SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago PD Season 13, Episode 14.

Kim Burgess fans will love Chicago PD Season 13, Episode 14 for how much it gives actor Marina Squerciati to do. However, they might also have a gripe with “Meant to Be,” because it follows the same general template of a few other Burgess-centric stories. Kim tries to help, and everything goes badly wrong.

One of the best qualities about Kim Burgess is that earnest willingness to help everybody. That’s why it’s been so rewarding to see her finally become a detective, because she’s a character who can be looked up to. However, Chicago PD has routinely punished her for helping out the people around her. Burgess has tried to help a civilian by taking her on a ride-along that went south (in “Ride Along”) and tried to help a former trainee who ultimately died (in “The Thing About Heroes”). Now in “Meant to Be,” she offers an opportunity to a rookie officer and that ends tragically, too.

The general premise of the episode is somewhat ill-advised. Burgess recommends newbie Kaya Wilson for an undercover Intelligence job because Kaya fits the description that the bad guys are looking for. If Intelligence is supposed to be an elite police unit, taking on the worst of the worst, it’s probably not the best place for someone inexperienced. Burgess giving her a little bit of undercover training doesn’t entirely make up for that. The big plot twist—that Kaya accidentally shot and killed another officer—is an interesting one that lines up with that inexperience. Yet how it’s handled is somewhat awkward; Burgess breaks the news to Kaya, but it ends up being the rookie who decides if she stays on the case. One would think that Burgess, as the ranking officer, should be making that decision instead of trusting someone who has already committed one fatal mistake. File that one under “dramatic license.”

Audiences get to see Burgess’ leadership quality here, but there’s also a lot of naivete. Aside from overly trusting Kaya, she further decides to omit Kaya freezing up during a subsequent shooting from a case report in order to protect the other woman’s career. That’s a nice thought, but if Kaya really is struggling, that’s something that could be a liability to other officers in the future. Burgess gives her way too much slack—which has the side effect of unintentionally making the other officer’s death seem less significant. Still, Marina Squerciati carries the whole episode admirably, from ferocious action scenes to more quiet moments. This is essentially a one-woman show as the rest of the team plays supporting roles, with the exception of Eva Imani (who is said to be on a “mini-furlough”).

The only time “Meant to Be” feels like a team episode is in what fans will remember most: the return of Adam Ruzek. Ruzek has been missing for a large part of Chicago PD Season 13 while actor Patrick John Flueger took a leave of absence, and it’s good to have him back. That enables Burgess and Ruzek to talk about Makayla, and there’s a pretty obvious parallel between Kaya making career choices and Makayla having to choose a potential new school. But that’s an example of how Burgess and Ruzek really have to be written together. It feels off to have a big plot point that affects one without the other.

Ultimately, “Meant to Be” ends with Kaya quitting the police force, much to Burgess’ disappointment. This gives Chicago PD the sad ending that it’s going for—but not for its intended reason. Viewers do not have the emotional investment in Kaya that Burgess does. The episode doesn’t show enough to prove that Kaya was born to be a cop, as Burgess tells her (though she may have simply been saying that to keep Kaya from freezing up again). Instead, fans are sad for Burgess because they know that she’s disappointed. They don’t want to see her putting herself out there and getting hurt yet again. This is a pretty typical Kim Burgess episode, and that’s what keeps it from being better. It reminds the audience that Burgess is a great character and Marina Squerciati is a great actor—but it’s doing the same things that Kim has already had to go through.

Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.