Picking up where they left off. When Chicago P.D. returns for its ninth season, everything is still up in the air: Burgess (Marina Squerciati) is in the hospital and Hailey (Tracy Spiradakos) and Voight (Jason Beghe) are keeping a major secret. So, where does that leave Jay?
“The whole team is trying to find the killer. Little do we know, the killer has been found, so it’s going to be a really fun one for the fans,” Jesse Lee Soffer teases exclusively to Us Weekly of the Wednesday, September 22, premiere. “Last season ended in such a fever pitch with everything that happens.”
While Hailey ultimately shot the man who killed Miller’s (Nicole Ari Parker) son — and Voight took care of his body — she hasn’t yet told Jay that. Instead, she asked him to marry her at the end of season 8.
“They obviously love each other very much, and I think after what happens at the end of season 8, she’s reaching out for kind of the one stable thing, the one good thing,” Soffer, 37, explains. “She wants to hold on for dear life. Does it come from a genuine place? Yes. But is the motivation also coming from a dark place too? Absolutely. So time will tell, we’ll see when does Jay find out about what happened? Does he connect the dots that this is why she asked him? There’s a lot of things at play.”
While the New York native confirms that “eventually Jay does start to put it together,” it could cause some complications before they get there since he can tell she’s hiding something.
“Anytime there’s a secret, there’s going to be trust issues, right? So maybe there’s some trust stuff,” the three-time Emmy nominee says. “Jay’s gone through his fair share of keeping secrets though and doing some shady things that he’s kept from Voight, Haley, kept from the unit. So hopefully there’s compassion in it, but maybe a rupture in the relationship? Who knows? Some distrust there.”
The former soap star adds that Hailey’s choice to follow Voight at the end of season 8 — and ultimately save him — was a complicated one that will have lasting effects.
“[She was] kind of in the wrong place at the right time and the right place at the wrong time too. It’s really intense,” Soffer says. “She saves the day but also takes this hit on her soul.”
Chicago P.D. season 9 premieres on NBC Wednesday, September 22, at 10 p.m. ET.
