Chicago P.D.’s Patrick John Flueger Talks Ruzek’s ‘Soul-Crushing’ Struggle With His Dad and Serial Killer Case
Warning: The following contains spoilers for this Wednesday’s Chicago P.D. Proceed at your own risk!
It was a difficult week for Ruzek on this Wednesday’s Chicago P.D. (As if the members of Intelligence ever have any other kind of week!)
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First, the officer stumbled upon the dead bodies of a mother and a young child during a wellness check. Inside the home, Ruzek also found a young girl named Zoe sitting in her room, unaware of the horror in the nearby bedroom. After talking to Zoe, Ruzek and Intelligence realized they were investigating a serial killer who preys on single mothers, then murders them and their children.
At home, Ruzek was also dealt a heavy blow when his dad Bob (guest star Jack Coleman) showed up for an unannounced visit and started to exhibit strange behavior. Eventually, Bob confessed to his son that he has Alzheimer’s in a personal moment that mirrored what was going on in Ruzek’s professional world.
“[Ruzek] meets a young girl that doesn’t know who she is, or thinks she knows who she is, but, ultimately, she’s not related to the man that has her kidnapped. So we don’t know who she is. She doesn’t know who she is,” says Patrick John Flueger, who plays Ruzek. Meanwhile, “his dad, the man who raised him, is coming in and telling him he’s forgetting who he is. So all the while he’s trying to give this person back their identity, he’s watching someone he loves lose their own.”
When it comes to Zoe, it’s more important for Ruzek to give her back her real name and sense of self than it is to catch the serial killer, Thomas Cronin, who remains at large at the conclusion of this week’s hour.
“He’s clearly smart. He’s a serial killer. He’s gotten away with it for this long,” Flueger notes. That said, “I don’t see him as being a threat to myself or my family or even this child, certainly not at the end of this episode. I think we recovered her. We got her away from him.”
While the unit definitely wants to find Cronin and stop him from ever killing again, “it’s more about helping this little kid than it is about figuring out exactly who he is,” Flueger continues. “I know that that sounds callous, but she’s immediate. She’s right there. She’s something that’s tangible. She’s right in front of me. I can gift her name back tomorrow, maybe. Him, trying to find a ghost, trying to find a needle in a haystack, that’s harder than you’d think.”
On the home front, Ruzek was intent on coming to his dad’s aid, insisting that Bob move in with him, Burgess and Makayla. Bob was, initially, reluctant, not wanting Ruzek to see his deteriorating state, but he agreed after Ruzek wouldn’t accept no for an answer. Fearing that some day he might not be able to tell him, Bob told Ruzek that he loves him and he’s proud of him.
“He loves his dad very, very much, and to find out that things are going to go south for him, I think, is soul-crushing,” Flueger shares.
Having a parent with Alzheimer’s move into your family’s home is also not an easy situation to deal with. So how will Ruzek and Burgess handle this new living arrangement?
“I think Kim likes Bob as an individual. I think Kim, as a partner, as a fiancée to me and as a mother to his grandchild, probably has some reservations and misgivings” about some of the activities that Bob partakes in with Makayla, Flueger says. “But now with the Alzheimer’s thing and him moving in, I think she’s totally supportive. I think she wants him there for all of the reasons Adam does. But again, I think she is going to be more protective, and she is going to be more cognizant.”
As for Ruzek, he’ll have some difficulty accepting the reality of his dad’s health moving forward.
“You’ll see in the future, Adam believes in his dad and believes that if we just keep doing crossword puzzles, if we keep your brain moving, if we keep you engaged, we’re going to beat this thing, or we’re going to put it off, it’s going to be fine. You just keep talking, you just keep saying my name, we’re going to be fine,” Flueger describes. “Whereas that’s just not how it works when it comes to dementia. He’s not coming from a scientific place, from a medical place. He’s coming from a place of a son who grew up [as] a boy’s boy, who just thinks, like, f–king put some dirt on it and walk it off, and you’re going to figure it out.”
Chicago P.D. fans, what did you think of the episode? Hit the comments with your reactions!
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