The final moments of the Chicago P.D. fall finale featured Ruzek coming face-to-face with Voight. The moment is charged with tension, especially since Voight has discovered Ruzek is the snitch. The episode leaves Ruzek’s fate up in the air. Is Ruzek going to make it out of this situation alive? Snitches don’t usually fare well on Chicago P.D. HollywoodLife.com spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Patrick John Flueger about the pivotal episode. Patrick admits that this situation is Ruzek’s “worst nightmare coming true. He knows that Voight will color outside the lines when it comes to exacting his own justice, so I think there’s a lot of fear there. I think if he was able to stop and think incredibly logically about the situation he would know that Voight would never kill him, but I think in that moment where the situation has sprung on him, I think he doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen, you know? That his life could very well be in danger.”
Voight and Olinsky are now both aware that Ruzek is being blackmailed. Patrick says that final scene is “like standing in front of your father having done every single thing he told you not to do” since he “looks up to them both so much.” Patrick is being tight-lipped about Ruzek’s fate, but he does offer this tease for fans: “Ruzek’s in trouble. Come back and see just how much trouble he’s in.” Check out the rest of our Q&A below!
Were you surprised that Ruzek didn’t betray Voight when it came down to it?
Patrick John Flueger: I think up until right down to the wire, he thought it was a situation he could handle. I don’t think he ever signed on thinking he’d betray the unit. There was always, maybe not a really well-thought-out one, but a plan. The plan was to give Woods little bits and pieces, stuff that really isn’t actionable, like the video of Halstead getting into the fight and punching the guy in the face. Halstead was undercover. He was actually in the right. The guy jumped on him, and Halstead punched him in the face. He might have got a slap on the wrist for something like that, but it wasn’t job-threatening behavior. I think it was always a situation that Ruzek thought he could manage. And as the situation went on, he started to realize more and more that it wasn’t one that he could manage. Tonight’s episode is where I think he realized he had to make a choice. I don’t think he felt like he was making a choice in the past. I think he felt like he was trying to manage the situation. Tonight’s episode was the first time that he was at the finish line and had to go one way or the other.
Why do you think Ruzek didn’t tell Voight everything right away?
Patrick John Flueger: I think he was embarrassed. The first time that Woods had knowledge that Ruzek broke the rules to protect his sister, Woods made a phone call. He was like, “Hey, you can go with me right now or I can make this phone call, I can put you in jail, and you can lose your entire career.” Ruzek’s career, it’s everything to him. I think, as much if not more than other people in the unit, this is his life. It’s his lifeblood. So the idea of not being a cop anymore, I think jail is actually a pill he could swallow more easily than the idea of not being a cop anymore. I think maybe it’s embarrassment. From a third person perspective, I wish he would have gone to Voight right afterwards and been like, “He came to me with this information, and I said I’d help him.” But I think, again, he thought it was a situation he could mitigate, where he wouldn’t have to admit something he thought was embarrassing. And already, I think he felt like it was a betrayal, that he even agreed tentatively to help Woods.
Ruzek did hand over that video of Halstead. Do you think Halstead might get pissed if he finds out Ruzek did that?
Patrick John Flueger: Maybe initially. That was actually a story point in the scripts that I wish we’d hit a little harder. Because when talked to Brian Luce, our police officer and tech guy on set, he knew that what I gave Woods wasn’t that big of a deal. He might be upset, but it’s something that Ruzek could easily explain away.
Chicago P.D. returns Jan. 3 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
HollywoodLifers, what do you think is going to happen to Ruzek? Let us know!