Chicago P.D. hasn't been easy on Ruzek in Season 12, starting with the violent death of an old friend and then getting wrapped up in the heartbreaking case of a little girl named Zoe, who had been abducted and surrounded by death for all of her young life. Zoe's case wasn't closed by the end of her first episode early in the 2025 TV schedule, and P.D. is about to pick it back up. The upcoming return to Zoe's story reminded me of what Patrick John Flueger said about working with young Annabelle Toomey for the Ruzek/Zoe scenes.
The next Chicago. P.D. episode is called "Marie" and will air in the One Chicago cop drama's usual 10 p.m. ET time slot on February 26. Per NBC, Ruzek will be dealing with his father's health going downhill while Intelligence is on the hunt for a serial killer, and the promo reveals that Zoe will be abducted and in need of rescue. In her first episode from back in January (which is available streaming now with a Peacock subscription), she connected with Ruzek more than any other member of the unit.
And when I spoke with Patrick John Flueger at the time, I noted that Chicago P.D. has a knack for finding strong young actors, including Ramona Edith Williams as Makayla, to play very dark storylines. The actor quickly chimed in with "We did it again!" and went on to share what it was like to team up with Annabelle Toomey:
She's so good, she's almost intimidating. She's so good. It just made it easy. I could just sit there and talk to her. I think she's about eight years old. She's playing six or eight, somewhere in there, and I asked her how much she knew. A lot of the time, parents – as they should – protect the kiddos from the broad scope [of scripts] and quite frankly, she didn't need to know the whole story, but her grasp of what she needed to do is shocking.
Anybody who watched her first episode, fittingly called "Zoe," can probably agree that the very young actress didn't need to know all the details of the serial killer storyline! Chicago P.D. is in fact one of Annabelle Toomey's first big shows, after appearing in one episode of Chicago Fire (as a different character) and three episodes of The Bear. Suffice it to say that her characters on those two shows hadn't gone through what Zoe did! Flueger went on:
The director would come over and say, 'Hey, could you maybe for this part take a little bit of time?' She actually got told to take a little pause before she responded to me in one moment, and it made it. It made the [episode]. And it was so uncomfortable because she didn't just pause. She paused to the point where I was like, 'Did she forget her line?' But you could tell she didn't, because she was still so in it. [laughs] She blew me away. I'm not gonna lie.
According to the longtime One Chicago star, Annabelle Toomey was so good that it was "uncomfortable" to see her as Zoe. Patrick John Flueger clearly meant it as a compliment, and the youngster already seems to be a pro at heavy storylines even if she didn't quite know all the details. He recounted a conversation he had with her:
I go, 'Annie, you're pretty good at what you do, huh?' She goes, 'What do you mean?' I'm like, 'You're kind of a natural.' This is our first day working together. She goes, 'I know.' [laughs] And not in a mean way. She just had that confidence.
It remains to be seen how much of a role Toomey will have in the next episode, which concerns Zoe's abduction. Her picture is shown in the promo, but no new footage of Zoe herself. Hopefully that doesn't mean Ruzek and Co. are unable to find her by the end of the hour. Take a look for yourself:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, February 26 at 10 p.m. ET for this new episode of Chicago P.D., or check it out streaming next day on Peacock. As always, the network's One Chicago block of shows kicks off on Wednesdays with Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET, followed by Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET, before closing with the exploits of the Intelligence Unit.
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