Chicago P.D.’s Jay Halstead Exit Doesn’t Just Ruin The Character – It Kills Upstead

Audiences knew that Chicago P.D. Season 10 would be Jay Halstead’s last as Jesse Lee Soffer moved on from the police procedural. They weren’t expecting such an uncharacteristic exit that burned all of his bridges. Halstead’s resignation from the Intelligence Unit threw away nine years of character development and left his wife Hailey Upton shocked and in tears.

Halstead began acting out in the two episodes preceding his goodbye — behavior that would become his jumping-off point from the series. He snuck around with Hank Voight, skirted procedure and lied during interrogations to pry information from suspects. But with no insight into why his behavior took such a drastic turn, his decision to once again shoot straight and join a drug task force in Bolivia was empty and jarring. Most importantly, it left too much unresolved between him and Upton.

Why Jay Halstead’s Chicago P.D. Exit Was Nonsensical

For nine seasons, Jay Halstead served as the Intelligence Unit’s moral arbiter. Then in Season 10, Halstead started turning into Voight (to use his words). Of course, that’s not who Halstead is, and he had a change of heart when Upton and Voight devised another cover-up in Season 10, Episode 3, “A Good Man.” But his decision to drop everything and move to Bolivia for eight months is as uncharacteristic as his previous behavior. His inability to handle Voight-level shady police work is hardly justification to leave his wife and career behind. It unduly puts fault on Voight for Halstead’s resignation. Instead of tearing his character apart, the series should have allowed Jay Halstead to leave while doing something honorable, honest and just.

Even worse, Jay leaves the force and the country without consulting Upton despite their rock-solid relationship. Though fans expected Upstead to end with Halstead’s departure, no one could have predicted it to end so poorly. It’s as though the writers wanted to end Upstead by making Halstead’s shady behavior Upton’s motivation for divorce — then at the last minute decided to keep them together. Though the two remained married in “A Good Man,” Halstead sealed the Upstead coffin when he manipulated Upton into letting him go as if she had a choice. Although he claimed she’s the love of his life, the pain he inflicted is too much for their relationship to reasonably endure.

Jay Halstead’s Exit Hints at a Bigger One Chicago Problem