[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chicago P.D. Season 13 premiere, “Consequences.”]
The title of the Chicago P.D. Season 13 premiere certainly is apt, with Intelligence paying the consequences of last season. The unit has been disbanded, Voight’s (Jason Beghe) working Rapid Response — which means he should only be responding to crimes in progress — Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) don’t have badges, and Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) are assigned elsewhere. But the team still manages to come together in the first episode.
When Voight catches a shooting, frustrated with Commander Devlin (Joel Murray) from Internal Affairs dragging his feet on reactivating his unit, he works the case anyway, eventually bumping into ATF’s Imani (Arienne Mandi) while she’s undercover. Voight calls in Burgess, who ends up saving Imani’s life, then Ruzek and Atwater join Voight and Imani in working the rest of the case.
By episode’s end, Intelligence is back up and running, everyone has their badges back, and Imani is the newest member. But to make that happen, Voight made an enemy out of Devlin, who was prepared to keep Intelligence shut down for good: Some of the guns that were part of the case traced back to the CPD, a batch that Internal Affairs never reported stolen. It would be embarrassing should that come out now, Voight points out.
Below, showrunner Gwen Sigan and star Jason Beghe unpack the premiere and tease what’s ahead for Voight and Devlin, Burgess and Ruzek, and more.
Voight gets his unit reinstated, but it feels like his way of doing so could have made an enemy out of Devlin. Is that the case? What’s coming up with that dynamic? It feels like it has to be so contentious after that.
Jason Beghe: Yeah, I don’t think that Devlin is thrilled. I don’t think he feels like “Voight’s my favorite guy on the planet.” He’s an alpha male in his own way, and he just got alpha’ed. So, I think that he is going to be determined to regain the upper hand.
Gwen, what can you preview about that?
Gwen Sigan: Yeah, I think he’s really — Devlin’s an interesting character because I think he’s very different than a lot of our bosses have been before. He’s a pretty folksy sort of guy. He’s a little more plainspoken. He’s quieter, softer. He’s come up from behind a desk; he hasn’t been working on the streets, and so his motivations are very different than Voight’s. I think he cares a lot about how he ends this job with as many friends as he can have at the end of this thing and with a full pension. So, having an enemy like that is very different for Voight. I think this guy is a little more quiet and sort of unassuming, and so it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts and then what he does about it and how that differs from what we’ve seen in the past.
Burgess and Ruzek start the season off happy. Things seem to be going great for them, but knowing the show, how soon before you start to challenge either or both of them?
Sigan: No. They’re happy. They’re happy. I swear they’re happy. Yeah, I mean, definitely we need conflict, so we’re going to have some conflict, but I would say the conflict that they end up dealing with through this season is not with each other. It’s really with situations that are normal life situations that I think everyone can relate to, but now they’re dealing with them together, and maybe they’re both bringing in different things to those decisions, their own perspective and backgrounds, and so I think it becomes a lot more about their family as opposed to just their relationship with one another. They also have a lot of things that come up through the job, and then how they deal with that together. So, they’re in a good spot, but life will keep going, and they’ll still have to go through some things
Voight tells Imani he’ll give her a long leash. Why is he willing to do so so soon after meeting her?
Beghe: I think there’s just a real natural comfort and also an understanding of who she is, and I think subconsciously, probably, he understands that she’s a good foil for him in that she’s, in a sense, a mirror image of him. So, it’s a good way for him to discover himself and do his job as a man and as an officer better.
Elizabeth Sisson/NBC
And what are we going to see from her with that long leash? That can mean problems — you have to factor in what’s going on with Devlin, all of that.
Sigan: Yeah, exactly. I think that the nice thing about the pair of them [is] because they share some instincts and because they share a style of policing, there’s a lot of good that can come from that, and then there’s a lot of leading each other astray that can come from it. So, we see a bit of both of that. We see through how their relationship evolves this season, the two of them growing, which I think has been really lovely to see. And yeah, it’s fun. It’s going to be a fun ride.
One of my favorite dynamics on the show is between Platt and Voight. Are we going to see a storyline for Platt where Voight’s there for her?
Beghe: That would be nice.
Sigan: We have something cooking, but yeah, we’ll have to wait and see. But yes, I would love to see that and more Platt is always good.
Beghe: Yep.
Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC