‘Chicago P.D.’: What We Know About Tracy Spiridakos’ Final Episode & Exit Arc
Intelligence will be losing at least one of its members in Chicago P.D. Season 11, but exactly how long do we have with Tracy Spiridakos‘ Detective Hailey Upton?
“We’ll see her in the whole season. She’s here the whole time,” executive producer Gwen Sigan told TV Insider. Back in October 2023, when Spiridakos’ exit was announced, an episode count for her in Season 11 wasn’t revealed. Spiridakos debuted as Upton in Season 4 then was upped to series regular for Season 5.
This means there’s plenty of time for Chicago P.D. to set up how Upton will be written out, something the Season 11 premiere began to do. She and Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), who left to run a squad in Bolivia tracking down the worst cartels and then didn’t tell her about extending his work overseas, have divorced. (That came after she took off her wedding ring last season.) We’ll have to wait and see if however Upton is written out involves Halstead in any way or if there’s even hope for the two of them.
“She’s struggling,” Sigan told TV Insider. “I think that neither of them knew that this is how that would end — at least for now — that this is where their relationship would go. So I think she’s angry. I think what I see that anger as is more internal anger. It’s faced inward at this point, and where it’s coming out externally, it’s coming out at the job. And it’s also kind of triggering a lot of other things that have built up in her and a lot of other things that I don’t think she’s ever dealt with.”
She continued, “This is a woman prone to abandonment issues because of what she’s been through in the past and because of her family life. And so it’s going to be really interesting to see that struggle this year and to see that it really becomes not so much about Jay, it’s more so about her and realizing some things about herself that she needs to work on and work through so that she can get to the other side and so that she can see that maybe there’s a whole world out there for Upton that she hasn’t been able to explore yet. So I’m excited. I think it’s going to be a really nice arc for her this year.”
The premiere also saw her admit to Voight (Jason Beghe), “If I’m not shutting down, I’m angry, and I don’t know why. I’m not mad at Jay. I’m really not. I should be good. I should be moving on by now. We all should be moving on. But I’m not, and I don’t know why. I wasn’t paying attention with Cam. And I can’t be a good cop if I’m angry. I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do. … I’ll do it. Anything. How do I fix it?” He didn’t have an answer for her.
Figuring all that out is part of her arc in Season 11, Sigan confirmed. “We’ve got some fun ways to do that. It is always hard to tell a mental health story or to tell an internal story on a show like ours, but we’ve got some clever ways to do it. So it will be her dealing with what’s going on, figuring out what’s going on, and then yeah, finding ways through it and finding ways to grow.”
Right now, it’s looking like Upton could very well choose to leave Intelligence and CPD altogether, but anything can change between now and the end of the season. How do you think Chicago P.D. will write out Spiridakos’ character? Let us know in the comments section, below.
Chicago P.D., Season 11 Premiere, Wednesday, January 17, 10/9c, NBC
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I hope they don't kill her off.
So she can come back on.
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O
The show will suck with out jay and her. I don’t like the other girl who is a cop.
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B
Maybe she well turn up on FBI, that would be a good fit.
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I'm with Vickie I hope she doesn't get killed but the type of dedication she has to the PD, I think that's her fate to lose her life saving an other
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G
If she has to go, I prefer she leaves by her own decision not get killed off. She can go to FBI or CIA or another state. Enough killing off people.
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U r absolutely right! For some reason in Chicago PD, no one can be happy in a relationship. That was supposed to be Erin and Jay then Burguess and Adam then Adam and Hailey then Hailey and Jay lol. Just too much intradepartimental sexual tension lol. I really liked Atwater and Celest but again this is the show where no one can be happy. They either kill someone off or fling them in a superficial relationship. So sad. I love this new season though. So great!
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I bet they kill her off
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Hope it’s not sad .Really liked her character.Best shows on TV
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Gwen Sigan doesn’t know her head from her ass. She’s a horrible show runner.
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C
Bingo.
“We’ve got some fun ways to do that. It is always hard to tell a mental health story or to tell an internal story on a show like ours."
LOL There's nothing fun about this. All they had to do was have Hailey go off and find Jay to work things out, or let Jay come home and have Hailey leave with him. That could have happened off-screen, if Jesse's unavailable. There was no legitimate reason to divorce Jay and Hailey when Tracy's leaving at the end of the season. This isn't a mental health story. It's lazy writing, because Gwen Sigan can't be bothered to write an ending that actually makes sense, so she chooses to ruin Jay and Hailey's relationship for no reason, while misrepresenting it in all her interviews instead.
How many times is Ruzek going to propose to Burgess, before they got married? He's proposed four times now, and I'm not even sure this wedding will happen either. Stop going back and forth with them. Either marry them or don't, but do SOMETHING. I'd have more respect for Sigan, if she would just admit that she ruined Jay/Hailey because she wanted to make Kim/Adam the main couple, and couldn't do it any other way.
Chicago Med managed to give Manstead a happy ending. Chicago Fire managed to give Brettsey a happy ending. Chicago P.D. can't manage to give anyone a happy ending.
I'm reposting this, because this site deleted my original comment for some reason. There was nothing offensive in it, so I don't know why they got rid of it.
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I agree. She was just pissed that Jesse left the show. There was no reason to ruin his character offscreen the way she did. Especially after the way his character was portrayed in all the previous seasons. He could have just been transferred to another unit. Or promoted or whatever and still had them together. But she chose to traumatize Hailey yet again for the rest of her time on the show. With these character centric episodes, how is it possible to give her a wonderful ending or whatever she’s trying to spin it?
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“We’ve got some fun ways to do that. It is always hard to tell a mental health story or to tell an internal story on a show like ours,"
LOL Nothing about this is fun. And, this isn't about telling a mental health story. All they had to do was let Haley go find Jay and figure things out, or have Jay return home and let Haley leave with him. There was literally no good reason to divorce them, when Tracy is leaving at the end of the season. It's lazy writing, and Sigan is trying to justify it by wording it as a "mental health story" and completely misrepresenting the Upstead relationship, because she can't be bothered to write an exit that actually makes sense.
How many times has Ruzek proposed to Burgess at this point, four times? Are they ever actually going to get married or what? This show needs to make up their mind about Burzek - either marry them or don't. The constant back and forth is getting exhausting. I'm not sure I believe they're even going to get married this time, although it's clear Sigan is trying to sell Burzek as the couple of the show, because she has no choice. lol