Tag: Fathers

Chicago P.D. kicks off a big two-parter centered on Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) with its January 22 episode, and the officer is going to have a lot to deal with both on and off the job.

Case-wise, there’s an emotional investigation involving an unidentified young girl, Zoe (Annabelle Toomy). On the personal front, his father, Bob (Jack Coleman), shows up unexpectedly and causes disruption for Ruzek and Burgess (Marina Squerciati). Below, Flueger gives a preview.

Ruzek’s dad is back, and showrunner Gwen Sigan told me that their story in this episode is about parenting and becoming your parent’s parent. What can you preview and what do we see from Ruzek in that?

Patrick John Flueger: Bob’s a single parent, made a lot of sacrifices as far as where I think he thought his career might go to raise two kids, Adam and his sister, largely by himself. If I’m being honest, I don’t really know where Adam’s mom is. I don’t really know what her storyline is. We’ve hinted at it before in the past, but I don’t know if we ever ran with it. So I think they have a special relationship. I think that they’re pals. I think Adam really, really likes his dad, even though his dad screws up just like any human being does, maybe drinks a little too much here and there, definitely has a gambling issue, but I think that they’re pals and so in this episode when he has to step into this role, I don’t think it’s completely foreign to him because I think that he’s raised himself on some level. Again, he’s a single parent and they’ve been a team. So I don’t think it’s a massive step for him to have to take. Bob’s kind of a goofball in his own right, even though he is a good dad. So I think it’s a comfortable place for him to step into to a certain degree. I think the reason that he has to step into that position is desperately uncomfortable.

Lori Allen / NBC

Then there’s the case which involves a young girl. What is it about this case that gets to Ruzek?

She’s eight years old. I think on some level the case reminds him of his daughter, of Makayla’s [Ramona Edith Williams] case to a certain degree, of a child lost and kind of in the world of adults, but not being taken care of in that world in the way that I think he thinks is how it should be done. And so I think he takes a shine to her. The circumstances under which he meets her are so extreme that just immediately, I think he takes it on as a personal vendetta — vendetta might not be the right word, but he takes it personally and I think that they just connect immediately just because of the circumstances, not because of who he is or who she is, but because the circumstances force it.

How’s Ruzek and Burgess’s relationship?

Well, my father coming back, I think that, as much as Burgess loves Bob and cares about Bob and Bob’s a good grandfather, maybe he’s not exactly the dad that she grew up with. So his ability to screw up here and there, she has less patience for than, I think, Adam does. He does just kind of show up unannounced, and I think we’re both a little surprised, certainly Adam — when he does something like this historically, it’s because he needs money or because there’s some sort of problem that needs to be solved. So as much as I think he’s happy to see his dad, he’s aware of that. Whereas I think Kim, historically, he needs money or there’s a problem to be solved, and it’s not her dad. I think she cares about Bob through Adam. He’s a little more burdensome to her. And so I think that Adam gets a little caught in between those two worlds of like, I’ve got to take care of my immediate family that I’ve created here, and also I got to take care of my dad. And sometimes those things end up in conflict with each other.

The crossover is coming up, with a gas explosion that rocks a high rise. People are trapped on the ground, including two of the first responders. What can you preview about what’s going on and what Ruzek is up to during the crossover?

I can’t tell you too much about exactly what everyone’s up to. I will say that I think out of all the crossovers, this one maybe doesn’t have as much smash bangs and booms, but it’s incredibly grounded and character driven. And I think if we’re going to come back out of the gate with a three-part crossover, we did pretty well this time as far as just leaning into the characters, leaning into the relationships, leaning into the fact that these people do work in a city where they bump into each other pretty consistently. They have very different jobs, but they all have a lot of respect for each other and some of them even have a lot of care for each other. And so there’s a lot of people on a first-name basis that you might not, as an audience member, think that’s the relationship, but it is because they just work so closely together, so hand-in-hand so often, and I’m excited to reintroduce that into the world of the Chicago series.

Speaking of that, with which Med or Fire character do you share the most significant scenes?

With Kidd, with Miranda [Rae Mayo]‘s character, which I’ll tell you, what was an absolute blast. Miranda and I have been quite close for a long time. We travel together, we’re pals outside of everything. So getting to finally actually act with her, which I’ve never done before, and if we have, it’s been with a lot of people around, so to do a little one-on-one with her was really fun. We had a good time, really supportive of each other, and I think we found things that weren’t necessarily on the page and we had a really good team that we worked with as far as the day players and even the background folks that we were working with were incredible. So I’m excited for people to see it. People were acting their pants off from top to bottom. I mean, you’re talking about the person the furthest in the background, these people were giving it. It was impressive.

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