Fans who caught the Season 6 premiere of Chicago P.D. will know that all of Intelligence is struggling to deal with the loss of Alvin Olinsky after his murder. But, how is one of Olinsky's oldest friends, Hank Voight, actually dealing with his death and the part he played in it? When I had the chance to speak with Jason Beghe, Voight's portrayer, at One Chicago Day a few weeks ago, I asked what was going through the character's head at this point, considering how many people he's lost in his life, and Beghe responded by saying that what's going on in Voight's head isn't the real issue right now.
I think it's not really thoughts - his head - I think it's his soul. I think it hasn't filtered into his mind yet; it's not a conscious thing. He tries to kind of stay in the moment, but there's something going on, obviously, that is pulling him into the past. He's got shame, blame and regret still, but how much he can confront remains to be seen. It's hard, he's alone.
Voight is a hard character to feel sorry for, even in the most dire of circumstances. He's generally so in control and such a master of his own fate, that even when difficult things happen to him, like losing his son, it rarely occurs to viewers to feel much sorrow for the man. But, now that Voight has lost Olinsky, who was possibly the last person he'd known from back in the day who fully stood behind him all the time, it's pretty easy to see Voight's internal struggle and feel for the man.
As Jason Beghe noted, Voight hasn't fully come to terms with what happened to Olinsky yet. Obviously, the main cause of his murder was the vendetta that was held against him by a criminal he'd crossed paths with in the past, but we all know that Olinsky wouldn't have been so easy to take out (trapped in jail at the the time of his murder, as he was) if he hadn't been so dedicated to Voight that he was willing to take the fall for a crime that his old friend had really committed. So, not only does Voight realize that he's to blame for that, but while he was wheeling and dealing with Denny Woods and others to try to get Olinsky released while also protecting his own hide, he left his friend vulnerable to the point where it cost him his life. Voight knows that if he'd come clean immediately after Olinsky was arrested, he would probably still be alive, and, according to Beghe, that's eating the man's soul up right now.
Voight is a fighter who likes to take one problem at a time and get things done, but, even though he's taken out the man who called for the hit on Olinsky, nothing can truly solve the problem of his friend's death. So, we'll just have to see how much Voight gets pulled into the past and how it impacts his job and life as the new season goes on.
You can keep up with Voight and the rest of Intelligence as Chicago P.D. continues on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST. To see what else you can watch in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our 2018 fall premiere guide.
