Chicago PD season 13 episode 19 put the spotlight on Ruzek in an emotional hour that ended with a heartbreaking loss.
It’s been a rough season for Ruzek fans with Patrick John Flueger’s leave of absence, leaving his character sidelined for an extended stretch. Thankfully, the writers have more than made up for the lost time since Flueger has returned.
Chicago PD season 13, episode 19 put Ruzek front and center in an episode that reminded fans why Flueger is such a crucial part of the show’s DNA, with the actor delivering an incredible performance throughout the episode.
The episode opened with Ruzek in the assisted living facility where his dad has been living. It’s clear Bob’s memory is getting worse as we see a board in the room with photos of Ruzek and the various loved ones in Bob’s life. Ruzek mentions moving so Mac can go to the new school she got into, revealing they’ve already found a buyer for the home as Bob notes that he never agreed to them selling the house. Bob slips out of the conversation, noting that Ruzek looks like his son, before he begins getting agitated about the news that Ruzek is selling the house. Ruzek assures him they’ve got plenty of time, but the sad reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Back at the house, Ruzek and Burgess are working on packing things up and give Mac a box of his old belongings to look through. Ruzek is working through some old VHS tapes to make sure they don’t get rid of any unmarked home videos and comes across a strange tape that seems to be footage from a hotel room in which an individual is murdered.
Ruzek takes the tape to his dad to see if he can help provide any clues about the contents of the tape, as it seems to be marked with an evidence label. Ruzek asks if his dad worked the case, but he doesn’t get anywhere as his dad questions when Ruzek is going to take him home. After his visit with his dad, Ruzek heads out to meet with Mick, an old pal of Bob’s days in the CPD. Mick tells Ruzek about how the guys called it the motel massacre and suggests that it was just a prank, but no one ever fessed up, and Bob took it seriously. He tried to get a lead but never made any progress. Ruzek admits the splatter pattern looked real as Mick admits maybe they got it wrong.
Ruzek takes the tape in and uses the CPD’s tech to enhance the video. He notices a room key on the bed as he then works on clearing up the audio to see what the men are saying. He hears them mention a motel name and begins looking through results before coming across a hotel whose rooms match those in the video.
He heads out to the motel, calling Burgess on the way to let her know he’ll see her in the morning as he’s chasing a lead. When he gets to the motel, he requests the same room where the murder took place and heads out to the room. As he searches the room, Ruzek finds wiring within the smoke detector and notices the wiring leads to the office in the front room. He sneaks in and finds that the motel manager has placed cameras in all of the guest rooms as he’s then hit over the back of his head.
When Ruzek comes to, he’s in a hospital bed. He stumbles out of bed as Burgess comes in and helps him back to bed. She informs him he’s all right, but he has a bad concussion. He again asks what happened, and she tells him about the message he left telling her he was following up on the videotape they found at the house. An hour later, he was found at an alley a block away from his car, unconscious.
He’s struggling to remember anything about the night. The doctor notes that memory loss can be common with a concussion such as this, and his memory should come back in time as Ruzek asks what he can do to make the memories come back quicker. She encourages him to rest up as Burgess heads out and gets an update from Imani, who informs her they’re heading to the motel.
The man from the motel comes to see Ruzek, a gun visible in his pocket. Down in the cafeteria, Burgess gets a hit on her search, and she recalls seeing the man in the photo as she got into the elevator earlier when leaving Ruzek’s room. She quickly calls it in as she races up to Ruzek’s room, fearing the worst.
Burgess chases him and brings him in. He admits that he didn’t know Ruzek was a cop and that he was gone from the motel by the time he realized he had found his cameras. He came to the hospital to set up an arrangement, as he’s done with others in the CPD, hinting other cops have turned a blind eye to his actions in the past.
They show him the video of the murder, but he’s adamant he knows nothing about it. Platt and Burgess process the scene and find traces of blood and get a hit on the victim, a drifter with multiple drug arrests. The evidence seems to point towards this being a drug deal gone wrong as Burgess asks Ruzek if any of this triggers a memory, but he’s got nothing.
After Burgess has left, Ruzek checks his notebook, but the only thing in it is a note that reads “knows car.” That’s when he gets a call from his dad’s assisted living facility hinting that his dad has taken a turn for the worse. Ruzek races to see his dad and finds Bob in far worse condition than when he last saw him, as it seems Bob is now refusing to eat. Ruzek sits down beside his dad, and memory cards on the table featuring a plumber trigger a memory for Ruzek.
We flash back to the night he was attacked as Ruzek encounters Carlos, the maintenance man at the motel. Ruzek tries to ask him about the tape and the cameras in the room, but Carlos notes he needs this job. Ruzek begins to jot down “knows car” as in Carlos, but Carlos takes off. Ruzek follows after Carlos, which is when he was injured; it turns out he cracked his head while chasing after him.
Ruzek calls Burgess to give her an update as he heads to the precinct to meet Burgess. They’ve brought Carlos in, and it looks like he’s been getting paid under the table, as he has an active warrant out on him and has been lying low for a long time.
Ruzek and Burgess sit down with Carlos and tell him they can help with the active warrant if he helps them out. Turns out Carlos knows Bob. He pulled him over a few years back for a busted taillight, and he told him about his wife with epilepsy who needed him, and his dad let him go, which he never forgot. When he saw the tape with the guy getting killed, he made a copy and sent it to Bob knowing he was a decent man and would try to get justice.
Carlos tells them about a man who used to sell drugs at the motel known as VooDoo. They get multiple matches on the alias, which leads them to a man named Mark Knight, who was connected to the motel Wi-Fi the night of the murder. They get a hit on the car and head out to bring Mark in and are able to arrest him.
After the arrest, Ruzek gets a call and goes to see his dad, whose health is getting even worse. As Ruzek sits at his bedside, he admits he got a small window into what his dad has been going through and how hard this has been for him. He takes his dad’s hand as he tells him he loves him and he wants him to know he’s going to remember everything; he’s going to remember everything for the both of them, so it’s okay for him to let go.
We flash back through old memories of Ruzek growing up with Bob before returning to the present day as we watch Bob take his last breath.