CHICAGO P.D. Post-Mortem: Marina Squerciati on Burgess’ Risky Undercover Operation

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Wednesday, September 29 episode of CHICAGO P.D.]

As CHICAGO P.D.’s Burgess (Marina Squerciati) struggled with her recovery post-kidnapping, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to go back to work. 

When Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) started digging to see if desk jobs might be open for her, to at least give her an option, the squad sprung into action. Ultimately, Burgess decided to do an undercover operation, mindful that the victim, Sarah, was similar to her: tormented by the knowledge the man who hurt her was still out there.

Though the operation was risky, Burgess pulled it off…and had to shoot the man after her attacked her. She ended the hour by telling Sarah she was safe.

“I think it’s easy to think that it’s about power [in Burgess being able to prove to herself that she can do her job], but for me it’s looking at it through Burgess’ lens—it was about saving Sarah and giving Sarah the comfort of safety,” Squerciati acknowledges. “The man who’s your biggest fear is gone…She goes to Sarah and says, ‘You’re safe,’ and I think that’s the motivation—it’s not about getting her power back, although she does. It’s really about saving someone and I think that’s what makes Burgess tick is saving people.”

After the undercover op, “I think that she is 100% back” on the job, Squerciati says. But she cautions, “I don’t know if she’s 100% mentally okay; I think she’ll have moments of trauma that are triggered [moments of] trauma, but I think after this episode she’s back in.”

With Roy’s death still a secret from Burgess, it could take until the storyline pops up again to dig back into the lingering effects.

“We don’t see Burgess for a while, so I haven’t really had that moment,” she says. “But I think that Roy storyline is going to carry us through some things…that’s still going to rear its ugly head, and that is when we’re going to see Burgess’ mental anguish, because the fact that he’s still out there, I think, truly haunts her.”

“There was a scene that was cut from the episode where I talked about how a car backfires, I jump; someone knocks on the door, I think it’s Roy,” Squerciati continues. “So I think that the person I present in the coming episodes seems fine. But I think that she might jump a little quicker when someone knocks the door; I don’t think she’s totally okay.”

At least with her job more settled, things are also better between Burgess and Ruzek. “I think that that tension is over,” Squerciati  says. “I think that he knows she knows that he screwed up, but that ultimately they’re okay, which is what Burzek is, right? They both screw up, but ultimately, they’re still amazing and raising a kid together, which is so great.”

But are they raising a kid together? The duo aren’t officially romantically reunited, but have gotten close since Squerciati took in Makayla…

“I keep saying they’re raising a kid together, but I guess they’re not,” Squerciati says with a laugh. “I just feel like he’s my number two. And, so, kinda! I don’t know that he’s in for it, but I think I’m going to try and do it all. I think I rely on him a lot and I think Makayla has gotten really close to him, too.”

“My mom was a single mom and I had a nanny for most of my life, and she’s like my second mother,” she continues. “I think that it takes a village. Makayla has definitely gotten close to Ruzek and I can’t tear that apart; they love each other.”

Of what’s up ahead, Squerciati pointed to another cast mate’s storyline that has her super excited: “I haven’t filmed it, but LaRoyce [Hawkins] gets a love interest named Celeste, and she is lovely and I hope to bring her back because it’s about time that Atwater has some love.

CHICAGO P.D.,Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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