Chicago P.D.’s longest-running on again/off again couple by this point is none other than Kim Burgess and Adam Ruzek, who managed to create a little family unit with a daughter in Season 9 but haven’t gotten back together romantically. Ruzek wanted to buy his dad’s house for Burgess and Makayla so that their little girl could have a happy place to grow up, but the Season 10 premiere didn’t indicate that their relationship has changed. Now, Marina Squerciati has opened up about what has been hurting the relationship between her character and Ruzek, and it sounds like there’s still hope.
Marina Squerciati spoke with press for the return of Chicago P.D. to the 2022 TV schedule, including her thoughts on where Burgess fits with the Season 10 theme of “savior.” When asked what fans will see from her character in the tenth season, the actress shared:
Burzek has sort of been in limbo for a while, and I think Kim will make a decision either way, starting in Episode 2, and follow down that path. I think we'll learn that the shooting, where she was shot at the end of Season 8, hasn't really left her and that's part of what's hurting her relationship with Ruzek and is going to come up a bit more in the season, how that's still haunting her. And I'd say that goes back to the first question of her brokenness coming to the surface that she's been trying to hide for so long.
Burgess was shot and left for dead in the Season 8 finale, and her trauma was addressed early on in Season 9 before the Burgess-centric storylines shifted to center more on Makayla, with the custody fight and then desperate search after her kidnapping. While it’s been some time since P.D. touched on that twist (and the Season 10 premiere was more about what showrunner Gwen Sigan described as the “messy” dynamic between Upton, Halstead, and Voight), it will come up a bit more… and has been hurting the Burzek relationship.
So, why is there hope from what Marina Squerciati said about her character still being haunted by what she went through? The actress revealed that Burgess will “make a decision either way” about Ruzek in Episode 2, which admittedly is hardly a guarantee that Burzek will get back together by the time the credits roll. What it does mean is that fans won’t be waiting months into Season 10 to get some answers about where they stand, and where Burgess wants them to stand moving forward.
If previous seasons have shown anything, it’s that Burgess and Ruzek are good at picking each other up when they’re feeling broken… unless they’re brutally fighting over a shared trauma, like when Makayla was kidnapped. Things were said at that time that couldn’t really be unsaid, so even them getting back to good terms by the end of Season 9 was impressive. The time jump from the end of Season 9 to Season 10 premiere was also only two weeks, so it tracks that there weren’t any noticeable changes.
Whether P.D. jumps ahead in time soon to catch up with the present could make a difference, but fans can only wait and see on that front. The next episode looks like it will be Burzek-centric, and pretty rough for both of them. Take a look at the promo for what’s on the way on September 28:
New episodes of Chicago P.D. air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following Chicago Fire (which launched Season 11 with a mini P.D. crossover) at 9 p.m. and Chicago Med at 8 p.m. You can revisit past seasons of all three shows streaming now with a Peacock subscription.
