View gallery
It’s a rare feat in this era of television to hit 200 episodes, but it’s no surprise that Chicago P.D. is among the few shows to hit this achievement. The 200th episode featured a tour de force performance by Marina Squerciati as Burgess battled PTSD in the wake of being kidnapped and shot back in season 8.
After an incredible rescue of a young child left in a well, Burgess spoke to her therapist about not wanting to be trapped by her trauma and her desire to work through it. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Marina about Burgess’ journey moving forward and what it means for her relationship with Ruzek.
“I think it continues in [episode] 17. There’s a huge Burzek shift,” Marina teased. “I think the whole point is that she acknowledges that it is hurting her work life, but I think it takes a little bit longer to acknowledge that it’s permeated into her whole life. I think that there’s some resistance there even from Paddy’s character, too. I don’t think he wants to acknowledge that this thing has sort of been a seismic shift in their life. You kind of think that you’re independent and have control and it’s sort of seeped in and colored everything. They’re going to be still dealing with that, and I’m excited about where they’ll go.”
Ruzek is in an interesting position in terms of how he’s approaching this situation with Burgess. “Up until now, we’ve seen her hand shake, or we’ve had moments where the audience saw that she forgot her gun. I think the audience should know that there’s other stuff that happens off-camera that they’re not necessarily aware of little things I’m sure he’s picked up on. But I think he also wants to give her space to deal with those things,” Patrick J. Flueger told HollywoodLife.
The actor added, “I think that he wants to give her space to deal with her issues as an adult, and it hasn’t gotten bad yet. I think also, in his perspective, it took so long with the kid and with them post-engagement to kind of get to a place where they’re comfortable, where he doesn’t feel like he’s pushing and pulling and prodding and trying to claw his way in there. I think he’s probably a little hesitant to push her too hard about something that he knows I think very little about. I think out of an abundance of care for her and respect for her but also fear for pushing her away that he’s kind of stepped back until obviously this episode where things really start to take a take an ugly turn and start to impact both them as individuals, them as partners, and then the people around them that they’re supposed to be protecting in such an extreme fashion that I think he realizes he’s got to step in and do what he can to highlight things for her.”
Marina feels proud that the Chicago P.D. cast and crew has had “steady work” for 200 episodes. “A part of this sort of life is instability and jumping from gig to gig and not knowing where your next paycheck will come from,” she admitted. “So the fact that so many people have been employed for 10 years is more the way I look at it. It’s just amazing that we’ve had the stability and been able to create a family because you get so close to people and then a show ends you go to the next show. I think I’ve developed friendships kind of like in high school, like when you’re with people all the time. You don’t get that when you’re older because you’re so busy and I get to hang out with really fun people all the time.” Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays on NBC.
Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter to get the hottest celeb news.