Chicago PD fans will see ASA Chapman back and maybe facing her feelings over Hank Voight, to boot!
Since Season 9, Chicago PD fans have become used to ASA Nina Chapman (Sara Bues). The Chicago attorney has aided the team, although she’s butted heads a lot with leader Hank Voight. A Season 10 episode had Chapman briefly suspected of corruption, but it turned out she was hiding she’d been romantically involved with an informer. Hank helped cover it up, so Chapman’s career was saved.
When Hank was kidnapped in the Season 11 finale, Chapman went all out with the team searching for him, calling in every favor she could to help in the investigation. In Season 12’s “The After,” the team’s hunt for a serial killer had Chapman (who had initially hated Voight’s shady tactics) claim to a judge she had information from an informant to get a search warrant on a suspect’s home.
That helped the team track the killer, but Hank was upset when he realized Chapman had made up the informant to get the warrant. Their talk had Chapman confessing she was driven by feelings for Voight, which caught him off guard.
Speaking to TVLine, showrunner Gwen Sigan confirmed that Chapman is expected back and might become a more regular face on the series.
"She will be back. By the time she’s back, [Voight] is going to be very happy to see her, at least as far as needing that camaraderie that they have and that friendship and that peer. He’ll be sort of longing to have that sounding board back."
That sounds good, but it also brings up the complex feelings the pair have for each other.
Are we getting more of a Voight/Chapman romance on Chicago PD?
Obviously, Voight and Chapman are going to have to work on their relationship, which has gone from adversaries to allies. It’s interesting how Chapman was against Hank’s cowboy tactics, but he seems to have rubbed off on her with her bending the rules more.
The confession by Chapman of her feelings for Hank was a surprise, and Sigan said it’d take him a bit to sort out how he feels about it.
"I think he has no idea how he feels about her. It was a shock to him, and I think it’s churning in his mind for quite some time. These next few episodes, it’s in the background of his mind. It’s something that I think he is avoiding and then thinking about it and not knowing what to do with, but the reality is in his subconscious and it’s setting the scene for this idea of, is there more? Is his life already made up or does he have more opportunities [like] Olinsky referred to at the end of last season that there is more. So for him, it’s percolating in his head."
Romance is probably a far cry for Voight right now as he’s so committed to the job. He hasn’t had the best of luck with romances in the past as the cop work comes first and everyone knows the baggage he carries with him. That makes it unlikely he’d be open for a romance now.
There’s also the obvious conflict of interest of an ASA getting involved with a cop, as it blurs the lines and is easy fodder for a defense attorney to jump upon. It can also jeopardize their future work and both influence too much on not hurting the other to properly do their jobs.
For now, it’s good to have Chapman returning to Chicago PD in some capacity and how she and Voight will continue their odd bond.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.