Chicago PD season 7 midseason report: Adam Ruzek

What it means

Ruzek has come a long way over the last few seasons, perhaps owing in part to the show’s cast changes behind the scenes. With the producers writing out Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) and then Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda), Ruzek has emerged as Voight’s new psuedo second-in-command. It’s a pretty big transition from a few seasons ago, when we all thought Voight might literally murder Ruzek for being Denny Woods’ (Mykelti Williamson) mole in the Intelligence Unit.

It’s been wonderful to see Patrick John Flueger get the additional screen time, but in terms of the dynamic within the team, you have to wonder what Chicago PD sees the endgame as. Ruzek is an awful lot like Voight, so having those two at the proverbial top of the pyramid means there’s not going to be a lot of disagreement or necessarily restraint in the way things are done. Voight might have told Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) that he’ll end up being the boss, but it looks like the show favors Ruzek.

That being said, Ruzek has taken some major steps forward even if his temper hasn’t. He may or may not take the detective’s exam this season (after Voight urged him to last season), and what will happen with him and Burgess? It’s very iffy as to whether or not the show needs or can even sustain a baby, and what happens with that kid will obviously have a huge impact on the Burzek relationship as a whole.

But if the writers do something terrible here, and use it to drive Burzek apart again, fans are not going to be happy. They’ve already voiced their displeasure over splitting them up the first time, and then teasing a reunion only to hook both characters up with other people, so it feels like this season is the time the writers need to fully commit or fully walk away from this pairing. They can’t string the fans, and the characters, along anymore.