After Chicago P.D. put Ruzek through the wringer in the last episode of February in the 2025 TV schedule, the One Chicago cop drama is about to revisit the tense dynamic between Deputy Chief Reid and Sgt. Voight. Reid, played by Season 12 newcomer Shawn Hatosy, told Voight back in the fall finale that he had a whole lot of dirt on the Intelligence Unit, then proposed that they become “friends.” Ahead of the new episode on NBC on March 5 and streaming next day with a Peacock subscription, Hatosy spoke With CinemaBlend about what that friendship means from Reid’s point of view.
The newest installment is called “Greater Good,” and will feature Voight questioning Reid’s motives with a Violent Reduction Initiative, which is being enacted in a community with gangs fighting for territory. That would sound like standard operating procedure to get the Intelligence Unit on a case, but what’s not so standard is Reid having the means to blackmail Voight and Co… if he deems it necessary, anyway. When I chatted with Shawn Hatosy about how Reid sees the “friendship” with Voight, he shed some light:
It’s an interesting word, friend, the way that it’s presented. It’s like, ‘Be my friend and then do what I say.’ I think it’s an interesting dynamic between the two, just because we know that Voight has a history of maybe doing some questionable things, so now he’s matched up with a chief who is playing with the differences of right and wrong and what side of it he’s on. It’s a unique friendship. I think that they are testing the boundaries of it. We see that in Episode 15 start to happen, and further down the road, it’s gonna get even more fraught. [laughs] But so far it’s a pretty successful friendship, I would say, at least from Reid’s point of view.
In seasons past, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Voight pulling the same kinds of sketchy moves that Reid has been pulling in Season 12, which does make the dynamic just that much juicier for longtime fans. In fact, Voight very recently reminded Atwater of his policy of “tell me the truth so I can lie for you” as leader of the unit.
So, in light of their friendship being fueled by dirt and Reid stating in the promo for Episode 15 that he needs someone he can trust, how much does the deputy chief actually trust the sergeant? Shawn Hatosy answered that very question, saying:
I think he fully trusts [Voight] just because of the information that Reid has on the team, and what happened with Torres and the criminal informant and the affair and how they covered it up. Reid understands how much of a leader that Voight is and how wedded to his team he is, so he will stop at nothing to protect his team. And I think Reid is using that and exploiting it.
The loyalty between the members of the Intelligence Unit usually pays off for them as they go above and beyond, with that happening just last week when Ruzek recruited his CPD friends to help track down Zoe’s family. Reid is taking advantage of it for his own means, and it should be interesting to see if this means Voight doing dirty work for him or Voight just following his instructions without pushing back.
While the relationship between the characters is tense – to say the least – the actors seem to have a good time filming the dynamic. Shawn Hatosy shared how one scene between him and Jason Beghe actually had to change due to the complications of a winter in the Windy City:
The last episode I did on Chicago P.D., it was minus four. It was so cold that we had a scene that was outside at the end of the episode with me and Voight, and it was so cold that they had to put the scene in a car.
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, March 5 at 10 p.m. ET for the “Greater Good” episode of Chicago P.D., with Shawn Hatosy’s return as Deputy Chief Reid. For a taste of what’s to come ahead of the installment, check out the promo below:
As always, Chicago P.D. wraps up NBC’s hit One Chicago Wednesday lineup at 10 p.m. ET, following Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET. The three shows make up a third of the current nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe, although that total will shrink with the cancellations of two FBI shows on CBS. I’m not too worried about any of One Chicago being cancelled, though; as of the end of 2024, they were NBC’s three top-rated scripted shows, just ahead of Law & Order: SVU.
