Jason Beghe Gives Rare Insight Into Voight's Mind After [Spoiler's] Grisly Murder
The actor opens up about what the notoriously guarded cop is actually thinking in Chicago P.D. Season 11, Episode 7.
Chicago P.D.'s latest episode had an extremely tragic end that was particularly personal for Voight (Jason Beghe).
In the closing scenes of Season 11, Episode 7's "The Living Dead," the Intelligence Unit frantically searches for a young runaway named Noah (Bobby Hogan). Fans will remember that in Episode 6's "Survival", the team was unable to solve Noah's abduction case, but Voight became attached to the young man and decided to take him in.
In "The Living Dead" Voight works to get Noah to open up to him about his abduction, while simultaneously discovering the teen was in the clutches of a serial killer when two more bodies are discovered with similar wounds.
Under the guise that his boyfriend Paul (whom he was abducted with) is still alive and waiting for him, Noah is lured to the woods by the killer. Noah calls Voight as he's searching for Paul, but despite the Intelligence Unit's best efforts, they don't reach Noah in time. He's found dead in a steel drum that was dropped into a river. And it's Voight who has to identify the body.
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The detective is clearly disturbed in this moment, a series of emotions passing across his face in a split second before he finds his composure. We're left with a close-up of Voight's blank stare before the episode ends.
What was Voight thinking at the end of Chicago P.D. Season 11, Episode 7?
So what was Voight actually feeling during those final moments? It's rare that we get any true insight, as fans of Chicago P.D. often see him act instead of think. But the actor behind the gruff detective, Jason Beghe, chatted with NBC Insider to give the ultimate insight into what's going on in the famously guarded cop's mind.
"He doesn't really think about what's going through his mind," the actor tells us. "He's somewhat shy and introverted, but he doesn't know why. And it's because he's opening his heart, and he’s vulnerable, and he's loving."
Noah became yet another person that meets am unfortunate end after Voight comes to care for them. (Think his son Justin, Lindsay, Olinsky, and his C.I. Anna). Beghe went on to explain his character's trauma from these losses and continued efforts to find connection despite it.
"He cares and he loves and he tries to connect. That’s how we survive. We may think we wanna be alone, but we can't make it, and, you know, he's a human being," he says. "He gets his heart broken a lot. And, I think what's happening now is that that split second of vulnerability and loss, it just went straight to anger and revenge and cruelty and you know, the savage kind of response. But you know, now, he’s beginning to learn to live a little in the reality of the losses, which to me, it was a sign of him getting stronger."
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The actor continues, "When you let yourself care for someone or something and then it's snatched away, or it's harmed, that sense of loss gets triggered and it's a difficult, emotional experience, and I think one that Voight has always avoided. The best he can do is kind of feel angry rather than the sadness, and the loss, and the emptiness are a little too much. So, he goes back, which is kind of the old Voight."
It sounds like Voight will get his revenge for Noah later this season, and we'll be sitting down on a Wednesday night to witness it all.
