Spoilers ahead for the March 4 episode of Chicago P.D., "Intimate Violence."
Chicago P.D. shifted the focus to Upton and Halstead with "Intimate Violence," which forced Upton to face her abusive childhood while Halstead struggled with reconciling his need to help people with his work as an Intelligence cop. They were doing their "thing" of drinking together and talking at the end of the episode, and Upton revealed some dark parts of her past to Halstead. Taken in conjunction with her Voight leanings earlier in Season 7, is Chicago P.D. sending Upton up to cross a major line?
Tracy Spiridakos shone in Upton's final scene in the bar, as she opened up about her abusive childhood and what she watched her mom go through with her dad. The moral of her story to Halstead was that he did the right thing when he barged in and punched an abusive husband into submission, giving the wife and her daughter the chance to leave him and build a life.
Halstead didn't leave it there, though, and asked where Upton's mom went after leaving her dad. Upton responded that her mom went "nowhere," because she's still with her dad.
Normally, it would be easy to simply take this scene as Upton opening up to her partner in ways that she rarely does, and Halstead himself almost seemed surprised that she was sharing as much as she was. The woman needs to vent her emotions sometimes, and ideally it won't always take Halstead getting shot for her to get close!
Since this episode follows Upton setting Darius Walker up to be murdered and then more or less saying she's trying to become like Voight, however, I can't help but wonder if Upton is going to go after her dad if they cross paths.
I'm not saying that I think Upton is going to decide to attack or even kill her dad out of the blue one day, but she's also not afraid to cross lines that she wouldn't have even toed during her early days with Intelligence, and this case opened up some old wounds. If somebody gives her half a reason to take them down, might she do it? And hasn't her dad given her far more than half a reason? And doesn't she work in a unit of cops who would back her if she did?
Whether or not she does go after her dad, it's easier to imagine Upton crossing major lines at this point in Season 7 than ever before. Although setting up Darius seems to be her one big move, she also approved of Voight planting evidence to save Rojas' career. I'm inclined to say that Chicago P.D. isn't done with a Dark Upton plot either, since Halstead evidently will find out what happened with Darius. Since I don't see that coming up just over coffee, Upton's decision then could come up related to something she's doing when Halstead finds out. It hasn't happened so far!
See what happens next for Upton (and potentially Upstead) in new episodes of Chicago P.D., airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following new episodes of Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET and Chicago Fire at 10 p.m. ET.
