Chicago P.D. ended last season on a surprisingly happy note with Burgess and Ruzek finally getting to tie the knot, but the upcoming Season 13 premiere in the 2025 TV schedule will dig into the consequences of Voight and his team going rogue. While Deputy Chief Reid won’t be a problem for them anymore, showrunner Gwen Sigan and star Jason Beghe opened up about the characters who are facing the worst fallout this fall, with even Sigan admitting that it’s really not fair.
The Season 13 premiere of Chicago P.D. is called “Consequences." Per NBC, the episode will feature Voight teaming “up with an unlikely ally to take a killer off the streets while fighting to bring his Intelligence unit back together.” The “unlikely ally” is presumably Officer Eve Imani, a new character played by Arienne Mandi, but a big question is how hard Voight will have to fight for his former team.
They were disbanded in the penultimate episode of Season 12, and the fall One Chicago trailer shows several members of the team wearing patrol uniforms instead of their usual plain clothes. But who among the group is facing the worst consequences for how the finale ended back in the spring?
I asked Gwen Sigan and Jason Beghe that very question during NBC’s recent One Chicago premiere press junket, with the showrunner responding “I don’t think it’s Voight." The leading man chimed in that “it’s Burgess,” although “Benny [Levy Aguilar]” was named as another candidate. Sigan elaborated:
Burgess and Torres. They don't have their badges, so they're really feeling it. And Burgess really didn't do anything.
Torres is the one who broke some major rules in Season 12 via his relationship with a CI, and while he’s not the first Chicago P.D. character to cross that line, he was unfortunately caught. All Burgess did was cover for him, which – according to the showruner – basically means that she "really didn't do anything."
The CPD's punishment of taking her new detective badge doesn’t really seem to fit the crime. Any newlywed bliss after the Burzek wedding may not extend to her professional life! That said, Torres might be the one who’s in the most difficult position after Season 12. Jason Beghe said:
Torres feels it's all his fault, and I think he's got a kind of a guilty conscience, so it couldn't have happened to a worse [character].
Catholicism has been an important part of Torres’ character ever since Benjamin Levy Aguilar joined the Chicago P.D. cast, so it makes sense that he’ll still be burdened by a guilty conscience when the show returns. Sigan went on:
He's definitely believing, when we find him, that he deserves in some way, to be punished because of what he did.
While I’m not suggesting that Torres deserves to have his life permanently destroyed for his mistakes on the job in Season 12, his actions led to the mess with Chief Reid having leverage over the Intelligence Unit, while Burgess’ transgression was more inaction than action.
Of course, Chief Reid won’t be a problem for the unit in the new season after Voight orchestrated his assassination at the end of last season. Whether or not the full Intelligence Unit comes back together this season may depend on members of the CPD with more integrity than Reid.
Fans will have to tune in to the new premiere for the answers, but the One Chicago promo at least shows members of the team in action. Take a look:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, October 1 at 10 p.m. ET for the Season 13 premiere of Chicago P.D., following the Season 14 premiere of Chicago Fire with some Stellaride developments at 9 p.m. ET and the Season 11 premiere of Chicago Med ahead of the 200th episode at 8 p.m. ET. All three shows will be available streaming next day with a Peacock subscription as well.
