Yeah, I think their unit’s kind of reinvigorated because the old adage of, ‘You don’t know what you got ‘ til it’s gone.’ They miss Ruzek, Burgess missed Ruzek and at a certain point had embraced the reality that he was gone. How will his return impact the dynamic of the team as a whole going forward, given that this is the first Burgess and Ruzek will be working alongside each other long-term? But here, Rixton ironically knew his dad and did him a favor, and Rixton does the right thing and bows out so Ruzek can take his place. Yeah, no, he’s back, which is why we wanted to have that transitional episode with him realizing that it’s not that easy, so he’s looking at being detailed not only back in uniform but not in the same district. All the things that we love about what Patrick Flueger brings to the role, we’re able to reset and re-embrace without any kind of lingering relationship questions or private conversations or doubts. So we’re able to have a rejuvenated Ruzek come back into Intelligence and put the relationship aside, and focus on being a cop. What do you think that you and the writers got out of shaking up that dynamic now that you’re writing for Ruzek again? What is the latest effect of his prolonged absence?Īgain, having followed through on the threat of him leaving, he’s had time to figure out what’s important to him and being in Intelligence is clearly up on the list. We wanted to not take the easy route of making a big deal that he’s leaving and then, indeed, he does not leave the next episode. So once they were hopefully lulled into believing that this character wasn’t coming back and at the same time, lulled into really liking, after a bit of a rocky start, the Rixton character, just when Rixton is embraced by the unit and accepted by Burgess, here we have coming out of the shadows Ruzek now having come to terms with what he did and how much he missed Intelligence and wanting back in. Nick Wechsler did a great job for us, and it was almost timed to where the audience is thinking, ‘Oh, Ruzek’s not back the next episode, he’s not back the second episode - he might be gone, gone.’ Obviously it gave us the opportunity to bring in a new character for a good chunk of episodes.

And so it had some nice ramifications for Burgess. So we really wanted to follow through on the threat and we were also born from the reality of the situation where that character’s former fiancee who gave the ring back is now detailed up to the same unit - there’s not just one unit in the Chicago police department - so to goose the storytelling, we had him leave. When we decided to have Ruzek surprisingly leave Intelligence, we didn’t want to have him come back the very next episode and have it be a complete wank storyline for the audience. Why was now the right time to bring Ruzek back into the fold from a writing standpoint? So what will this new yet old Intelligence Unit look like, especially given Ruzek and Burgess’ surprising kiss last week? The Hollywood Reporter spoke with showrunner Matt Olmstead about a “reinvigorated” unit, the rocky road ahead for Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and the next member of the team that may be headed for the door. Chicago P.D.It was just the latest game of musical chairs up at District 21, after the departure of Roman (Brian Geraghty) in the season-three finale, Mouse’s (Samuel Hunt) departure, Antonio’s (Jon Seda) decision to move to the State’s Attorney office and Burgess’ (Marina Squerciati) promotion to Intelligence - the latter which was sent Ruzek running to a mysterious undercover assignment in the first place.

Adam ruzek chicago pd