‘Chicago P.D.’s Tracy Spiridakos on Upton’s Choice: It Will ‘Stay With Her’

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago P.D. Season 9, Episode 13 “Still Water.”]

Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) jumps into the freezing Chicago River at night to save those in a car crash, but as she learns during the latest Chicago P.D. episode, there was much more to the driver and passenger than she could have known.

The driver, whom she’d saved first, had attacked and carjacked the passenger — after stalking her, just the latest of his victims. Upton had been unable to get to her since her leg was stuck, and by the time the firefighters arrived, it was too late. The driver leaves the hospital as they’re figuring out what really happened, but Upton’s the one to take him down — and then go for another swim to save him, this time in a pool.

Below, Spiridakos talks about Upton’s choice.

Is the choice that Upton made between the two passengers still weighing on her or did that conversation with Platt [Amy Morton] help?

Tracy Spiridakos: I think Hailey’s somebody that beats herself up, so that [conversation is] something that helped for sure, but I think it’s something that sits with her. As we can see at the end of the episode, it’s definitely gonna stay with her.

Do you think that based on where she is at the end of the episode, she might think twice if she’s faced with the same choice in the future?

Maybe? She kind of responded on impulse in that moment and truthfully, I don’t know that she could have done it differently because Lisa’s foot was stuck. I don’t know that she would change it. She ended up on that side of the car.

Lori Allen/NBC

It’s 10 years on the job for her, which is a great milestone, but it doesn’t seem like she can really celebrate that at the end of the episode because of the case.

Yeah, for sure. I think a lot’s happened and she’s also not somebody who is comfortable in a position where everyone’s paying attention to her. So there’s also that but yeah, she’s not going to let this case go easily.

How is she feeling career-wise about where she is in Intelligence and with this group of people? Because it seems like she’s kind of found her family.

Yeah. It’s really interesting to see how, when she had first joined the unit, she more stayed to herself and she didn’t really necessarily befriend anybody, didn’t really go out of her way to do that. And we see her now and yes, it’s absolutely her family and seeing everyone together, I loved how it was edited, put together, and you just see them all enjoying each other and having a laugh. It was nice. When you’re going through a hard time, getting to be around the people that you love, even though you’re going through a hard time, is kind of what you need. It was really nice for them to set it up like that.

Lori Allen/NBC

I have to say how much I loved seeing Upton talking to Atwater [LaRoyce Hawkins] and Platt in this episode. I feel like because of the size of the cast, we don’t often get some characters in scenes together.

It was really nice to see. LaRoyce and I were really excited ’cause we haven’t gotten to play very much at all. So we were really, really excited for that opening sequence and I’m really happy with how it all played out. I like that we got to laugh and kind of tease each other and have some good jokes in there.

Speaking of that, Upton tells Atwater she’s going for the six-mile jog at night as part of her new routine to build up tolerance. Then she says she doesn’t know what she’s building up tolerance for. Is she hiding something or was that the truth?

It’s what she needs for her mental health, to get out there and to run and she’s setting these routines: “I’m gonna go for a run. I missed it this morning. I’m gonna go today. I know that that’s something that I need.” It’s just her trying to look after herself.

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After the heavy start to the season for Upton and therefore Halstead [Jesse Lee Soffer], they seem pretty settled and happy in their marriage and the drama is behind them. Is that something we’re going to continue to see?

No, of course not.

But for the time being?

For the time being, yeah, I think so. I’m sure some stuff is gonna come up ’cause I don’t think it’s gonna be happy for very long, but for the time being, there’s a moment where things seem OK.

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