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The Secret We Just Learned About Kiana Cook's Family on Chicago P.D. (SPOILER)
We learn a little bit more about the newest member of the Intelligence Unit (played by Toya Turner) every episode.
Spoilers ahead for Chicago P.D. Season 12, Episode 9's "Friends and Family."
In Season 12 of Chicago P.D. fans — and the Intelligence Unit — have welcomed a new member: Officer Kiana Cook (Toya Turner). And in the series' mid-season premiere, Episode 9's aptly named "Friends and Family," we learned a little bit more about the team's newest recruit.
In the second Cook-focused episode of the season, she and the team are thrust into a high-stakes kidnapping and ransom case. Cook happened upon the investigation after witnessing a car crash on the way home from her father's store. While assisting one of the drivers, Gregory, he tells her he was on the way to save his wife and kids who'd been taken.
As the unit works the case, Cook is unexpectedly forced to share details about her personal life. Find out what we learned, below.
All about Cook's mom and dad on Chicago P.D.
In the opening scene of the episode, Cook helps her dad (played by Brian Weddington) at their family convenience story. When she asks him about hiring more help around the shop, he assures her that he's OK. "It's always been you and me, right? We'll be fine."
Later on, when Intelligence is in urgent need of cash ($200,000 to be exact) in order to appease the kidnappers, Cook informs the team she can get the money — but it will be "personal cash." We learn what that means when she brings a confused Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) to a mansion, aka her mother's house. As it turns out, while she grew up with her father in Garfield Park on the West Side of Chicago, her mom (played by Marie-Francoise Theodore) comes from an extremely wealthy family.
RELATED: The Way Toya Turner's Officer Cook Replaced Upton and Joined Chicago P.D. (RECAP)
The two have a strained relationship and haven't seen each other in three years. Cook asks her mom for the $200,000 to help their investigation. She agrees to give her the money, but only if Cook attends a fundraiser she's co-chairing for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago... and changes her hair.
"I think it gives you an insight into how layered she is as a character and how many different sides of her there are that we really only get to touch the surface of it in this episode," showrunner Gwen Sigan tells NBC Insider. "There’s so much more you’ll learn through this season as to who she is and sorta why she polices in the way she polices and what this job really means to her."
Later on, Cook opens up to Ruzek after he confesses he has "a million questions" about her family. She reveals that her mother and father had a one night stand, with her mom's family disapproving, which led to her dad raising her on his own.
"My mom doesn't approve of me at all. But my grandfather wants to be alderman, and now he disapproves of a broken family," she says.
What was the scratch on Cook's hand at her mom's party?
At the end of the episode, Cook returns to her mother's home — with her braids intact — to attend the party that was the condition of the ransom money. However, she hesitates before entering, looking down at a scratch on her hand and then turning around. Cook got the wound while saving Gregory from the car wreck, and seeing it grounded her brought her back to reality, motivating her to leave her mother's fundraiser.
"One of the things I've learned is that she's not going to settle for anything," Turner tells us about her fictional counterpart. "She can't be bought. It's one of the things that I love about her. It's about the justice, that's what matters."
RELATED: Why You Recognize Toya Turner, The New Star of Chicago P.D.
As for Turner's real life family, she has some similarities with Cook. The actress is a Chicago native and her father was an officer in the Chicago Police Department.
"I grew up as like a tomboy," the Chicago P.D. star says. "I have, like, six brothers, so I think that's kind of rubbed off on me a little bit as well. I consider Kiana to be this fair cop. And my dad, he's always been like this fair police officer, so I think a lot of that personality has come onto Kiana."
Reporting by Jessica White.
