Chicago PD midseason premiere recap: Brotherhood

Chicago PD’s midseason premiere put Adam Ruzek’s future in jeopardy. Here’s what happened in Chicago PD season 6, episode 10.

The Chicago PD midseason premiere picked up exactly where the midseason finale left off, with a terrible problem for Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda). But by the end of the episode, it was more than his problem.

Wednesday’s episode “Brotherhood” didn’t feature a time jump after Antonio pushed a man to his death. Instead, it was a seamless transition between that fateful moment to Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) telling Antonio to leave and telling Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) exactly what he was going to say.

Voight was prepared to take the fall, but given his recent troubles, Ruzek wasn’t willing to put the nail in his boss’s coffin.

Instead, he went downstairs and told a totally different story: that the dealer tried to go after his gun and he killed him in self-defense. While Voight stared a hole through Ruzek’s soul, the rest of the squad showed up, and were just as quickly told to leave.

More from One Chicago Center

• Chicago Med star on 2024 cast changes: ‘Nice to have new faces’
• Here’s the perfect Chicago Fire episode to watch on Thanksgiving
• Ranking the 8 NCIS Thanksgiving episodes from worst to best
• Mark Harmon does NOT have plans to reprise Gibbs on NCIS
• One Chicago stars tease new seasons on IG: ‘Here we come’

They were easily able to tell something was up, but Voight remained tight-lipped back at the district, only saying that Antonio would be okay.

Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) showed up with marching orders from Deputy Superintendent Katherine Brennan: investigate the fatal carjacking of an 18-year-old woman, the fifth in recent memory. Hey, at least the situation meant Platt got to go out into the field! And have more than one scene!

Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) looked at footage from nearby security cameras, which proved the perpetrators came from Canaryville—home of the Halsteads and also, one of Ruzek’s informants.

Voight used the car ride over to chew Ruzek out properly:

"Voight: You don’t protect me. I protect you. That’s my job. I’m the one who allowed Antonio to be there. This is on me."

Tongue-lashing complete, the duo went to see Mark (and Mark’s marijuana, and Mark’s illegally obtained TV’s). They convinced Mark to inform on a man named Pat Kent, which also meant that Upton could ask Mark about Ruzek’s past—briefly, before he tried to ask her out.

Upton and Halstead sat in the surveillance van while Mark went to see Pat, and proceeded to go way off-script. (Apparently one more thing he and Ruzek had in common.) He told his marks that there were cops in the area, but Pat didn’t seem bothered. He mentioned a guy named Billy, whom Upton identified as Billy Cowan, so guess where Chicago PD headed next?

Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) questioned Billy, by which we mean Burgess knocked things over until Billy gave them a picture of the man he’d been doing business with.

But just as Intelligence prepared to hunt for their mystery man, a new investigator came to pull Ruzek out of the room. Forensics didn’t match his statement; they’d found someone’s blood on the wall. As Ruzek processed that, Upton appeared behind him and pressed her boyfriend for the truth.

"Upton: Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did….Are you insane? There are a thousand ways this goes wrong. A thousand ways you end up on the wrong end of this."

Ruzek wasn’t wavered by her being upset, accusing him of having a problem with his ethics. She reiterated that she cared about him—just as Halstead came in to see what all the shouting was about. He had no time for their squabbles, and probably just got a big clue that they’re dating.

An annoyed Ruzek showed the photo Billy provided them to Mark, convinced that his childhood acquaintance could identify the perpetrator. Like Billy, Mark didn’t know the man’s name, but he gave a possible location. Unfortunately, the guy and his friend were out carjacking someone else and now there was a typical Chicago PD car chase!

Ruzek and Upton pursued the latest stolen vehicle, resulting in a shootout between themselves and the suspects. Upton shot one of them, but the other escaped, because there was still half an episode to get to.

Voight was getting really sick of being called out to scenes with dead perpetrators, but not as sick as Ruzek was when he got the ID of the dead man and realized that his CI had lied to him.

Upton, meanwhile, brooded for a moment before she walked into Voight’s office and tried to get him to stop Ruzek. (We found out Voight had sussed out their relationship, as he referred to Ruzek as “a guy you’re dating.”) The boss reassured her that he was doing everything he could, but that Adam had to make his own decision.

But Chicago PD‘s lingering shot of the photo of Voight with Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) suggested differently. Voight went with Platt, who had called in another favor; she just happened to know the guy investigating Ruzek’s case. He offered to “make some changes” if Voight and Ruzek told the truth.

Voight presented the deal to Ruzek, and told him that it wasn’t a choice. Chicago PD then piled on by confirming that Mark was connected to the crimes—his brother Tommy was the other carjacker. Hence why he only gave a vague description earlier when he saw the photo!

Intelligence hunted down Tommy, which naturally led to Ruzek holding him at gunpoint, having his own tough decision to make. But Voight was right there, too, and helped diffuse the situation so Ruzek could go back to the interrogation room and ask Mark what the heck he was thinking. Now the title of the episode made sense.

After having Mark hauled away on his old charges and new ones, Upton apologized to Halstead for not telling him about her relationship with Ruzek. Halstead reassured her that they were good and would always be good, while Ruzek went to wake up Trudy. He wanted her opinion; she confirmed that Voight’s fake story would be problematic, too, but that Voight could survive it.

So the next day, Ruzek went to the investigators and stuck to his guns, while Chicago PD showed us Voight checking in on a still-battered Antonio, clearly getting help for his injuries. They would all be needing help now.

For the latest Chicago PD season 6 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.