Chicago P.D. seemed to get off to a fairly normal start in Season 12 with the premiere in the 2024 TV schedule, until the apparent death of a member of the team in the final moments. Detective Emily Martel, an old friend of Ruzek's who joined Intelligence over hiatus following Upton's departure, was shot in the head as a cliffhanger, leaving Ruzek reeling. Patrick John Flueger spoke with CinemaBlend about that shocking twist and how the next episode picks up for his character.
The next episode of Chicago P.D. is called "Blood Bleeds Blue," and it seems like a pretty safe bet from Voight's comment about "revenge" in the promo that Martel isn't recovering from her gunshot wound. When I spoke with Patrick John Flueger ahead of the new episode on October 2, he shared how he reacted to finding out about Martel being shot:
I'll tell you. The way that it was written in the script was that it was written almost as shocking as it happened on screen, if that makes sense. I definitely got done and was like [jaw drops]. I knew she wasn't going to be on the show, but just the way that it [happened] was striking.
Toya Turner's Officer Kiana Cook had been announced as the new series regular for Season 12, but that didn't have to mean viewers should expect that Victoria Cartagena as Emily Martel would be killed off by the end of the premiere. Flueger explained what he really liked about the twist, to the point that he'd like to see something similar happen for Ruzek if the circumstances were just right. He went on:
I'll tell you this. Whenever I thought about if Ruzek ever leaves the show, if he goes out, if he dies, that's how I wanted it to happen. You're in a firefight and in the background, you just see somebody go down because that's how that works. There's not a bunch of fanfare. You don't get to say goodbyes. There's bullets flying. I think that both the director [Chad Saxton] and the writers really did right by active duty police by showing that there's nothing romantic about it. There's nothing easy about it. There are no goodbyes.
Patrick John Flueger definitely isn't saying that he hopes Ruzek is killed off of Chicago P.D., but if his character's death is ever going to happen, a demise like Martel's is what he'd want to go down. It felt abrupt, upsetting, and very true to life. The actor elaborated:
You're there one moment, you're gone the next. You get up, you put your shoes on, you go to work, you go to your job – like I'm about to, but to go sit in a cast chair – and you end up dead, because part of your job is getting shot at. That's wild, so I get emotional. I just got emotional talking about it like that. It's a crazy situation that people do that every day, and I think they did a good job of highlighting that.
Chicago P.D. hadn't killed off a member of the team since Olinsky's demise back in the Season 5 finale, and the show revisited that tragedy at the end of Season 11 with Elias Koteas making a surprise cameo. In the interview with Patrick John Flueger, he shared how Ruzek processing Martel's death in "Blood Bleeds Blue" compares to how he's processed previous losses:
I think just the nature of it happening right in front of him. My favorite part is the call out. 'Martel, Martel, you good?' Because we do that all the time on this show, all the time. 'Atwater, you good. Kev, you good?' And you always get a response. It's the first time in twelve seasons that I can remember, certainly for him, that he doesn't get a response. I just think that's this wild wake up call.
Ruzek has certainly had close calls with his own life, as well as the lives of the people he cares about most in the world, but Martel being shot out of nowhere right in front of him will be a "wild wake up call," and that's not all. The actor continued:
He likes this aspect of the job, he likes the firefights, he likes the adrenaline rush, but even though he's been shot and he's lost people over the years, I think that this feeling of invincibility has always stuck with him, and I think that that gets washed away in that moment. His invincibility and the people around him.
If the look on Ruzek's face at the end of the Season 12 premiere (which you can stream with a Peacock subscription) was any indication, the next episode is going to be rough for him. Burgess isn't even around to help, although Marina Squerciati will be back. For now, check out the promo for what's next for Ruzek:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, October 2 at 10 p.m. ET for the big Ruzek episode of Chicago P.D. Season 12, following Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET. The three series of One Chicago were the first of the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe to return this fall, but Law & Order and SVU will return shortly to NBC and the FBIs will be back on CBS later this month.
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