Showrunner explains Chicago PD season 12 death and how it affects everyone

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Chicago PD Season 12, Episode 1!Chicago PD Showrunner Gwen Sigan has explained the shocking season 12 death and revealed how the character's death will affect others on the team going forward. In Chicago PD In Season 12, Episode 1, Detective Martel (Victoria Cartagena) is introduced as the newest member of the team. But as she drives with Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) at the end of the episode, she is shot. This shocking moment serves as a conclusion to the premiere and sets the stage for the rest of the season.

In conversation with TV InsiderSigan revealed Chicago PD Season 12 killed off Martel so quickly that it became clear how Voight (Jason Beghe) is struggling with his mortality after a near-death experience in Season 11. The showrunner explained how the new detective reflected these fears in her untimely demise, particularly due to the character development she received. Sigan also explained how death can happen without drama, a major theme of the season:

We knew in the room that the story we wanted to tell was really about Voight and how he was affected by the events of the last year, and especially, I think, by two things, Upton being gone and then also that he disappeared that near-death experience and that he remembers a lot of it and he remembers what it felt like and he remembers that it would all just go away, right? He would just be gone and that would be the end. And I think it triggered an almost introspective thing for him – he doesn't know, we just see him dealing with it in a Voight way: “I have to move, I have to move, I have to move.”

But he deals with the idea that you don't have a lot of time and you don't know when it's going to be over, and what do you do with that time and how do you make it valuable? And once we knew what the episode was about, we wanted to tell that story through another character, Martel. And it felt fresh. It felt different for us to introduce a member of the unit in this way, where we could see her after just a month and she had already been accepted and had already found her footing. She has a past dealing with the same issues, where we learn that she is coming from a mental hiatus and has taken some time off because her partner died.

To us it felt like it was all perfect pieces, and then it ended in a way that emphasized that death happens, that it can happen instantaneously, that it can happen without having to worry about time Prepare for it and without being able to resolve outstanding issues or say goodbye or find out what your life was worth, it may simply be gone. And so it felt like the perfect story to us thematically and that it would also tap into all the themes that we want to tell this year, which is identity and self, self-crisis and transformation and all of these things that you think about a lot when you thinking about your own mortality.

In addition to Martel's quick death, the showrunner teased the cause of it Season 12, Episode 2 would follow this and present a real-time situation with Ruzek Immediately afterwards, shots were fired. She also explains how this will impact the rest of the season, showing the extent of the violence and how quickly it can change lives. Check out what Sigan had to say below:

Episode 2 is really just an adrenaline ride and I think you'll be in shock throughout the entire episode. Our hope was that you as a viewer would feel almost the same fear as Ruzek. It's a real-time episode, so you're in that moment with Ruzek for about 42 minutes and you feel how it feels to have just seen it.

And then what impacts the rest of the season is that it's almost always that undercurrent. I think every time you have a police show, you as a writer and also the audience remember that they are police officers and that they walk through the door every day and they don't know what's on the other side and there is always a threat of danger and violence and a threat to your life, it maintains that reality and that authenticity. So it's going to be something that I think will influence all of our characters in some way, but it's also a story that I think kind of triggers off different stories in a nice way, if that makes sense.

What Martel's death means for Chicago PD season 12

The tone quickly established itself

Season 11 of the police procedural ended not only with Voight having a near-death experience, but also with Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) leaving Chicago PDthe character looking for a new job at a federal agency. While it looked like Martel would be her replacement, the end of The Season 12 premiere shockingly and unceremoniously killed her off. This will severely impact not only Ruzek, who witnessed her sudden death, but also the team's leader, who continues to wrestle with his mortality after such a close call.

With Martel's death, the tone of the new episodes was also set, with the characters Chicago PD They have to deal with such a sudden defeat for their team. It was discovered that she had been with them for a monthmeaning a lot of contacts were likely made during her short tenure. Dealing with the aftermath of her death will also be accompanied by the arrival of Officer Kiana Cook (Toya Turner), whose debut in Season 12, Episode 2 coincides with Ruzek dealing with the aftermath of his partner's death in real time.

“Our Interpretation of Martel's Death in Chicago PD's Premiere”

This season might be the darkest yet

The fallout from Martel's death is expected to tie into the theme of mortality, something that Sigan says will be prevalent throughout Season 12. That could mean Chicago PD will be the show's darkest season yet and will deal with death more directly than previous seasons. While there's still a lot of mystery surrounding what happens next, it's clear that the detective's death will have far-reaching effects on the team as new episodes are released.

Source: TV Insider