Jesse Lee Soffer Declares This Chicago PD Outing From 9 Years Ago Is The "Best Episode We've Ever Done"

There’s been no shortage of harrowing Chicago PD episodes in the series’ dozen seasons to date, but former star Jesse Lee Soffer praises one above all the rest. There’s something to be said for a really strong villain.

Plenty of Dick Wolf’s TV procedural shows have occasionally interrupted their typical case-of-the-week format to pit their casts against a more cunning or influential foe. Chicago PD season 12, for instance, introduces Deputy Chief Reid as a corrupt force attempting to blackmail Voight into complying with his schemes by holding information over his head about Torres sleeping with an informant.

Even the other shows in the One Chicago universe aren’t immune to this type of storyline. Lenox appeared to be something of an antagonist when she first joined Chicago Med. The man who killed Monica Pascal in Chicago Fire isn’t technically an antagonist, but his actions carry through multiple episodes in some unexpected ways. But Chicago PD is better set up to incorporate true villains into its season-long story arcs, and some seasons have accomplished that much better than others.

Chicago PD Season 6, Episode 22 Is Jesse Lee Soffer’s Pick For The Show’s Best Outing

He Felt It Was The Best Episode They’ve Done To Date

While he’s currently known for his role as Supervisory Special Agent Wes Mitchell in FBI: International, Jesse Lee Soffer’s first foray into the world of Dick Wolf was as Senior Detective Jay Halstead in Chicago PD. Just a year before Jay’s wife Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) left Chicago PD, Halstead himself departed the CPD so that Soffer could seek out new and riskier acting opportunities. But while he wound up back in the Dick Wolf universe, Soffer’s ten-year stretch under the One Chicago banner allowed him to partake in one of the most memorable episodes of the series.

Speaking with Access Hollywood in 2019, Soffer opined that the season 6 finale “Reckoning” was the best Chicago PD episode they’d ever filmed to date. Remarking on the series’ overall quality, Soffer stated, “And it keeps getting stronger, too. Our episodes are even better.” Soffer didn’t need to be pressed for more information. Without missing a beat, Soffer specified that, “Like, we just filmed our [season 6] finale, and I think it’s the best episode we’ve ever done.” This is undoubtedly a bold claim for any one episode of a long-running series, but Soffer’s opinion certainly isn’t without merit.

Why Chicago PD Season 6, Episode 22 Is So Great

It Raises The Stakes In More Than One Way

When comparing earlier seasons of Chicago PD to now, it’s clear the show has changed significantly for the better. Unsurprisingly, season 6 fell in the middle of that transition, when certain aspects of the series had improved yet Voight playing dirty was still very much part of the show’s identity. What makes “Reckoning” such a great season finale is that Voight’s more corrupt practices are actually being used to fight legal corruption at a higher level. It raises the intriguing moral question of whether Voight’s corruption is justified for its use in stopping an even more corrupt politician.

“Reckoning” concludes the story of Brian Kelton, a CPD superintendent and front-running mayoral candidate with ties to several murders and coverups. To keep Intelligence occupied and off his back, Kelton has Internal Affairs investigate Dawson’s accidental killing of suspect Jason Rizzo, which results in Ruzek being arrested for obstruction after it’s learned that he lied to help clear Dawson’s name. With the polls declaring Kelton mayor and Ruzek sitting in jail, it seems as if Kelton’s won until he’s found shot to death that night. The last few moments of the episode establish both Dawson and Voight as potential suspects.

What Chicago PD Season 13 Can Learn From “Reckoning”

Blurring Lines Between Justice And Corruption Makes Things Interesting

With all 3 One Chicago shows renewed for the 2025-2026 NBC season, it’s worth noting how the series’ past successes can inform ongoing improvements to the show’s quality. Voight’s largely working by the book now, but his corruption in “Reckoning” is at an all-time high. At one point, the CPD wears unlabeled blackout gear to rob a bunch of drug dealers at gunpoint for half a million dollars’ worth of product just to lure out a suspect. This is before Ruzek holds a suspect in place so that Voight can literally beat the needed information out of him.Many refer to media in which these actions are characterized heroically as “copaganda,” but that never feels quite like the case in Chicago PD season 6, episode 22. The powerful cliffhanger, in which Kelton seems to have beaten the CPD from beyond the grave, works because Voight’s believable as a murder suspect. The episode’s cliffhanger ending succeeds in raising whether good or evil will triumph, partly because the line between the two is already blurred. Given the political climate in which the show is currently being made, that could be a powerful question to revisit in upcoming seasons.

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