Only one episode is left in Chicago P.D. Season 12 in the 2025 TV schedule, and true to form, the penultimate episode set the stage for a finale where something is going to have to permanently change. After the secret investigation into Reid’s shady dealings got back to him, the Deputy Chief did what he’d been threatening: had Torres arrested, Burgess stripped of her new detective badge, and the Intelligence Unit disbanded, pending investigation. Voight obviously isn’t going to accept the end of his unit, and executive producer/showrunner Gwen Sigan previewed how he’s going to react.
One Chicago’s crime drama has a history of delivering intense penultimate episode, and the latest (which you can stream now with a Peacock subscription) put the whole team in hot water for Voight’s feud against Reid. The finale, called “Vows,” airs on May 21, and the title of the episode likely doesn’t just refer to something as sweet as the Burzek wedding. The team will go off-book to continue their efforts to take down Reid, while Burgess and Ruzek ponder putting off their nuptials. So much for that “friendship” offered by Reid!
When I spoke with the showrunner, I had to ask: does Voight have a limit to how much he can take from Reid before falling back into some old bad habits? Gwen Sigan shared:
That’s the whole question of the finale, to me. Does he have a limit? Has he evolved? Has he sort of become this Voight 2.0, this Voight that is softening up with Chapman and is looking at his mortality in a different way due to the events of Season 11, and trying to see if there’s more. That was where we started this season, and what you’ll see in the finale is coming back to this question of, is there more for him?
Voight has certainly gone back and forth about how much he’s changed, and the showrunner only had good things to say about Jason Beghe and Shawn Hatosy as screen partners earlier this year. I’m also intrigued by the mention of Voight’s “mortality.” I don’t take that to mean that Voight is going to go the way of Olinsky and die, but it’s some nice continuity from when he was shot in Tracy Spiridakos’ final episode and hallucinated Olinsky with a cameo from Elias Koteas. Sigan continued:
And if there’s more, that means that he’s more than he thought he was, right? He’s a different person. That’s the question we come back to in the finale, and you just see him and Reid sort of up against each other and Reid testing that in Voight. The question is, where will he end up?
Well, based on the preview, it looks like he might not end up where ASA Chapman is hoping. The duo teamed up in Season 12 to work on bringing Reid down, as close to doing it by the book as possible with the bad guy in a position of power. Sparks arguably even flew between the two characters, and while I’m not exactly watching weekly in the hopes of a romance for Voight, seeing more of Sara Bues as Chapman has been a highlight of Voight-centric episodes for me this season.
I shared with the showrunner that I was surprised by how I liked Chapman and Voight as a duo in Season 12 as much as I do, and she explained what kind of ally the ASA will be to him after he quite literally shut her out at the end of the previous week’s penultimate episode:
We’ll see right away in the finale her not allowing him to shut her out, which I think is great. I think she is such a good ally for him, because she tests him, because she doesn’t let him get away with anything. She’s not scared of him. She’s never been intimidated by him. She just sees him kind of as all bark. She’s fine with it, and more than that, I think she cares about him. She wants to understand him. She wants to understand why he makes the decisions that he makes, and she wants to push him further.
Chapman may want to push Voight further in the right direction, but Reid seems to be doing a pretty solid job of pushing him in the wrong direction. Instead of Voight following Reid’s example of breaking the rules for personal gain, however, he’s bending them to try and take the Deputy Chief down. The EP went on to describe the ASA’s role in the finale:
We’ll see her kind of not letting him get away with his usual ‘I’m going to go do everything on my own and not involve anyone else and protect everybody from it’ [approach]. We’ll see if she can hold on to him, is really the thing, and keep him in the light while he’s trying to fight against Reid.
At this point, I’m just hoping that Burgess and Ruzek finally manage to tie the knot with as few crises as possible beforehand! It seems like a safe bet that there are at least a few crises before the final credits roll on Season 12, though. Check out the finale promo and make your best guess as to whether Voight can avoid his old bad habits or continue to try and be his best evolved self:
The Season 12 finale of Chicago P.D. airs on Wednesday, May 21 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following the Season 13 finale of Chicago Fire with two departing stars at 9 p.m. ET and the Season 10 finale of Chicago Med with a “powerhouse” performance at 8 p.m. ET. All three shows are also available streaming on Peacock.
