Tracy Spiridakos is departing Chicago P.D. after Season 11. Yup, you read that right, the thing even die-hard fans of the actress were probably dreading but deep down also kinda hoping actually came true. And if we’re being honest no one is actually surprised.
The news broke late last night (October 24) because there’s this absurd notion in Hollywood that dropping bad news late means that, in the mornings, it will all be forgotten or something. Either way, I’m not sure this is actually bad news, because honestly, all I feel is relief. Good for Tracy Spiridakos. She’s free!
It would have been easier to get rid of Voight instead, but that’s apparently neither here nor there. If we were to free everyone else we’d just have a one-man show.
Anyway, if we’re being honest, Chicago P.D. had absolutely no idea what to do with Tracy Spiridakos’ Hailey Upton ever since Jesse Lee Soffer’s Jay Upstead was written out. Like, zero idea. Jay was written about as out of character as it was possible to be, and Hailey was basically a shell of herself because her husband wasn’t talking to her! And, to be fair, maybe I would have been too had I been in her shoes because the whole thing made about zero sense.
The writers were, indeed, caught between a rock and a hard place because it’s not like Jay was a man who would willingly leave his wife. But to say that they chose the worst option possible for both Jay and Hailey would be an understatement. Spiridakos is a much better actress than what the show gave her in Season 10, so it’s hard to blame her for wanting to move on to greener pastures. Absolutely everything feels greener than Chicago P.D. these days.
However, there’s still the matter of Season 11 and Hailey Upton — not to mention Upstead. The character still exists, and so does the ship, and we would love to be able to say goodbye to it in a way that allows us to revisit it in the future. For that, we need the writers that we had from Seasons 4-9, not the ones from Season 10. Let us forget Season 10 existed, please and thank you. Let’s give Hailey and Upstead the ending they deserve. Let’s give fans the closure they deserve.
Think Carol and Doug on ER. Think Tony and Ziva on NCIS. That’s the bare minimum we’ll accept, please, and thank you.
But before we can ever start thinking about Season 11 and how Hailey will be written off, SAG-AFTRA needs a deal — so the AMPTP better get on it. Anytime now, guys. The actors deserve a fair deal. It’s been over 100 days. What in the world are the studios waiting for?
I agree with a lot of what you have said here, the comments on Voight being the exception. Hopefully the actor’s strike is resolved soon. If it is and we get a 10-12 episode season, I could see Jesse Lee Soffer returning in some capacity for season 11. His comments indicate that he is open to it and he is not linked to any new projects that I have seen. Both strikes have delayed projects and prevented actors from being cast in new roles (while I am not happy about the strikes), it does create a perfect storm to provide Upstead with a fitting resolution. If nothing else, I would take a 3-4 episode arc with Jay back to wrap up their story.
I also think they have to go back to the formula that they had prior to the pandemic, before Season 8. Prior to that a character that was the focus of the story would get say 30% of the lines and screen time dividing the remaining 70% among everyone else. That guaranteed that everyone had plenty of lines from episode to episode. Starting with season 8 and with limited exceptions, a character or 2 would get 60-70% of the lines with everyone else dividing up what remains. It creates a dynamic where one week Kevin and Adam are getting the majority of the lines and the next week Kevin is barely in the episode. They need to go back to the way it was. In some ways it’s hard to understand as there were more characters in seasons 1-4 than there are now.
lol your bias and lack of interest or perhaps hatred for the other characters is showing in this article. but that is nothing new. you have always been biased and phony. “we should forget season 10 ever existed” right we should forget about finally meeting kim’s dad, him coming back into kevin’s life and them kind of making amends. kim finally addressing and working through her traumas in therapy, burzek getting back together, mack calling adam dad for the first time. yeah screw all that and forget it all happened because the only thing that matters is upstead and hailey right? you will say things like this making it obvious you only care about upstead and then pretend you care about adam, kim, kevin, trudy too. i hope tracy leaves means you too stop watching the show and writing these shitty blog posts.
Thank you so much for reading! Not that you will believe me or probably even care about my words, but this is an article about Hailey and Upstead and nothing I said here was thinking about any other character — other than a dig at Voight, because I am me, and that cannot really be helped. So my reference to forgetting Season 10 was 100% about the writing for Upstead in Season 10, if they wanted to give Hailey and the ship a good ending. You are, of course, welcome to believe whatever you want about my likes or dislikes re: the show and read or not read what I write. This is, still, a free country. Just wanted to make sure I made that clear.