The 33-year-old actor talks to ET about the tense final scene on Wednesday’s fall closer.
Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Wednesday’s fall finale of Chicago P.D.
The Chicago P.D. mole has been found out.
On Wednesday’s fall finale, titled “Monster,” Officer Adam Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) is caught red-handed as the internal mole secretly leaking classified information to the enemy. With Voight (Jason Beghe) now aware of Ruzek’s betrayal, he summons the young cop to meet under the guise of being a criminal informant.
Unbeknownst to Ruzek, he walks into a trap -- meeting face to face with Voight -- in a moment that may change his life forever and leaves his ultimate fate unclear. Following the episode, Flueger spoke with ET to break down the tense final scene and what lies ahead for Ruzek now that his secret is out.
ET: Were you aware ahead of time that Ruzek was the mole?
Patrick Flueger: Yeah, they let me know fairly early in the season that this was going to happen. My first question was: “Do I die?” The last time this happened in our unit in the first season, the character, [Sheldon] Jin, died. I asked if I got “Jin-ed” because we use that as a verb now. I saw [the arc] as a blessing. It’s nice to have undertones to play while we’re working the case. When you’ve got a big secret, things affect you differently and you have a much more layered response. It’s been really fun to have the opportunity to play that out.
Were other cast members aware beforehand of Ruzek’s big turn?
I’m sure on some level. We’re all friends. We hang out together a lot and talk about what we’ve been told is going to happen to our characters. I’m guessing that they knew, on some level, that this was coming.
Speaking more specifically to tonight’s episode, the final scene where Ruzek comes face to face with Voight after learning that he’s been the mole was a pivotal moment in their relationship. What was it like filming that crucial scene?
It was nerve-wracking. My butt cheeks were clenched for hours on end while filming that scene. (Laughs.) I think in that moment when Ruzek first gets there, I think he knows on some level where he’s going. I don’t think it’s an incredible surprise. I think he’s hoping and praying that there’s going to be a C.I., but he’s no dummy. He understands where he’s going. It’s a lot of mixed emotions. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar by the two men he looks up to most in the world, save for his father, and it’s devastating. All of the different avenues he could have taken, all of the ways he could have handled the situation; Ruzek could have told Voight. He thought he could mitigate the situation on his own and not implicate the unit and not implicate Voight, but give this guy, [Lieutenant Denny] Woods (guest star Mykelti Williamson), just enough to give him the idea that he was working for them, but at the same time, that there was no there there. There was nothing to see. The unit was implying with the new reform rules that Denny Woods is trying to institute. In that moment for Ruzek, the regret and the guilt comes to the forefront. There’s part of him that wonders if he’s going to walk away.
How does this affect Ruzek’s standing with Voight and the unit?
I think it’s only going to make Ruzek’s relationship with the two characters, Voight and Olinsky (Elias Koteas) -- but especially with Voight -- deeper. Jason and I have talked about it a lot, and Jason has highlighted in our conversations, like, “This is a big deal that you do this, that you’ve gotten so far down and you’ve gotten so far tangled in the web. To know that you told Woods off before we had this moment, that just makes it deeper.” Voight’s big thing is, “Tell me the truth so I can lie for you.” But he knows family; he killed a guy over his son. I don’t think it’s lost on Voight that Ruzek’s sister could be in a lot of trouble. She probably had a few sips too many and blew over the limit, but if she gets the book thrown at her, she could lose her son -- at least for a period of time. The fact that Ruzek was caught between a rock and a hard place, I don’t think that’s lost on Voight.
What lies ahead when the show returns in a few weeks?
The stakes are going to continue to be raised for everybody in the unit. I don't think every show experiences coming back for their fifth season and feeling completely reinvigorated and feeling like there's been a bit of a rebirth of the show. We've been blessed with that situation. We find ourselves pretty happy to be doing our job every single day. I think I can speak for everybody on the cast when I say that.
Chicago P.D. returns Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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