Why Burgess Is Still Gone on Chicago P.D. Season 12
Two episodes into the season, and there's still no sign of Officer Kim Burgess — so what happened to her?
Chicago P.D. Season 12, Episode 2's "Blood Bleeds Blue" picks up right where the premiere leaves off, seconds after Martel is shot and killed.
The entire Intelligence Unit spends the hour on a manhunt for the murderer, but it's hard to notice that one key member of the team is still missing: Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati). The good news? We know where she is and if she's coming back.
Found out all the details, below.
What happened to Burgess on Chicago P.D. Season 12?
Like we learned in Season 12, Episode 1, Burgess is away at a policing conference. Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) revealed to the team that she was "disturbed" by a case she was working and might leave early, but Martel encouraged her to stay because the program might "give her a leg up" in the Intelligence Unit.
This could hint that the detective title is in Burgess' future, as showrunner Gwen Sigan told TV Insider that "someone's getting promoted" this season in the department.
"It's somebody I think who's wanted it for a while and that it made a lot of sense for us," Sigan said. "In the [writers'] room, we've talked about that storyline for so long, but how do you make it a story? How do you make it interesting? How do you make it something that really reveals something about who this person is and is not just a piece of paper?"
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In "Blood Bleeds Blue" we do technically get a glimpse of Burgess when she calls Ruzek in the midst of his manhunt to find Martel's killer. However, he promptly screens her call, not wanting to tell her the tragic news.
"She knows Martel, we’ve been friends a long time," he tells Officer Kiana Cook (Toya Turner). "I just can’t. Not yet.”
Is Burgess coming back to Chicago P.D.?
Yes! The officer will return to Chicago P.D. in Episode 3's "Off Switch," which will be an Atwater-focused episode. However, once Burgess (and Ruzek) get their time to shine later on in the season, something tells us we're in for a treat.
All signs point to a Burzek wedding happening in the very near future. In the most recent episode, when Cook asked if Burgess was his wife, Ruzek responded: "Soon to be." Sigan also confirmed the writers were brainstorming ideas for their nuptials and Amy Morton (Platt) told us that "someone might get married" this season.
When NBC Insider caught up with Flueger, he said he definitely "heard the rumor" that the longtime on-screen couple were tying the knot. What stumps the actor is how production will pull off such a joyous occasion for a police procedural that typically deals with extremely dark themes.
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"I would gather it'll probably be, like, mid-season... I just don't know how they're gonna do it," he says. "That's my big thing. I don't know [how] we do our show and have a wedding at the same time. Maybe there's a murder at the wedding. You know? I feel like I don't know how else to do it. So, I'm interested to see."
He continues, " We got a pretty talented writers room though, so I'm sure they'll pull a rabbit out of their hat. I'm really interested to see how they pull it off."
For Squerciati's part, when speaking to NBC Insider in January, she joked about Burgess' potential look on the big day: "Maybe I'll be [wearing a] black wedding dress or something."
