After years of anticipation, Burgess and Ruzek finally exchanged I dos in the Chicago PD season 12 finale, but unfortunately, the pair’s wedding was nothing to write home about. In fact, it just might be the most disappointing wedding the One Chicago franchise has seen.
Burgess and Ruzek are the longest-lasting couple in the One Chicago franchise and quickly won the hearts of fans early in Chicago PD’s run. By the show’s second season, Burzek was officially born as fans affectionately bestowed the ship name on the duo as their relationship became a favorite among fans. In the years that have followed, it’s been quite a ride for the pair with many ups and downs but season 11 finally brought fans the moment they thought might not come around again when Ruzek proposed to Burgess and she accepted his proposal – this time with all signs pointing toward the couple actually following through with their engagement.
Heading into Chicago PD season 12, fans could not wait to see the couple’s happy day arrive. When it was announced that the couple would exchange vows in the season finale, fans were absolutely elated! The promise of a season finale wedding had fans dreaming up a Burgess-focused episode that would culminate with the pair’s special day.
While we didn’t quite expect the couple to have some huge, lavish ceremony, our hearts were so full thinking of getting to see Burgess and Ruzek celebrate their love for one another in front of their loved ones in a small, yet beautiful ceremony. With each new interview and tease of the finale wedding, our expectations only seemed to rise further, and we got our hopes up for an unforgettable wedding. Sadly, we did get an unforgettable wedding, just not in the way we hoped.
The Chicago PD season 12 finale indeed gave us a Burzek wedding, but it felt more like an afterthought than a true celebration of the show’s longtime couple. Yes, we got to see the couple’s beautiful church wedding, and their loved ones were indeed present. Burgess looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress, and Ruzek was giving serious Prince Charming vibes in his tux. However, we really only got to see the couple exchange vows as the show opted not to write in a scene in which we actually got to see the couple exchange their vows and celebrate their love.
Instead, the wedding ceremony was overshadowed by Chapman and Voight’s confrontation about Voight’s hand in murdering Reid, with the pair stealing attention from Burgess and Ruzek on their special day. We couldn’t even enjoy a moment of happiness watching the couple get married after all these years, as the focus remained on Voight, rather than pivoting to the couple and their nuptials.
While we understand that the finale needed to address the ongoing battle between Reid and Voight, we can’t help but feel cheated by how the show handled the Burgess wedding.
This is a couple who has been at the heart of the show for years, going all the way back to the very beginning. We’ve waited literally years to see the pair finally walk down the aisle, and we deserved to see the couple taking center stage as the sole point of attention in their wedding scene. We deserved to hear the pair exchange vows that captured the love they have for each other and get a moment to simply celebrate this couple who have meant so much to the fans.
If the show wanted to make the showdown with Reid the focal point of the finale, they should have taken a page out of the playbook of Grey’s Anatomy and had the Burzek wedding take place in the penultimate episode instead. Grey’s did that just this season with Jo and Link’s wedding unfolding in the penultimate episode, which allowed the show to bring fans a memorable wedding episode that celebrated the couple, rather than cramming the wedding into an already intense season finale.
We wish the Chicago PD writers had taken this same approach with the Burgess and Ruzek wedding. This could have given them the chance to still build to the showdown with Reid and make that the focal point of the finale, while still giving fans the Burzek wedding they deserved by having it take place before the finale rather than cramming a wedding 12 seasons in the making into a quick 3-5 minute scene that didn’t even focus on the couple’s nuptials.
The writers can hide behind whatever excuses they might choose in arguing the reason why they wrote the wedding into the finale as they did, but at the end of the day, fans deserved better, and so did Ruzek and Burgess.