Chicago PD midseason finale preview: Absolution

What should fans watch for in Chicago PD’s midseason finale? Get ready for Absolution with our Chicago PD season 7, episode 9 preview.

If the Chicago PD midseason finale is giving you a sense of deja vu, you’re forgiven. The general idea of “Absolution” feels like something we’ve seen before.

Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) has a secret relationship that gets him in trouble? We saw that with Camila Vega (Anabelle Acosta) in a prior season, and it was a plotline most One Chicago fans ended up hating.

One of the Intelligence Unit gets kidnapped? We’ve seen that repeatedly—last season it was Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos). And before that, it happened to Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins).

So on the surface, this seems like two overused ideas being smashed together.

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’

What can we reasonably expect from this episode, then? It’s hard to say, precisely because we’ve kind of seen this before.

The official description NBC has released says that the woman Halstead is involved with is connected to “another case,” and Jesse Lee Soffer has already given interviews that confirm that case is from the recent episode “False Positive.”

It’ll be interesting to revisit that episode, because it was easily one of Chicago PD‘s most flawed and most frustrating stories in a long time. But just how will the writers revisit it?

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

They could use this to take a hard look at how letting an innocent man take the fall for crimes he didn’t actually commit affects people—or they could go the melodramatic route. After all, Halstead’s ill-fated romance with Camila also started after he met her on a previous case, too.

It would be fantastic if this was the episode where Halstead finally loses it. He tried to in the season opener, but by the end of the hour was already back on Hank Voight’s (Jason Beghe) side again. He was put under immense pressure at the end of the One Chicago crossover. So what if this is his breaking point and he finally says enough?

Halstead’s become a bit of a punching bag this season, and he hasn’t been as well developed, with the focus on characters like Upton and newcomer Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez). Chicago PD can solve both those problems in this episode—give him more screen time and give him something that really matters.

Or, it can give him another random love interest and continue to kick him when he’s had a rough season. We’ll find out, but if nothing else, hopefully he gets rescued (considering how experienced this team is now at dealing with abductions). The bitter icing on the cake would be if Halstead was still missing by the time this half of the season ends.

For the latest Chicago PD season 7 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.