'There's No Brake': Chicago P.D.'s Jason Beghe Talks Joining Forces With SVU For High-Stakes Episode
Chicago P.D. returns from a break in the 2024 TV schedule on March 20 with a new episode of Season 11, and there are some unresolved issues that Voight needs to address after where One Chicago's cop drama left off in February. Just after he took a victim from a case into his home, Intelligence will land a case that requires them to join forces with an SVU detective, and Jason Beghe spoke with CinemaBlend about the sticky situation for Voight.
Called "The Living and the Dead," the next episode will pick up on an ongoing case, and it's safe to say that the plot is about to seriously thicken. A serial killer dropping bodies will result in Voight and Co. teaming up with a detective from the Special Victims Unit, which stands out as something that certainly doesn't happen every week on P.D.
Now, while Chicago P.D. previously crossed over with NBC's Law & Order: SVU to connect the One Chicago and Law & Order legs of the nine-show Dick Wolf universe, Voight won't be recruiting the help of anybody from Olivia Benson's unit over in New York City. Jason Beghe previewed the case that brings a Chicago SVU detective into the mix:
It's a serial killer, and there's this wonderful character that we're exploring who is working in the Special Victims Unit, but her kind of particular genius is an aptitude for profiling. Since we have a serial killer, Voight knows her by reputation, and she him, so he reaches out and she agrees to help. And we see where it goes from there.
The cops of Chicago P.D.'s Intelligence Unit are no strangers to handling cases themselves that involve – to quote Law & Order: SVU – "sexually-based offenses that are considered especially heinous," so it should be interesting to see what an actual SVU detective who specializes in such crimes brings to the situation. The character, named Josephine Petrovic, is portrayed by Instinct's Bojana Novakovic and appears in the promo for "The Living and the Dead."
As for how personally Voight is taking the case of the week after connecting with Noah in the previous episode (available streaming via Peacock Premium subscription), Jason Beghe shared how high the stakes are for his character in the new episode:
I think that they're heightened, obviously... It's personal. He doesn't quite realize it, although he knows he just can't let it go. He doesn't run out of energy. He'll go night and day without sleep. He's a dog with a bone. This is all there is. There's no brake. He's just going.
For better or worse, Voight tends to close cases when he's "a dog with a bone," even though it's not always necessarily according to the letter of the law. It remains to be seen what the personal stakes of "The Living and the Dead" do to him, but it's probably a safe guess that Noah reminding him of his late son makes this a much more complicated time than usual for the sergeant.
Jason Beghe weighed in on why Voight made the decision to take in Noah, after the young man had been abandoned by his parents:
I think he was thinking the kid had no place to go and I'm gonna take him until he's ready. He'll do what it takes until he's ready. But eventually he assumes that Noah will find a way to move on, on his own.
We can only hope that there's a happier ending to Voight's story with Noah than there was to his story with Justin, who died back in Season 3 as one of the earliest major personal blows to Hank's character. For now, check out the promo to see the Chicago SVU profiler in action with a serial killer on the loose:
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, March 20 at 10 p.m. ET for "The Living and the Dead" as the newest episode of Chicago P.D. Unfortunately for the officers of the Intelligence Unit, it seems like Voight might have too much on his mind to focus on advancing one of them to detective. As always, P.D. closes out NBC's night of One Chicago action, following Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET.
