Chicago PD might have already introduced Upton's replacement

Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) is gone soon. The character will be leaving the Windy City and the Intelligence Unit behind once and for all, and despite getting closer to the finale episode in which she will say goodbye, we have no clue how Chicago PD plans to pull it off.

We've already discussed the possibility (and the merits) of killing the character off, or the downside of bringing back Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), in an attempt to make sense of the messy divorce. It's all on the table as of right now, but something that has gone less remarked on is who will replace Upton once she's gone.

Upton sought out Josephine Petrovic

Regardless of how she goes, the fact of the matter is someone is going to have fill Upton's shoes within the IU. She took over for Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) when she joined Chicago PD, so it stands to reason that the show would bring in another female character to keep things consistent.

Well, it just so happens that Upton brought another female character into the mix recently: Josephine Petrovic (Bojana Novakovic). The SVU detective has already made multiple appearances in PD season 11, and has played a crucial role in two of the season's most important cases.

She also, crucially, was sought out by Upton. The two women were the focus of the episode "On Paper", in which they managed to see through each other's facades. Upton realized that Petrovic is a functioning alcoholic, and Petrovic can sense that Upton is committed to results above all else. They solve a kidnapping case together, but now they have a sort of bond because Upton didn't report her.

Petrovic could theoretically replace Upton

We could see a world in which Petrovic helps pick up the slack for Upton in season 12. The character has been well-established as a troubled and interesting presence within the department, and Jason Beghe told TV Insider that the character represents a change of pace for the kind of officers that the IU attracts. A change of pace isn't a bad thing, especially a decade plus into a TV run.

This is all speculative, of course. Petrovic could be written off the show for good, or kept around as a recurring character within the larger One Chicago universe. Time will prove the ultimate truth teller, but we're intrigued to see more of her either way.