Chicago PD season 8 character preview: Jay Halstead

What should happen

Halstead was at the center of some of Chicago PD‘s biggest mistakes last season, and that has to be fixed in Chicago PD season 8.

The episode “False Positive” and everything that came out of it made it seem like Halstead was the only one bearing any kind of guilt or responsibility for Voight and the Superintendent’s plan to blame an innocent man for murder and justify his death in custody. In reality, Jay had a relatively small part to play in that scandal—yet he carried the blame for it and he took a bullet that could have killed him.

Then there was “Intimate Violence” which presented a controversial message about domestic violence by having him rough up an abusive suspect.

And in the middle of all that was the ongoing tease of a romantic relationship between Halstead and Upton.

Jay needs to be let off the hook next season and not be used as the fall guy for other people’s actions, whether it’s Voight or Upton or anyone else. And while Upstead is clearly the future, he absolutely can’t be looked at as just “Hailey Upton’s boyfriend.” That happened to him sometimes when he was dating Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush), and it’s not fair to him or any other character to be defined solely as someone else’s love interest.

He deserves his own stories with his own point of view, and if he’s going to get romantically involved with someone else again, it needs to be a full-fledged relationship that actually adds something to his character and doesn’t just exist to have another ship on the show.