to take it sort of as dark as we could make it and make the stakes as high as we could, which you see in the penultimate. This is the first time that we’re basically kicked out of our offices and are told that it’s all going to be taken apart and basically stripped for pieces. So it brought Voight to that place, and it felt like we wanted to get him to his darkest place and see if he would take the bait and obviously his character did.
We see a photo of Voight and Olinsky when Intelligence’s stuff is packed in the boxes, then there’s the moment when Voight looks at Olinsky’s badge. Would Olinsky have been able to talk Voight out of what he did?
I think, yeah, I think he could have. I think definitely probably the only person that could have. Maybe Upton. But no, I think only Olinsky probably could have.
Speaking of, Reid tells Voight, “You’re worse than me,” and Voight tells Chapman, “I don’t get more.” Where is Voight’s headspace when it comes to who he is and slipping back into old habits at the end of the finale?
I think, in my head, when he decides what he’s going to do before he puts this plan into action — and there’s this nice scene where Chapman tries to stop him and he says, “I have to do it” — I think in that moment, he knows that the cost is going to be her, that the cost is going to be this sense of more, this thing that he’s been talking about since he kind of hallucinated Olinsky last season. I think he knew that cost and did it anyway. So, to me, that sort of final scene and the few scenes at the end of the episode are sort of confirming that for him. I like the idea that with Reid’s statement, it’s something the audience can question. It’s something that there’s a lot of different ways to look at it. Is it true? Is it not true? And I think it’s going to be rattling around in Voight’s subconscious for a while. And I do think it has something to do with why he knows, yeah, he’s got to end this thing with Chapman. He’s got to not drag people into this place with him because it’s not a place where I think he thinks anyone else belongs.
Voight guessed that with the claims against Reid, the investigation into Intelligence would disappear. Is he right? Will Intelligence be back operating like it was before Reid when next season picks up?
That’s the question. I don’t know the answer yet, but I love that we have a lot of options. So that’s where we’ll start in the room, I’m sure, is answering that question, but I like that it’s open right now.
How’s Atwater’s relationship? Because he ignored that call from Val…
I know! I think he ignored that call because of the headspace he was in, so much going on. But I do think it’s indicative, right? He’s made so much progress, I think, as a person this season. With that relationship, it’s kind of grown him up in a way. I think he’s become better at talking about his own shortfalls, his own flaws, and his feelings. So it’s interesting that his instinct in that moment was to isolate. And so we’ll see where that takes us in the future.
I know you said the room hasn’t started yet, but is everyone returning in the same capacity next season, like series regulars-wise? Is that the plan?
I don’t know all the details yet.
Is there anything else you can tease about next season or what you want to do? Is there anything from that you couldn’t get to this season that you’re holding?
Yeah, we had a few storylines we couldn’t get to this season that I still think are out there and could be interesting next year. I think Torres [Benjamin Levy Aguilar] is in this really interesting spot where nothing has been buttoned up for him. He’s in this very emotional, vulnerable spot, which would be really interesting to keep writing. I think Voight obviously, who knows what this guy’s going to get up to next year. I mean, he’s definitely in an interesting place and to see how the team is going to react to that because the team has different relationships with him now than years ago. So how is that going to all work out next season? So there’s a lot of, I think, interesting places we could go and we’ll just hopefully make it fresh and different.
Because of everything that’s happened, is anyone looking at the job differently now from the rest of the team? Because Burgess dealt with having her badge stripped from her…
I think so. I think a lot of them are. I mean, I definitely think Burgess, like you mentioned. For her, she had a lot to do with all of this, but she was really just trying to have someone’s back. She was just trying to have her teammates back and so to see the consequences of it, I think it will have an effect on how she moves forward. And certainly Torres. I think Torres has learned from his mistakes, has definitely paid the consequences, has seen what it can do, and I think he’s still dealing with that and dealing with the emotional fallout of all of that. So definitely his relationship to the job has changed.
Chicago P.D., Season 13, Fall 2025, Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC