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The Chicago P.D. Season 9 Storyline Fans Agree Makes No Sense

Author

James Bradley

Published Aug 04, 2026

As longtime viewers of "Chicago P.D." are well aware, by the series' ninth season, detective Hailey Upton and her boss Sgt. Hank Voight have been harboring a dark secret relating back to one of their more disturbing cases. As it turns out, Upton is responsible for killing human trafficker Roy Walton (Michael Maize), and Voight subsequently helps her cover it up. But when Hailey seems to suddenly be overly shaken by this series of events in Season 9, Episode 3, "The One Next to Me," fans found her reaction hard to swallow.

Commenting in a Reddit thread discussing the episode, u/Odd_Inevitable_3932 complained, "I am so annoyed with this Hailey storyline ... she's having a mental breakdown because a seriously bad dude, who killed [and] trafficked women, got his comeuppance ... It just makes no sense." Redditor u/ba447ar felt the same way, questioning how Upton's mental state was presented: "I totally agree ... My problem with Hailey's storyline is that they are making it seem like she killed the guy for no reason, in cold blood ... in my eyes killing Roy was justified to protect her and Voight." 

Another fan, u/Greatness313, had a similar response, writing, "Exactly! None of it makes sense ... This guy Roy beat the s**t out of Kim [Burgess], shot her and left her for dead and now [Upton] is having regret? It's stupid." Clearly, a lot of "Chicago P.D." fans see Upton's in-the-moment action as relatively justified, considering the danger, and don't think her emotional response is in character.