CHICAGO P.D.: Patrick John Flueger and Gwen Sigan Preview Ruzek’s Emotional New Case and the Return of Bob

After a brief hiatus, CHICAGO P.D. returns on Wednesday, January 22 with, “Zoe,” the first part of an emotional arc for Patrick John Flueger’s Ruzek. (The second part airs in February.)

“I’m really proud of those two episodes,” CHICAGO P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan tells Give Me My Remote. “I think they’re some of our best of the season, actually. [Flueger]’s just been so good this year…It’s a really dark case. I would say the criminal case is very thematic and twisted, and sort of the kind of case that gets under your skin. It definitely gets under Ruzek’s skin.” 

In “Zoe,” Ruzek is called to check on the well-being of a family, only to discover a brutal crime scene…and a young, traumatized girl. 

“Anytime a child is involved, it doesn’t matter—I don’t care if you’re watching on TV, if you’re watching the news, you, me, we see a kid’s involved, and it just hits that much harder,” Flueger notes. “The way that he meets this child, the situation that she’s in, the situation that he finds her in, the situation that evolves as they start looking into it more, I think he immediately feels a connection with her. He’s her first point of contact, which obviously is very important as far as establishing a relationship and making sure that we get as much information for her to help her and the situation as we can.”

“But, on top of that, he does have a kid,” he continues. (Ruzek and Burgess first met their daughter, Makayla, in the aftermath of her biological family’s murder.) “Watching a child be helpless probably hits a little differently. At a certain point, you can’t walk away from it so much.”

As Ruzek is trying to help Zoe, he gets another shock: His father, Bob (Jack Coleman), is in town.

“I think he’s a little surprised that he shows up the way that he does,” Flueger admits. “I think that there might have been a misconception that their relationship is somehow rocky. Certainly, the last time we saw him, I guess he kind of threw Adam under the bus to save his own skin. In hindsight, he didn’t really have a lot of choice, and I think that Adam can see that, and it’s not something that he’s going to hold against his dad—he just wanted him to be safe. So while he might be angry in that moment, I think in hindsight, he’s big enough to understand where his dad was coming from.”

“His dad raised he and his sister by himself; he’s a single father as far as I understand the story,” he continues. “We haven’t talked a lot about what happened with the mother character, but we haven’t talked a lot about it, which, to me, tells the story that she ain’t around. And so I think that his dad made a lot of sacrifices in his own personal life, in his work life, to make sure that he was there for the kids in a way that he wanted to be. And while he might have some issues with gambling, maybe he drinks too much here and there, I think he’s a really good dad, and I think that Adam sees that. I think he’s a really good grandpa. I think that Adam sees that, but I think he does live in Florida. He’s not around very often, so when he does just kind of show up unannounced, there’s something to that.”

Bob being in Chicago with no warning makes his son assume the worst. “Historically, in my mind anyway, approaching the storyline, Adam thinks like he needs some money, or he’s got some gambling thing that he’s got to work out,” Flueger says. “Because [off-screen] he comes to visit, we go visit [him], but he doesn’t just pop by from Florida; it’s not just like on his drive home. So there’s probably something going on.”

With Ruzek tied up with Zoe’s case, Bob spends some time with Burgess and Makayla. “I think that if there are complications in their relationship, it mostly comes because he has to manage the relationship between Burgess and Bob,” Flueger acknowledges. “And I think as much as Burgess likes Bob as an individual, I think that as a mom, as a fiancée, she’s protective of me, she’s protective of her daughter.” 

“[Bob] is a great grandpa, [but] I think he’s the grandpa that’s like, ‘We’re gonna break some rules today. I’m gonna take you to the track,’” he continues. “And mom’s like, ‘Hey, grandpa, we don’t do that.’ And I think it’s kind of funny, and she doesn’t really like it. And grandpa’s like, ‘Why? We had a great time.’ And Makayla thinks it’s a blast, you know? I think it’s that kind of classic relationship in that fashion. So I think if there’s any tumult, it’s more him just kind of managing how his fiancée and his dad interact, even though, again, I think they like each other a lot. I think that she just feels like she has to, for lack of a better term, protect her situation from Bob to some degree.”

But why is Bob really there? “[The investigation in ‘Zoe’ is] paired with just a really emotional story about family and parents getting older and you almost becoming the parent in some way,” Sigan previews, touting the “wonderful” return of Coleman. “And it’s such a full-circle moment for Ruzek because he started this show as such a wild card. [He] was sort of this boyish young [man who] doesn’t want to grow up, Peter Pan. And now we see sort of who he’s become in these two episodes; it’s really great. I’m excited.”

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

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