“It Will Just Keep Breaking Your Heart” ‘Chicago P.D.’s Patrick John Flueger Teases the Second Part of Zoe’s Storyline

Chicago P.D. Season 12, Episode 10, “Zoe,” introduced a new crime arc, and contrary to what happens in most episodes, it wasn’t resolved by the end. The case affected Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) a lot because it reminded him of his daughter Mac, given how close Zoe (Anabelle Toomy) and Mac were in age. John Flueger told TV Insider that the show was not done with it and that the arc would be explored in a second episode. “So the Zoe storyline, we filmed two episodes back to back that had to do with this storyline, but they don’t play back to back. That’s how we scheduled it. So I know what happens there and going forward, I don’t know yet,” the actor said. “It will just keep breaking your heart,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ruzek is dealing with the discovery that his father has Alzheimer’s. The nature of these two stories is contradictory in Ruzek’s mind, and he must contend with that contradiction. “You’re dealing with tough themes. I mean, the idea is, well, you find a kid that doesn’t know their name, and the goal is to find that child’s name and give it back to them, gift it back to them,” he said, talking about Zoe’s arc and the potential outcome which would be rewarding. Meanwhile, the potential outcome of Bob’s (Jack Coleman) story is far from rewarding. John Flueger talked about the correlation in these situations, saying,

“And all the while he’s making this effort [to find out Zoe’s actual name], he’s watching his dad lose his name, lose his mind. And so the juxtaposition of those things, even though there’s positive results that might come here and there, I think that there’s that haunt, there’s that weight of trying to do something positive while at the same time watching, ironically, something negative happened in the exact same space.”

Tough Times Lay Ahead for Ruzek in ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 12.

Zoe’s identity or Bob’s Alzheimer’s will not be featured mainly in the January 29 episode of Chicago P.D. since it’s the One Chicago crossover. Events begin on Chicago Fire and conclude on Chicago P.D. A sneak peek of the crossover teases a terrible outcome for Ruzek when he’s trapped underground with Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo). Teasing the crossover’s atmosphere, John Flueger told TV Insider:

“I will say that I think out of all the crossovers, this one maybe doesn’t have as much smash bangs and booms, but it’s incredibly grounded and character-driven. We did pretty well this time as far as just leaning into the characters, leaning into the relationships, leaning into the fact that these people do work in a city where they bump into each other pretty consistently.”

Tune in to NBC next Wednesday, January 29, to watch the first One Chicago crossover in five years. You can also catch up with past episodes of Chicago P.D. on Peacock. Watch the crossover’s promo in the trailer above.