Chicago PD season 13, episode 19 put the focus on Patrick John Flueger in an amazing episode that centered around Ruzek. In having Ruzek take center stage for the episode, the rest of the cast played more of a supporting role in the episode, with a few members of the ensemble sitting out the episode entirely.
Among those missing from the episode was Jason Beghe, whose character, Sergeant Hank Voight, failed to appear throughout the episode. Thankfully, the show did address Voight’s absence, but the explanation happened so fast that many fans missed it entirely.
After Ruzek was attacked, Burgess and Imani began working on the cold case he had cracked open in hopes of getting information on his attacker. As Imani filled Burgess in on the latest developments in the case, she briefly let her know that Platt had helped to loop Voight in on things as she explained why he was unavailable to help.
As it turned out, Voight was out of state testifying in court, thus why he was unavailable to assist with the fallout of Ruzek’s attack and the cold case at the center of the case. With Voight out of town, Burgess ran lead on the investigation with Platt, Imani, and Atwater providing support on the case along with Ruzek.
It was certainly strange to be without Voight in the episode, but his absence was at least explained – a courtesy not extended to Torres, who was simply not in the episode with no explanation at all for why he was not working the case with the rest of the team.
Of course, on the show it was explained that Voight was out of town helping to testify in court, but the real reason Beghe was not in the episode was due to the ongoing budget restraints placed on long-running shows such as the One Chicago series.
While in the early days of the show, series regulars such as Beghe appeared in every episode of the show, the total number of episodes the Chicago PD series regulars appear in has been reduced in recent years to help with the show’s budget. As part of this shift, series regulars miss at least 3-4 episodes every season as part of cost-cutting measures.
Unfortunately, this extends to every member of the cast, even Beghe, which results in characters missing out on the action here and there throughout the season. The one silver lining of this approach is that it has allowed the writers the chance to deliver standout character-centric episodes such as episode 19, which allow members of the cast to take center stage and truly shine in their performances.
With just two episodes left this season, episode 19 should be the final episode without Voight, as he’s expected to appear in the final episodes of season 13. His return was confirmed via the promo for episode 20, which will see Imani catching a lead on her sister’s case and Voight stepping up to help her work the case.