Fans might finally be seeing Burgess and Ruzek back together on Chicago PD soon! We’ve yet to get confirmation on when Patrick John Flueger will make his return to the show following his leave of absence, but we’re getting closer and closer to this return date and new behind-the-scenes photos hint it won’t be long before Burzek is back together on our screens!
The behind-the-scenes photo drop began on Wednesday night when Marina Squerciati shared a new photo from the set hyping up LaRoyce Hawkins’ big Atwater episode.
“LaRoyce will BLIND you with his talent tonight on Chicago PD,” Squerciati wrote over the accompanying photo from the set with Hawkins, Flueger, Jason Beghe, Arienne Mandi, and Benjamin Levy Aguilar. The photo marks the first behind-the-scenes photo of Flueger with the full Chicago PD cast since his leave of absence.
Days later, Squerciati shared another photo from the set smiling for a quick selfie with Flueger, Beghe, and Hawkins. The photo appears to have been taken during filming of the same episode, as the quartet are all in the same wardrobe we saw them in via the larger group photo.
The photos don’t exactly offer up much in terms of spoilers, as they both were taken from the set of the Intelligence Unit bullpen. What they do confirm is that we should get to see Ruzek back in action soon alongside Burgess and the team working new cases soon enough.
We’ve recently been informed that Ruzek has been taking personal time to be with his father, who has not been doing well. Outside of that information, little is known about the exact status of Ruzek’s father or when exactly Ruzek will be back. Given Flueger has been on set now for several weeks following his leave of absence, we should be getting close to his return on-screen.
There is no mention of Ruzek in the synopsis for episode 12, nor does he appear in any of the promotional stills or the promo for the episode. As such, it seems unlikely we’ll see him back before Chicago PD takes a break for the Olympics and it’s also unclear whether his return will come timed to the One Chicago crossover event set to air on March 4.
Hopefully the promo for the crossover will shine a light as to whether Ruzek will be participating in the crossover event. He played a major role in the 2025 One Chicago "In the Trenches" crossover episode and we loved getting to see him play off Chicago Fire's Miranda Rae Mayo in the episode. If Ruzek does miss out on the 2026 crossover it'll be a real shame, though it wouldn't be entirely surprising if the writers feel it better to bring him back into the fold after the crossover.
Regardless, we’ll be anxiously awaiting Ruzek’s return, but it’s clear we’re getting close and hopefully won’t have too many episodes to go before Flueger is back!