Just when Intelligence’s newest addition was starting to find his footing among the team, Chicago PD threw a surprise curveball fans’ way by sidelining him.
At the beginning of season 14, episode 6, we learned via a quick conversation between Burgess, Torres, and Imani that Donovan was out for training—a conversation that was used to clue fans in on the fact that Naiqui Macabroad would not appear in the episode.
“Where’s Donovan?” Torres asked as he entered the bullpen with a pair of coffees in hand.
“He’s out the rest of the week—advanced tact training,” Burgess replied, adding that she had put him with SWAT after Imani asked where he was completing the training.
It was a quick conversation woven into the episode before the team tackled their case of the week was introduced and helped to give viewers a direct acknowledgment of Donovan’s absence in the episode… which was more than what the show gave another more senior member of the cast.
While Chicago PD made a point to offer up an explanation as to why Donovan was not present for the events of the week's case via the conversation, it failed to offer up any information on why we did not see Sergeant Trudy Platt in the episode. That’s right, for the third episode this season, Amy Morton was not featured in the episode, and for the third time, the show did not offer up any explanation as to why we didn’t see Platt.
Given the fact that Platt is not a direct member of the Intelligence Unit, it’s certainly understandable that writers seem to feel an explanation is not needed when she is not in an episode. Still, it’s starting to become quite concerning that Platt is being sidelined quite frequently without any acknowledgement of her absence in the episode.
Sadly, the show seems to be making Platt more of a recurring supporting character than a key member of the ensemble. A large part of this reduction in her role is due to the move away from focusing on patrol officers in the show, as the early seasons leveraged Platt quite more prominently through storylines involving the lower-ranking officers.
Now that the show really only focuses on the Intelligence Unit, it’s clear that the writers are struggling to find ways to work Platt into the show’s narrative on a regular basis. Season 14 has really underutilized her character, and we keep waiting for that to change, as Platt is an amazing part of the show’s ensemble and her mentor-mentee relationship with Burgess is one of the show’s most compelling dynamics.
Hopefully, Platt will finally get the chance to shine on Chicago PD soon, but that will entail her being present in the actual episodes. Chicago Med reminded us just how amazing Platt is with her recent crossover and we wish Chicago PD would give her that same opportunity to take center stage or, at the very least, play a bigger role in the Intelligence Unit's daily operations.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.
Add us as a preferred source on Google