Chicago PD spoilers: What happened in season 9 episode 3?

Chicago PD dedicated the season 9 opener to Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and her recovery, but the latest episode shifts the focus to Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer). There’s a lot revealed about his past, which he’s gone to great lengths to cover up until now. Fans get to learn about his military background and the trauma he had to contend before he joined the police force.

The episode, titled “The One Next to Me“, sees Halstead join forces with a former military buddy to take down a reckless team of thieves. There’s some additional subplots involving Voight (Jason Beghe), Upton (Tracy Spiridakos), and the murder they covered up during the season 8 finale, but this is definitely a Halstead showcase.

Be warned that the rest of the post contains detailed spoilers!

What happened on Chicago PD last night? (October 6th)

Chicago PD kicks off with some light banter between Halstead and the rest of the PD team. They admit to knowing about Halstead’s plans to move in with Upton, but the lighthearted tone melts away when they get called to investigate a robbery. The thieves in question used stolen C4 to blow the locks, which Halstead identifies as military tactics.

The detective stumbles upon Knox (Jon Beavers), a former commander in his military outfit with a rap sheet to match their suspect. He goes undercover at a veteran support group (with a camera hooked up to his person) and convinces Knox to hang out. During the meeting, however, things are said about Halstead that confuse Burgess and Upton.

For one, Knox calls him “Ricky” instead of Jay. Then he reveals that Halstead was the sniper in their outfit, and that he somehow managed to keep his cool when everyone else was reeling from the trauma of combat. Upton later tries to smooth over these revelations by calling Halstead “Ricky” but he immediately cuts her off and tells her not to use that name.

Upton is dealing with secrets of her own. Voight pulls her aside at one point and informs her that the FBI are launching a formal investigation into the death of Roy, the man responsible for the Burgess shooting. Voight asserts that they need to keep their stories straight and present a unified front, and a reluctant Upton agrees.

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Halstead manages to flip Knox as an informant, and together the duo manage to infiltrate the men behind the robbery. It all seems to go according to plan until the finale, when the men turn up dead and/or wounded. Knox went into a murderous frenzy and killed the rest of the team, but Halstead is able to track him down and apprehend him peacefully.

During the episode’s final moments, Halstead tells Upton why he doesn’t like to talk about his time in Afghanistan. He reveals that Knox was his commander, and that he went into rage when one of his men were killed and proceeded to murder an Afghan family in retaliation. He covered it up, and a disillusioned Halstead never spoke up.

The name “Ricky”, it turns out, was short for “Ricochet”, due to Halstead talent for bouncing bullets off different surfaces to hit his target. He shares a slight pause with Upton before jokingly asking if she had any secrets to reveal. Upton’s mind goes to Roy and the murder she helped cover up, but she stays quiet and the screen fades on an ominous note.

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