Did ‘Chicago P.D.’ Promo Reveal How Atwater Will Be Written Out?

Meredith Jacobs October 8, 2026, 10:34 am

What To Know

LaRoyce Hawkins is leaving Chicago P.D. in the October 14 episode.
The promo offers a hint as to how his character, Atwater, will be written out.
Plus, showrunner Gwen Sigan explains his exit.

Is Chicago P.D. about to give Officer Kevin Atwater a happy exit?! LaRoyce Hawkins‘ final episode is next week, airing on Wednesday, October 14, and NBC has released a preview teasing how he will say goodbye.

Near the end of the premiere, Atwater got the call that he needed to get to the hospital — Tasha (Karen Obilom) was in labor! — and now, the Season 14 Episode 2 preview shows them at home with their baby. “For the past 14 years, the 21st district has been my home,” Atwater says, and with the point that “kids grow up when you’re not looking” in mind, “I want something new.”

Voight (Jason Beghe) tells him, “You deserve that. So does your son.” Watch the video above for more from the “hero’s final episode,” as NBC calls it.

NBC

In this episode, titled “Don’t Blink,” “A significant turning point in Atwater’s life prompts him to make a decision about his future.”

Showrunner Gwen Sigan told TV Insider that the goal was to give Atwater “the best sendoff that we could. Of course, you want it to be very natural for the character. You want it to feel organic. We wanted this to feel like something that hopefully isn’t just coming out of left field, that we could take little pieces that maybe were already embedded and just try our best to make it feel as real and authentic for him as possible.”

She added, “We knew we wanted to make it positive, make it optimistic for him, make it something that for his character could be a choice and that he could almost author it and we could bake it into the episode in a way that felt like, OK, we’re giving this character something that maybe he’s been longing for or wanting for a long time and hasn’t admitted to.”

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Sigan praised Hawkins’ performance, calling it “wonderful,” as well as the episode. Plus, original cast member Jesse Lee Soffer returned to direct it, “somebody from the family from the other side of it who still is able to be a part of the show in a different capacity,” she said. “And so I think hopefully you can feel all of that on screen and the care and the attention that we put into it.”

There will, of course, be significant moments for Atwater with Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger). Sigan promised that the episode offers “a little bit of everything. Yeah, you get to meet the baby, you get to go home with them, you get to see that little family unit starting and what it looks like and the stress of it, but also the fun of it and the joy of it and how Atwater’s feeling. And then we do jump to him going back to work for the first time. So he’s taken a few weeks at home with the baby, at home with Tasha, and then we see what it feels like to go back to the job knowing, I have this wonderful family and this thing at home that now I have to also think about and that transition for him.”

What do you think of how Chicago P.D. is going to write up Atwater? Let us know in the comments section below.

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