What does Reid want from Voight on Chicago PD?

Chicago PD just left off its mid-season finale, with Voight worried that Reid has a dark purpose for the Intelligence Unit!

Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Chicago PD Season 12, Episode 8

The episode started right where the previous one left off as Torres and Burgess were racing to find Cook, who had just been seen with criminal contact turned drug dealer Gloria. Gloria quickly stumbled onto Cook being a cop and revealed her long-time on-off relationship with Torres. 

Luckily, Cook had simply been let go as Gloria drove off. However, she and the rest of the team were not happy to discover Torres had been with one of his own criminal informants all this time. Ruzek was extra ticked that Burgess had known and covered for Torres. Voight himself was outraged and only kept Torres on for now because they still needed Gloria to get closer to her rival dealers. 

Torres was shaken by all this, even praying less for himself and his career than to keep Gloria safe. He would confront Gloria on how being a drug dealer wasn’t really her, only for Gloria to snap that this was her and Torres was just fooling himself thinking otherwise. 

It built up to a deal gone bad and Gloria paid the price, dying in Torres’ arms as he tearfully realized he couldn’t save her. 

What’s the deal with Voight and Reid in Chicago PD?

Throughout the episode, Deputy Chief Reid had been inserting himself into things to ask for updates and Voight giving him the runaround to avoid exposing Torres. It seemed to work with Reid out of the loop until Voight found him waiting in his office. 

After they talked on the case, Reid revealed he knew full well about Torres and Gloria and how the Unit had been covering it up and misusing police funds. Hank naturally wondered why Internal Affairs wasn’t swooping in to arrest everyone and break up the Unit. Reid answered that he wanted to keep things open to find out more about some criminal gangs. He added that he also hoped he and Voight “can be friends.”

Now, Voight is between a rock and a hard place. He knows full well that Reid is likely to use the Unit for some shady deals and maybe break a few rules. However, all it takes is one call from Reid, and everyone’s careers as cops are over, with Torres possibly facing criminal charges to boot. 

There’s always been something a little off about Reid seeming so nice and friendly and this scene confirms his dark side. Just what he wants from the team is uncertain as he may want the Unit to do some “off the books” investigations and perhaps Reid does want to bust the bad guys and just go to an extreme way to do it. Yet resorting to blackmail on his own cops doesn’t seem a good thing to do.

Voight is going to have to play this carefully until he can find a way to get out from under Reid. So when Chicago PD returns, it’s going to be a new clash of Voight and his boss, with the cops caught in the middle for a dark turn for the show.

Chicago PD Season 12 returns on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 on NBC.