A celebratory dinner for Chicago P.D.‘s Burgess and Ruzek following a brutal court battle turned into a nightmarish situation when they arrived home to find their babysitter Gabby bleeding on the floor and the young girl nowhere to be found.
Picking up from last week’s cliffhanger, Wednesday’s emotionally charged hour began with Burgess finding a needle in Makayla’s bed, indicating she’d been drugged during her abduction. In the living room, Gabby succumbed to her injuries while Ruzek called for help.
The frantic detectives wasted no time in chasing a lead from their neighbor to the ground floor, drawing their weapons on two men — window cleaners who revealed that their van had been broken into. Security footage from the building showed her kidnappers posing as pizza delivery men before gaining access to the apartment and walking out with an unconscious Makayla.
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Chicago P.D. Recap: Burgess and Ruzek’s Custody Battle for Makayla Ends With a Shocking Twist
In a vulnerable moment, Ruzek beat himself up for not being harder on Gabby about opening the door to strangers. But Burgess stopped him from going down that rabbit hole, instead getting him to focus on finding their daughter.
After losing his court case to Burgess, Makayla’s uncle Theo seemed like the most obvious suspect, especially since he was seen outside her school hours before the abduction. Ruzek was the first to charge through Theo’s door, questioning the man about Makayla’s whereabouts while Burgess raced upstairs. However, Makayla was not there.
Theo maintained his innocence during his interrogation at the police station, yelling at Intelligence for dragging a Black man from his home in handcuffs. This set Ruzek off, and he burst into the interrogation room and threatened to kill Theo if anything happened to Makayla. As Ruzek was being restrained, Atwater discovered a huge twist: Theo was being hit up for ransom money.
Kidnappers have demanded $1 million for Makayla and insisted that he keep the cops out of it. That’s why Theo was reluctant to work with Voight and planned to go through with the drop on his own. When Ruzek suggested they press him for more information, Voight immediately checked him: What went down with the interrogation cannot happen again, and he’ll pull both Ruzek and Burgess if he feels that’s in Makayla’s best interest.
The team traced burner phones to Nia, the jailed woman who helped Makayla’s biological father Tariq murder her family. Nia still held a grudge with Burgess for lying to her about a plea deal, even calling her a “white savior bitch.” Ruzek again went off, forcing Voight to again check him. Burgess also pleaded with Ruzek to keep it together, telling him, “I need you to hold on.”
Prison records revealed that Nia had been working with Tariq, who orchestrated the abduction to pay off prison debts. Ruzek urged them to buy more time with the kidnappers, believing they would take the money and run. Burgess immediately shot that idea down, making it clear that “she’s my daughter, and we’re doing the drop.”
With come convincing from Burgess, Theo finally agreed to work with Intelligence on the handoff. The kidnappers pushed Theo to leave the money before they showed up with Makayla. But Ruzek didn’t trust the video they sent, noting that Makayla probably wasn’t even in the area. This put Theo in a difficult situation: Ruzek in his ear yelling not to hand over the money, while Burgess and Voight pushed for him to go through with it.
Theo left the ransom, but Makayla still hadn’t appeared. This prompted Ruzek to go against Voight’s orders and follow the accomplice who grabbed the bag, sparking a foot chase that ended with Ruzek killing said conspirator. Ruzek and Burgess then got into it, with the latter yelling at Ruzek for never listening to her. Leave it to Voight to again play peacemaker, refocusing their efforts on pinging the phones used during the exchange.
This led the cops to a junkyard nearby, where Ruzek took down the remaining abductor and Burgess found an unconscious Makayla in the back of a car. It took a minute, but Makayla finally woke up, much to Burgess and Ruzek’s relief. As Makayla was being helped into an ambulance, Burgess extended an olive branch to Theo by inviting him to head to Chicago Med with them. Could this be the start of a new family dynamic?
The episode ended with Burgess reading Makayla a bedtime story while Ruzek looked on. Still shaken up, Burgess took Ruzek’s hand, and they locked eyes. But before it could turn into a moment, Ruzek got up, leaving Burgess and Makayla alone together.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Chicago P.D.? Drop a comment below.
