Chicago PD isn’t giving any more Antonio Dawson closure

Chicago PD fans hoping for more Antonio Dawson updates will be left wanting in the rest of Chicago PD season 7, according to showrunner Rick Eid.

Those two Antonio Dawson references on Chicago PD are all the information about Jon Seda‘s character that fans are going to get.

Chicago PD executive producer Rick Eid has told TVLine that the show doesn’t intend to give out any more information about what’s happened to Antonio since he left the Intelligence Unit.

The writers have “no plan in the forseeable future that’ll mention [Antonio],” Eid explained, after saying that he felt the show “kind of wrapped that up last fall.”

He’s referring to the Chicago PD season 7 premiere, which developed a quick explanation about Antonio after producers decided not to bring Jon Seda back this season.

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Antonio was initially presumed missing, but Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) revealed that the fan favorite had a relapse and Voight had taken him to another, super-secret rehab. In a later episode, it was briefly mentioned that Antonio had gone to Puerto Rico.

That’s tying into Chicago Fire, which actually gave more of an explanation about Antonio’s fate than PD did. When his sister Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) returned to Chicago in the Fire episode “Best Friend Magic” she confirmed that Antonio had moved to Puerto Rico and was working with the same organization that she was; in fact, he was off elsewhere on a volunteer mission at the time.

Eid’s explanation might leave a bitter taste in the mouths of Chicago PD fans, who still love both Antonio Dawson and Jon Seda, and are still upset about the decision to get rid of them.

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But in truth, he’s only speaking from a practical point of view. Antonio Dawson is no longer a main character in Chicago PD season 7, and so it doesn’t make sense for the show to keep spending its time and effort on a character who isn’t there. The show that’s airing now is supposed to focus on the characters that are part of the team now.

Eid did throw the fans a bone, though, by comparing Antonio to Sean Roman (Brian Geraghty), who was also a former main character and is returning for next week’s One Chicago crossover. He pointed out that Roman’s story was also wrapped up, and now years later that character is back.

That doesn’t mean he has any plans to bring Antonio back, before fans get their hopes up. But it’s always possible that in another season or two, the writers will miss Antonio Dawson as much as the fans do, and maybe they’ll come up with a storyline that needs him—and give Jon Seda that opportunity to actually say goodbye on-screen that he didn’t get this fall.

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.