Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) should be on cloud nine. The character was recently promoted to detective, and is engaged to be married to longtime partner Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger). It's a pretty sweet set up. Unfortunately, the Chicago PD character does not have a smooth road ahead.
Chicago PD showrunner Gwen Sigan discussed the master plan for season 12 with TV Insider, and she revealed that Burgess is the IU member who is most at risk moving forward. Despite being made a detective, the character finds herself in a dangerous situation with Deputy Chief Darryl Reid (Shawn Hatosy).
Kim Burgess is under Chief Reid's thumb
Burgess put herself on the line to protect officer Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) in the fall finale. It worked, in so much as Torres is alive and still employed by the IU, but it also gave Reid some dirt to use on the detective if he sees fit. In other words, Reid has Burgess under his thumb. The same goes for Hank Voight (Jason Beghe).
"I think he likes that Burgess now feels perhaps a little beholden to him," Sigan explained. "And now he’s also got Voight, so he’s slowly starting to get information on everybody basically so that he can use them like pawns." This should come as no surprise, given Reid's ominous request to be "friends" with Voight and the rest of IU in the aforementioned fall finale.
Gwen Sigan confirmed what we all suspect, which is that Voight does not like being at someone else's beck and call. Especially if they intended to use the weight of the IU for personal reasons. He wants to do something about Reid's silent, increasingly tight grip on his officers, but it's not going to be very easy.
Hank Voight intends to outsmart Chief Reid
"He will not love this relationship and not knowing what Reid is thinking," Sigan informed the outlet. "And I think Reid is such a sort of guarded person and he is very good at that and he sort of uses it almost as a superpower."
This is the latest round of bad news pertaining to Kim Burgess. The promo for the season 12 episode "Zoe" dropped after the winter premiere, and it hinted at some relationship woes for her and Ruzek. It has long been hinted that Ruzek's dad, Bob (Jack Coleman), will resurface and cause a rift between the engaged couple.
Here's hoping Burgess and Ruzek can weather the storm and make it to their wedding day.