Chicago PD returned on January 7 with its winter premiere and the show finally addressed the elephant that has been sitting in the Intelligence Unit bullpen.
After failing to address Patrick John Flueger’s absence in the last several episodes of the season, the show gave fans an update on Ruzek’s whereabouts in the first episode of the new year.
Knowing Eva was in trouble, Voight called Burgess and told her to notify the rest of the team and for her and Ruzek to meet at the scene. In replying, Burgess revealed that Adam had a family emergency and wouldn’t be able to join them, telling Voight, "OK, Adam had an emergency with Bob, so he's at the facility.”
The line was quick and didn’t go into much detail, but it was at least an explanation to give clarity on why Ruzek was not present in the episode working the case.
It was great to finally get an official acknowledgement of Ruzek in the winter premiere, but it’s frustrating as it never should have taken the show as long as it did to give fans an update. The writers could have easily worked in a mention of Ruzek taking time off to be there for his ailing father at any point. We don’t quite understand why it took them as long as it did to address Ruzek’s absence, but we’re happy the show finally gave us an official update.
Now that Ruzek’s absence has been addressed, and it’s been explained that his father has had an emergency of some kind, we should hopefully get more updates on his whereabouts in the episodes ahead. The writers wisely withheld the specifics of the emergency, but it would be realistic for Ruzek to remain by his dad’s side and take some time off.
Hopefully, Burgess will give us little updates that fill us in on how things develop, and the storyline will help explain Ruzek’s continued absence.
The good news is that we know Flueger returned to set ahead of the Christmas holiday, meaning he should be back soon. It's possible that we could see Ruzek back before Chicago PD takes its next break heading into February when the show goes off the air for NBC's Winter Olympics coverage. However, there is also a chance we might not see Ruzek back until after the show's Olympics break.
We'll have to wait to see when exactly Ruzek will rejoin the team, but the countdown is on and fans shouldn't have to wait too much longer!