Chicago P.D. was a wild ride during Season 10 as the Intelligence Unit dealt with the absence of Jay Halstead due to the departure of Jesse Lee Soffer. The actor returned for the first three episodes, which were used to set up Halstead's decision to leave Chicago and his wife. Theirs was a bittersweet goodbye, as they remained married and loved each other but Hailey Upton was left alone all the same. By the end of the 2022-2023 TV season, I was pretty much resigned to Halstead's absence and the seeming end of Upstead, but NBC has been airing Season 10 reruns from the start, and I'm back to being sad about Halstead and Upton.
Notably, Chicago P.D. is the only one of the three One Chicago shows airing reruns recently, so I haven't been watching old episodes of Med to start feeling sad about losing Will and Ethan, or old episodes of Fire to start worrying about Severide in light of Taylor Kinney's absence. But the first three episodes of P.D. Season 10 to set up Halstead's departure, followed by the first one without him? Seeing those again hurts.
I knew before Season 10 even started that it was bound to be sad whenever and however Chicago P.D. said goodbye to Halstead, since news broke over the summer that he would be leaving in the fall, and my hope was pretty much just that he wouldn't be killed off. I was even on board with him rejoining the army.
What I didn't see coming was Jay deciding to rejoin the army without so much as giving Upton a heads up until hours before he'd leave, let alone discussing the idea with his wife and partner first. I certainly didn't expect him to ghost her and then decide to extend his time in the army without telling her, leaving her to get that devastating news from his commanding officer. Seeing those first three episodes set up his exit now while knowing what would happen over the course of the next nineteen is a lot more bitter than sweet.
Here's every major Upstead update from Season 10 after Jesse Lee Soffer left Chicago P.D.!
There are arguably some upsides to how P.D. told the story of Halstead's departure, if I look at Season 10 with an eye toward Upton's development over the continuation of Upstead with no sign that Jesse Lee Soffer would return in any capacity other than as a director. The show had to allow her character to move forward, and the Upstead separation did allow for some fantastic performances from Tracy Spiridakos. I just wish that Halstead hadn't been done so dirty in Season 10.
So, why am I feeling like this now, instead of after NBC's rerun of Halstead's farewell episode last week? Well, I initially remembered Episode 4, called "Dónde Vives," more for being a great Torres-centric case. Watching it again on September 13 reminded me of what originally bothered me about it and apparently still bothers me: it barely acknowledged that Halstead was gone and didn't give Upton anything close to a POV in the first episode after he left her.
Plus, according to new series regular Benjamin Levy Aguilar at the time, there were originally some "beautiful moments" scripted between Torres and Upton about Halstead that were cut from the finished product. Episode 4 aired when I wasn't yet resigned to how P.D. would go about moving Upton's story forward with her husband gone, and rewatching "Dónde Vives" after a new episode of America's Got Talent just reminded me of that.
I am still hoping for some updates on Halstead whenever Chicago P.D. is able to return for Season 11, possibly to salvage his legacy. While it was renewed for the 2023-2024 TV season back in the spring along with Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes mean that production still has not started on the eleventh season, even though mid-September is usually when the hit drama would be returning from summer hiatus.
In a fun twist, Tracy Spiridakos and Jesse Lee Soffer reunited on the picket lines to support the strikes, and Spiridakos is among the Chicago P.D. cast members who contributed to a fund to support the production assistants who are out of work without a union to protect them.
Hopefully the strikes against AMPTP will be resolved within the foreseeable future; until then, there are always Chicago P.D. repeats on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and the first ten seasons streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription. I will remain firmly on Team Upton, no matter how many reruns I keep on watching!
