Warning: The following contains spoilers for this Wednesday’s Chicago P.D. Proceed at your own risk!
Kiana Cook’s first-ever criminal informant certainly kept Chicago P.D.‘s newest team member on her toes during this Wednesday’s episode.
When the Intelligence unit began to investigate a robbery-murder case with a star college athlete as the prime suspect, Cook saw an opportunity to use said basketball player Damone’s lover, Ruby, as an asset to get a confession. But Ruby turned out to be an unpredictable CI, who repeatedly lied to Cook and the team to protect Damone.
Cook tried to convince Ruby that love and Damone’s fame wouldn’t protect her, but the woman was too far gone. When Damone and Ruby were, eventually, arrested, Damone smugly exclaimed that his lawyers would get him out, but the future was not so rosy for Ruby.
In the end, Cook finally returned her mother’s answered calls, understanding that, despite what Ruby said to her, she does need someone, too.
Below, star Toya Turner talks about Cook’s “humbling” CI experience, her character’s troubled relationship with her mom, and what’s ahead for Cook and Torres’ strained dynamic.
TVLINE | What does Cook take away from this experience with her first CI? What lessons has she learned from this episode?
I think she learns that she doesn’t have to always get things right in this unit, and she’ll still be a part of the team. They’ll still back her up…. She might not get too close to a CI again. She kind of was, like, saying that she would lie for her and do things for her, when that’s not morally correct, just for her to be able to do this thing to break away from this guy. I don’t know if she’ll do that again. I don’t know if she’ll find a closeness with a CI again, and I think that she’s stepping into her own when it comes to the unit, just like voicing her opinion, sticking up for herself, saying what she thinks is right and wrong. I think she’s more comfortable with the unit now.
TVLINE | But things do not go smoothly with the CI. She lies multiple times to Cook. Does that impact how Cook views her ability to do the job? Is she questioning herself at all moving forward?
It can be a little humbling. She did her undercover thing, and that didn’t really go that great, and then she did this. I don’t think it makes her second-guess herself. I think she’s just disappointed in herself, and I think she just feels like she made the wrong call. It’s just something that she has to just kind of, like, pick herself up about. Like, “Hey, you’re not going to make the right call all the time. You’re not this perfect being. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to stick your neck out for someone, and it’s not always going to go right. You’re going to make a suggestion, and it’s not going to be the right move, and you just have to learn how to move on from that.”
TVLINE | At the end of the episode, what’s changed for her that she finally calls her mom back?
I think there were a lot of things. I think it was what Ruby said to her when they were having that conversation in the locker room. Ruby was pretty much saying, “I’m sorry if I need someone, and I get it. You don’t need anybody.” So she kind of called her out and checked her on it, and I don’t think that’s true. I think she does need somebody, and I also think that she does want to have a relationship with her mom. And I also think that the way that the unit treats her, the way that Voight treats her, I stepped to him about something, and he didn’t get mad at me about it. He even agreed with me when I said I wanted to make Ruby my CI, and it’s kind of like you can have this tiff and stuff like that or you could do something wrong, but you’re going to get a second chance. Like, everything doesn’t have to be so final or life and death with that, and I think it kind of makes her reevaluate, like, “I’ve always wanted a relationship with my mother. I’ve just been mad at her that it hasn’t happened,” and she just picks up the phone and calls her.
TVLINE | Does that mean that we’re going to see more of that relationship explored this season between Cook and her mother in these final episodes?
I don’t think we’ll touch on it more this season, but I do know we’ll touch on it for seasons to come. There’ll be some more episodes, for sure.
TVLINE | Is there any particular reason why her mom wants to reconnect now?
I don’t know
TVLINE | I was just worried that maybe she had, like, bad news or something for her.
Yeah, I was like, “Is this even for real? Does she really want to do this? Is she about to be on the same boat she was on with the party thing?” Like, “What’s good?” So I don’t know. I honestly don’t know, but when I was doing the episode, I played it as if that she really does want to have a relationship. Yeah, there might be some ulterior motives, but I wasn’t playing it like, “Oh, she’s just doing this because in the next episode, she’s trying to get me to come to a fundraiser.” I wasn’t trying to play it like that, like I knew why.
TVLINE | Cook and Torres’ relationship has been on such a rollercoaster. Obviously, they started off on a strong note. Then he put her in a really compromising position during that undercover case. What can we expect from that dynamic in these upcoming episodes?
I think even in [last Wednesday’s] episode, I feel like there’s a possibility their relationship could get back to what it used to be. I think it does still sting. Of course, she’s still going to work with him. But I feel like she don’t really trust him. They’re not as close as they used to be. So I feel like [in last Wednesday’s episode], [they] start leaning into each other more, and there are some things that bring them a little closer in [this Wednesday’s episode], too, and then there’s going to be a moment or two in the finale. That’s it. That’s all. [Laughs] That’s all I can say, and I feel like it’s her gaining trust of him again.
