The Chicago PD season 9 finale finally resolved the show’s biggest issue that dates back to season 1. NBC’s Chicag0-based police procedural wrapped its year with an action-packed episode. Amid Intelligence’s hunt for Javier Escano (José Zúñiga) and Los Teminos, Chicago PD was able to fix a nagging issue that was going on for almost a decade.
After weeks of tailing Escano, Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) and his team’s attempt to take down Los Teminos finally comes to a head in the Chicago PD season 9 finale titled “You and Me.” In the episode, Intelligence finally gets close to their goal thanks to the help of a civilian informant (CI), Anna (Carmela Zumbado). Unfortunately, as the squad closes in on Escano, Anna becomes erratic, afraid that she and her son will be killed in the process. So she takes matters2 into her own hands and decides to murder Escano herself. This forces Voight to be overly protective of her, willingly crossing lines to make sure that her CI gets away with this scot-free.
Voight has proven time and again that he is willing to break the rules if it means saving the people that are important to him or serving justice. This is what makes him a divisive but effective leader in Intelligence. However, while everyone in his team has proven their loyalty over the years in the Dick Wolf-produced procedural, Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) has always been apprehensive of him and his ways. It doesn’t help that, for some reason, Voight seems to always exclude Halstead when making tough but controversial decisions. That all changes in the Chicago PD season 9 finale when Voight finally lets Halstead help him in saving Anna before other officers get to her following Escano’s orders. This gesture effectively resolves Halstead’s doubts about Voight as the Intelligence Sargeant finally lets him in. This is a big moment for the pair and it could change their dynamic moving forward.
Interestingly, Voight didn’t have a problem letting other agents in on his actions when he’s going off the books. The same happened when Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) and Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) got into trouble in Chicago PD season 6. The same happened at the start of Chicago PD season 9 when Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) accidentally killed a suspect to protect Voight. Despite being his relentless questioning, Halstead was kept out of the loop until he discovered it himself and Voight didn’t have a chance but to involve him. Perhaps one of the reasons Voight was adamant about keeping Halstead as clean as possible is that he sees him as his eventual replacement — something that he has communicated to his subordinate before.
As Intelligence moves forward from the Los Teminos case, it’s curious if Voight will be more willing to open up to Halstead following their recent collaboration. Depending on how this goes, it might result in issues with Upton, however, since she’s adamant about staying by the books after her personal incident. In any case, all of them will have to put their differences aside as they regroup with the rest of Intelligence in Chicago PD season 10.
