NBC’s One Chicago franchise has developed a few frustrating habits in recent seasons. Some of these habits have been the result of changes to the television landscape such as the shift in how series regulars no longer appear in every episode of the season, while others have been a result of the show’s creative decision-making.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the recent seasons has been the way it feels as though just when a character delivers a powerful, emotionally driven episode, they’re suddenly nowhere to be found the very next week. Whether it’s recovering from trauma, processing loss, or simply written off-screen without explanation, these disappearances have become all too common across the franchise, often undercutting the emotional weight of the stories the shows work so hard to build.
Typically, when a character is impacted heavily by a storyline, be it through a near-death experience or the loss of a loved one, said character does not appear in the following episode of their respective series. This is something we’ve seen countless times in recent seasons, including just this week when Violet, Novak, and Vasquez were all missing from Chicago Fire season 14, episode 19, after being at the center of the previous episode in which Violet and Novak were taken hostage by a deranged man.
For this reason, we fully anticipated that Ruzek would not be appearing in Chicago PD season 13, episode 20.
Episode 19 of Chicago PD put Ruzek front and center in an episode that concluded with the heartbreaking death of his father, Bob. Following Bob’s death in the closing moments of the season, we fully expected that the show would sideline Ruzek in the penultimate episode of the season by having him take some personal time following his father’s death to process his grief off-screen.
We were fully ready to see Chicago PD continue the franchise’s trend of sidelining a character after a traumatic moment, rather than keeping the momentum going by exploring the immediate fallout by sidelining Ruzek in episode 20. After all, Ruzek had gotten a really big episode in which he was the primary focus of the central storyline, and it’s very common for a character to take center stage one episode only to be missing the next.
Thankfully, it seems that Chicago PD is going to end this frustrating trend, as Ruzek will appear in episode 20!
Ruzek’s involvement in the episode was confirmed via the newly released images from NBC, which revealed that Ruzek will be present and working alongside the rest of the Intelligence Unit in the episode. While the photos (featured below) don’t give us much to work with, they do confirm that Ruzek is present and will be playing a role in the episode rather than being sidelined to explore his grief off-screen.
It’s not entirely shocking that Ruzek would want to throw himself into work following the loss of his father, and there is a good chance that his presence in the episode hints that a small time jump has likely occurred between the episodes. We would not be surprised at all if there is a mention sometime at the beginning of the episode of Bob’s funeral having taken place, and we hope to see the show have Voight acknowledge Ruzek’s loss upon his return after being out the prior episode.
With episode 20 set to focus on Imani and her struggle to maintain her composure when a new lead reignites her investigation into her sister’s disappearance, we hope that the show finds a way to include some subtle moments that allow fans the chance to see how Ruzek is processing the loss of his father.
It’s important to showcase not just loss, but the aftermath that follows and the ways individuals grieve the loss of a loved one. Hopefully we’ll see this explored in the final episodes of Chicago PD season 13, and we look forward to seeing how the writers weave that loss into Ruzek’s narrative as the season closes out.
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