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Fans were desperately hoping for one last Upstead reunion before Hailey Upton left Chicago P.D., but unfortunately, that did not happen. Keep reading to see why Jay Halstead was not in the Chicago P.D. Season 11 finale.

Why was Jay Halstead not in the Chicago P.D. Season 11 finale?

When news broke back in October 2023 that Tracy Spiridakos was exiting the series, fans began hoping for a reconciliation between her character, Detective Hailey Upton, and Jesse Lee Soffer’s character, Detective Jay Halstead. The pair’s relationship was a highlight of Chicago P.D. and fans were heartbroken when they got a divorce following Soffer’s departure in Season 10. They were also frustrated with how things ended between the couple and felt like Upton got no closure. While tracking down the cartel in Bolivia, Halstead failed to tell his wife that he wasn’t extended his stay and stopped answering her phone calls.

With the question of how Upton was going to be written off looming throughout Season 11, viewers theorized that she would go to Bolivia to be with Halstead or that the latter would at least come back to Chicago for her big send off. Unfortunately for Upstead shippers, Upton’s reason for leaving the Intelligence Unit didn’t involve her ex nor did he appear in the emotional farewell episode.

More: Meet the Chicago P.D. cast’s real-life children and families

Instead, Upton came to the decision that she needed a fresh start. “I just want to feel better, be better. Start over, I guess?” she told Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe). With some encouragement from Voight, Upton took the leap and resigned. The last scene showed her researching jobs at the FBI, FEMA and DEA before she packed up her apartment and took a cab to the Chicago O’Hare Airport. “Where are you headed?” the taxi driver asked her, to which Upton just smiled and looked out the window.

Following the finale, showrunner Gwen Sigan revealed why Soffer did not reprise his role as Halstead to give the fans what they wanted. “We definitely considered it. We talked about it a lot,” she told TVLine. “We wanted to go through all the different choices of where this character would go, and it really came down to I wanted it to be about [Upton].”

Throughout Season 11, Upton was struggling in the wake of her divorce and was not in a good place emotionally. She slowly started to pick up the pieces, however, and leaving the CPD and Chicago was the last step she needed to take to heal. As Sigan explained: “I just wanted this to be her, and I wanted it to be a choice that she is making and that it’s such an internal thing and it’s such a piece of what she needs, and it’s not really related to really anybody else.”

More: Where former Chicago P.D. stars are now

Fans still can’t help but hope that Upton was catching a flight to see Halstead, though. In an interview with Variety, Spiridakos and Sigan discussed where they think Upton was heading. “I haven’t filled in the blank for her as to what that ending is or what the answer is to where she’s going on her way to the airport. What I really loved about this ending is that we finally get to see her be happy,” Spiridakos told the outlet. “We get to see her find herself and do something that’s for her. It’s something completely different than we’ve seen as far as departures go for characters and for her, she’s been through a lot. I love that it’s in a place where she just gets to discover herself and see what else is out there for her.”

Sigan added: “I have my own version of where she went and what she did, but we wanted that ending to represent hope, opportunity and possibility. And so, the more open-ended it was, the more you get that feeling.”

Chicago P.D. is available to stream on Peacock.

For more on Chicago P.D., check out this timeline of Jay Halstead and Hailey Upton’s relationship.