Chicago PD’s Burgess storyline: 4 questions after Kim’s big decision

Chicago PD had fans talking this week when Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) made a massive decision about her personal life.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains discussion about the latest Chicago PD episode, “In Your Care.” If you missed the episode, you can catch up here.

Burgess found out during Wednesday’s episode that Makayla, the young girl from the earlier season 8 episode “Tender Age”, had landed in government care when her guardian Kathy couldn’t handle being a surrogate mother.

Rather than let the girl go to a group home, Kim made the decision to take Makayla in herself—a temporary arrangement with the possibility to become permanent.

The plot twist not only affected both characters and Burgess’ relationship with ex-fiance Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger), but it had One Chicago audience members buzzing about the pros and cons of such a major change. Understandably so, because there are big unanswered questions about this plot point.

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Why wasn’t Burgess interviewed first?

Several fans questioned why Burgess didn’t face a more thorough screening before being allowed to take custody of Makayla.

The only explanation that might make sense is if Chicago PD takes some dramatic license and says that it’s because the arrangement is temporary—and that Kim will be fully vetted if and when Makayla’s adoption becomes permanent. But that’s still a very big stretch; she should have gotten fully interviewed before taking custody at all, especially with the myriad of concerns raised by Makayla’s social worker.

While Burgess’ heart is in a good place, there are a number of reasons this may not work, first and foremost being her work with Intelligence. It’s the same problem that existed when she got pregnant; yes, police officers have families all the time, but Intelligence isn’t standard police work. It has heavier demands and more physical risk than a normal unit. She’s also taking in a child who was traumatized and from a vastly different background than hers.

Yet it didn’t seem to take much for her to be granted temporary custody. Maybe there’s some kind of mitigating circumstance we didn’t hear about in Burgess’ last call with the social worker that’ll come out later but right now it feels like Kim breezed through the process.

How will this affect Burgess and Ruzek’s future?

Eagle-eyed fans probably noticed that Ruzek wasn’t with Burgess when she picked up Makayla. Since their last conversation was cut off by that pickup scene, and included Ruzek expressing his skepticism about why Kim wanted to adopt the girl in the first place, the implication seems to be that Adam isn’t thrilled with the decision.

So will there be tension between the two? That’s not good for Burzek fans who’ve already gone through seasons of back and forth. It’s doubly worse for Makayla; the last thing she needs is to go into a home where there’s fighting. Or will Ruzek move out for a while, similar to how Stella Kidd is now crashing at Sylvie Brett’s place on Chicago Fire?

Or was this just a creative choice to make the last scene solely a Burgess scene, and Ruzek is fine and just went home to start dinner or something?

Ruzek is right to be skeptical; Burgess has always had issues with child-related cases, and her actions during “In Your Care” proved that when she bent the law to allow the remaining suspects to escape. Her heart sometimes overpowers her judgment. But that doesn’t mean he can’t fit into this picture; it just won’t be easy.

Let’s hope the writers don’t use this as another wedge to push them back apart, because whether you’re a shipper or not, that “will they, won’t they” went on far too long.

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Will this mean Burgess and Atwater finally have scenes together again?

The best thing to come out of this storyline was that Chicago PD had Burgess go to her former partner Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) to get advice. Atwater’s being a surrogate parent to his siblings was one of the most interesting parts of his character—until the show sent Jordan and Vinessa away a few seasons ago and only brought Jordan back to get him into trouble. It would have been ridiculous if Kim hadn’t consulted Kevin for his expertise.

Their scenes were a nice reminder of the fact that these two used to be best friends, before their friendship was largely dropped from the show. We didn’t really get to see Kevin be there for Kim when she lost her baby, or Kim support Kevin when he went through his problems with the other cops. If nothing else, perhaps this storyline will prompt the writing staff to give us more scenes between Burgess and Atwater, because she’ll almost certainly continue to need his help.

Will Makayla’s adoption last through Chicago PD season 8?

This is the big one. Chicago PD having Burgess specifically say that her taking Makayla was temporary provides the show an easy out. They can easily have her taken away from Burgess for one reason or another; we saw that happen with Louie on Chicago Fire. Just like when Kim was pregnant, there’s nothing stopping the writers from reversing course in a few episodes or next season and dropping this storyline.

While bringing back Makayla is a dramatic story, and certainly appealed to Burzek fans who want to see them get married and have a family unit, there’s nothing here’s that’s permanent. That said, it would be a bit of a “pulling the rug” moment if Burgess had two child-related stories in two seasons and both of them ended badly. From an audience point of view, it’d be frustrating to use major life developments like having or adopting a child just for short-term drama and then have Burgess broken-hearted all over again.

For the latest Chicago PD season 8 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.