Chicago PD season 7 midseason report: Vanessa Rojas

What it means

Aside from Hailey’s debut at the tail end of season 4, there have often only been two women up in the Intelligence Unit – Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) served as the primary ladies from earlier seasons; replace Erin with Hailey since season 5 onward. Season 7 marks a time where 3 women are now represented within the unit: Burgess, Upton and now Rojas.

This means there’s plenty of time to dole out interesting stories to each of the women, but the writers can get especially creative with Vanessa, since she’s the “fresh face” of Chicago PD.

Will she continue to prove herself to her new colleagues? Or is she officially “part of the team?” We saw her make a rookie mistake in “Familia” by not calling for backup – has she learned from it? Or perhaps the writers will humanize her even more by giving her another obstacle.

As for her personal life, there’s definitely some room to speculate, as earlier this year, we reported that there’s a new romance for Atwater on the horizon. Vanessa is the only option to be coupled up with Kevin, as she’s unattached at the moment. Sparks definitely flew in “Assets” when the two made their formal introductions; prior to that, Vanessa (as Nina) had asked Kevin to have a drink with her. So, could they make a go of it? Or will they simply be better off as coworkers?

Another avenue to explore would be her foster home roots. How has that shaped her? We have seen a tiny bit of her background, but we could really use some more to piece together Vanessa as a whole person. That’s the fun of bringing in a new face – the possibilities of growth are endless, and we have a feeling Rojas’ character can be fleshed out a lot more.