The Season 13 finale of Chicago P.D., titled “Born or Made,” was one of those gut-wrenching hours that left us feeling a lot of things. And a big part of that was Arienne Mandi’s Eva Imani, a character we fell in love with early on this season, and who has continued to surprise us at every turn.
One of the things we surprisingly loved? Her relationship with Hank Voight [Jason Beghe]. And that relationship was at the center of the Season 13 finale.
A good relationship like that, of course, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s built by writers and actors. And sometimes, it’s about the quiet beats. “It was really fun to step into [that dynamic],” Mandi shared. “And also, these little moments that we have in episodes 20 and 21 of like… when I get into the car, and he has coffee for me, or just these little things like I give him the sugar stick. Little moments like these day-to-day relationship things with people who get closer and closer. It was really cool.”
Why does the relationship work? Mandi had an answer. ”For myself, as Ari, and I think for Jason, it’s just that thing that you can’t really explain. A similar sense of humor, a similar outlook on life. We discovered that we work very similarly in the way we prepare for our scenes or our episodes. It’s just a lot of similarities between the two of us. And I think that just lends itself directly to the work.”
Voight, however, isn’t the only one who’s looking out for Imani in “Born or Made.” We’ve increasingly seen Dante Torres [Benjamin Levy Aguilar] as the other character who is always there, checking up on Imani. It helps that Mandi and Levy Aguilar are close friends.
“I think we all know that we have, because of our friendship, this chemistry that’s kind of undeniable. So, it was really fun to allow it to…even in episodes 20 and 21, he’s kind of a silent presence there for her in these moments and kind of looking after her. I think that was really special to see, because we don’t even know why it’s happening. Imani doesn’t know, Torres doesn’t really know, but we have this sort of bond between us.”
Showrunner Gwen Sigan agreed. “I think when you see something on screen that you don’t get all the time; you’d be a fool not to write for it. And we’ve been lucky on this show; we’ve had it quite a few times with actors who have so much chemistry on screen, whether or not they even get along in real life. Sometimes it doesn’t go hand in hand, but you can see it. And so, you just gotta go with it. It’s too good.”
As all of these dynamics are playing out, Imani has to grapple with the reality that her sister isn’t the person Imani thought she would be after all these years. Because Shari just doesn’t remember her. And at the end of the episode, we see Voight and Imani come face to face with a question: will Shari be charged with murder?
Imani doesn’t know, but we do, that Voight didn’t leave a paper trail of Shari’s murder. But what will Voight do next? He’s the type of man who takes care of his people and is often willing to cross lines to do so. He cares for Imani. But, does that mean he’ll try to protect her sister or try to protect Imani from herself?
“Yeah, that’s such a nice thought,” Sigan told us. “I mean, I think it is very true, right? We know Voight, we know what his instincts are. But we also know that throughout the season, he’s tried to sort of relay to Imani: don’t let your instincts win. I think he had his dad, who did that. And we played with a lot of parallels this season of like, could he be that for her? Could the message be use your instincts when you need to and then know when you shouldn’t, know when they’re not good for you or for someone else.”
An answer, and not an answer. “I do think there’s a very real possibility that Voight would look at all of this and say: this is the worst thing for you and for Shari, for me to bury this. But there’s also the Voight that we know very well, who maybe will be comfortable burying it because he’s comfortable burying a lot of things if he thinks that there’s a good reason. So, I love that we could go either way. It could go either way.”
With that in mind, what can we look forward to in Season 14? Sigan was very tight-lipped. “I don’t think we’re there yet. I mean, I know certain stories that I definitely want to tell, but I’m going to keep those to myself.”
She did, however, give us something about the upcoming season. “I do think it will be like a great season of change. That’s what I keep coming back to, because I just think that everybody’s on the precipice of something. Everyone has these big life changes or these big events that have just happened that are going to lead to some sort of growth.”
Here’s to more of this team and the dynamics the show developed this year. We’re invested.
Chicago P.D. will return to NBC this fall.
