Chicago P.D. will soon be back on NBC to pick up after Season 9 left off with Voight, Upton, and Halstead in the aftermath of Anna’s death. The ninth season finale was a disaster for Voight as everything went wrong with Anna, and he ultimately couldn’t save her. After she shot him, Upton shot her, and Season 10 is starting with a lot of unresolved tension. Showrunner Gwen Sigan spoke with CinemaBlend about what’s on the way, and how things will remain “messy” between Voight and Upstead.
Unlike last year, Chicago P.D. will kick off the fall season with a time jump, although not a huge one. Of course, last season had a huge plot cliffhanger to resolve after the death of Roy Walton, whereas the Season 9 ending was more of an emotional cliffhanger. Voight was wrecked after Anna’s death, and Gwen Sigan weighed in on how Voight’s holding up when Season 10 picks up on September 21:
Not great. [laughs] We come back pretty soon after that. The time is basically two weeks after the events of last season. So it's still pretty fresh, and we see that he's still reeling. I mean, he's still bleeding from it. He physically was shot. He's dealing with the physical aftermath. But more so the emotional aftermath of just having lost somebody, and lost somebody in that way, and feeling a responsibility and a guilt for what happened. So we play with that through the first episode, and then it continues to linger. We keep it messy, and it is going to weigh down on his shoulders for quite some time that he lost her.
The showrunner previously described Anna as a character who had “gotten under Voight’s skin” for the first time since losing Olinsky, so it tracks that the “emotional aftermath” didn’t just blow over in the two-week time jump to the Season 10 premiere. It doesn’t necessarily bode well for the unit if things are messy with Voight, and he’s evidently not going to feel free of that burden by the end of the episode. But does he share that burden with the other two people from the unit who were on scene for her death?
The whole dynamic between Voight, Upton, and Halstead changed in Season 9 after Voight pressured Upton into keeping Roy’s death a secret, and Halstead became more of an equal to Voight rather than simply one of the cops working under him. While Halstead is sadly going to be gone before the end of Season 10 with actor Jesse Lee Soffer’s departure, Gwen Sigan confirmed that the Intelligence Unit’s married couple is caught up in the mess. She said:
There's a lot of tension that lies between the three of them, just because they were the three that were involved in the actual shooting last season. And whether conscious or not, Upton feels that Voight is blaming her for what happened, that she's the one that pulled the trigger, and how she's dealing with it, how Halstead's dealing with it, how Voight's dealing with it. It's all very different. They're taking it on in different ways. We see that tension boil in the first few episodes of the season, really. It really remains there and sort of escalates and informs some fractures between the three of them.
Viewers saw in Season 9 how Upton handled feeling guilty while having to keep those feelings a secret, but it sounds like the situation in Season 10 will be different. For one thing, she doesn’t have to hide her actions from Halstead, and feeling that Voight blames her doesn’t necessarily mean that she blames herself or feels blame from anybody else.
Upton and Halstead were a pretty united front in Season 9 once the truth came out and Halstead realized he wanted to fight for their relationship; what do the “fractures” between the three of them mean for their marriage? What’s up with Upstead in the episodes that remain before Jesse Lee Soffer’s swan song as Jay Halstead? And how much will this tension between them and Voight affect the first few episodes?
Find out with the Season 10 premiere of Chicago P.D. on Wednesday, September 21 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following Chicago Fire’s Season 11 premiere at 9 p.m. and Chicago Med’s Season 8 premiere (which sets up some new conflict) at 8 p.m. Check out our breakdown of what to remember from Fire, P.D., and Med’s last seasons, and take a look at our 2022 TV premiere schedule for some more upcoming viewing options.
A new series regular has joined P.D. for Season 10, so Intelligence won’t necessarily be a man down once Halstead is out, but there are more questions than answers at this point. Be sure to check back with CinemaBlend for more on One Chicago as the seasons kick off!
