Chicago P.D. had a pair of ongoing arcs through the first half of Season 13, with the ongoing pursuit of Raymond Bell leading to the fall finale cliffhanger (and a ticking clock in the winter premiere) and Voight chasing down leads about his blackmailer. The sergeant finally discovered that none other than Internal Affairs District Commander Devlin was behind the blackmail, but it didn't come out of nowhere after Voight's actions early in the season.
It remains to be seen if Devlin is going to strike back again in the 2026 TV schedule or if we should start waiting for the next internal threat for the Intelligence Unit from within the CPD. Whatever the case may be, I still love that Voight made Devlin a problem for himself who was – to quote showrunner Gwen Sigan – ”such a different threat.” What goes around does sometimes come around, even for Hank Voight.
District Commander Devlin Was The Blackmailer
Devlin was introduced in the Season 13 premiere, refusing Voight’s requests to reinstate the Intelligence Unit when he tried to go through proper channels. When that didn’t work, Voight did what he does best and switched to a shadier approach: use leverage against Devlin to get his way. At the time, it seemed like Devlin might be a one-off character just used as a temporary roadblock to the unit getting back together, but that certainly wasn’t the case. He instead began blackmailing Voight from the shadows, confounding the sergeant for weeks.
As much as the Intelligence Unit is made up of main characters who fans have been watching and rooting for over many years, I like when Voight faces his comeuppance from time to time. The storyline with him, Upton, and eventually Halstead after Voight disposed of a body is still one of my favorites of the Upstead era before Jesse Lee Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos left the series, and that was a problem of his own making. Devlin would have had no reason to go after Voight if he hadn’t started it.
What The Showrunner Shared About Devlin Vs. Voight
Hank “Tell Me The Truth So I Can Lie For You” Voight taking the first shot doesn’t make it right for Devlin to abuse his authority right back, of course, and I loved what the showrunner told CinemaBlend ahead of the winter premiere about Devlin using blackmail against Voight compared to Deputy Chief Reid’s more direct methods. Gwen Sigan shared:
He's such a different threat, right? He's such a different kind of threat, I think, to Voight. Blackmail is so personal. It's such a personal sort of crime against another person, and we don't usually see so much of that with Voight. I feel like this is the most personal we've got, where he's attacking his past and his family and his family life that we don't see Voight talking about. He doesn't speak about this part of his life, and here is someone who is using that and using that vulnerability to try and disgrace him and disgrace his father and disgrace his past.
Voight was private about the fact that he was being blackmailed at all, not even giving Platt any more information than the bare minimum he could get away with. Admittedly, the rest of the unit had problems of their own to deal with. Torres was once again drowning himself in guilt, Imani was adjusting to working with a team, Burzek faced hurdles as parents before Patrick John Flueger’s leave of absence, and Atwater pondered a future beyond the Windy City. The showrunner continued:
That alone makes him a very different sort of villain for us, that it is this personal type of attack, and then how Voight's going to deal with that when it's more emotional and it is more raw, and I think he has a lot of feelings that maybe he hasn't even looked at about that part of his life. I really like how it all comes to a head in [the fall finale]. I think it, to me, felt very different than perhaps how we've always seen Voight deal with this type of threat, and we certainly get to learn more about Devlin as well and why Devlin is taking these actions against him well.
As fans would learn in the winter premiere, Devlin took those actions in retaliation for what Voight did to him in the first episode of Season 13. He obviously was no saint of an officer in his career if there was dirt for Voight to find on him, but the Intelligence sergeant made an enemy immediately in the new season.
It’s practically tradition at this point for the unit to face an antagonist either within CPD or within the bureaucracy of Chicago, and I wasn’t sure the NBC cop drama would be able to top Shawn Hatosy as Deputy Chief Reid. The character of course died a bloody death in the Season 12 finale, requiring a new shady figure for Voight and Co. to face off against.
Devlin definitely isn’t Voight 2.0, and the fallout of his interference hasn’t been quite as scary as Chief O’Neal being survived by his son, played chillingly by Jefferson White. Devlin may even no longer be a threat after the winter premiere, in which Voight confronted him, clarified that the “dirt” he thought he had on his dad was actually nothing, and made a pretty clear threat against him.
If that was indeed the end of Devlin as a threat, it opens the door for what comes next.
Who Is The Next Villain?
Technically, we can’t rule out a return from Devlin. Voight’s threat at the end of the winter premiere seemed to do the trick in getting the superior officer to back off from blackmailing, but who’s to say that will stick? There’s an element of mutually assured destruction with both men having leverage on the other, and time will tell if that will be enough to keep Devlin out of Intelligence’s operations.
Chicago P.D. closed two chapters early in the new year with Voight confronting Devlin and the unit putting an end to Raymond Bell’s murder spree. Even the Morgan case has been wrapped up, thanks to Torres and Imani joining forces. The show is largely procedural, but usually has a big bad within the CPD and/or a twisted criminal to chase. We haven’t seen one arise just yet in 2026, and I’m curious if that will happen before the upcoming One Chicago crossover… if at all.
Admittedly, the latest episode with Ruzek’s continued absence had me missing long-gone characters like Halstead and Upton more than keeping my eyes peeled for a new big bad or two. There’s still time before the break in February for the Winter Olympics, however, and the next episode is set up as a big one for Atwater. Take a look at the promo:
The bad news? Ruzek still appears to be MIA, so the wait continues for Patrick John Flueger’s return. The good news? Atwater is getting the spotlight! The logline from NBC for the episode, called “On The Way,” reveals that he “pushes his personal life aside as he goes undercover in the flashy high-stakes world of carjacking.” While that’s unfortunate news for Atwater, it does bode well for fans getting a window into his personal life.
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, January 28 for the “On The Way” episode of Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. It’s the second-to-last episode before One Chicago goes on a break for the bulk of February for Olympics coverage to take over NBC, so be sure to keep tuning in and/or streaming via a Peacock subscription.
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