‘Chicago P.D.’ Boss on What Was Revealed About LaRoyce Hawkins’ Exit & Intelligence’s New Problem (Exclusive)

Atwater’s (LaRoyce Hawkins) about to become a father! Yes, we knew that day was coming soon on Chicago P.D., but the Season 14 premiere features the moment leading right up to it. The episode also ends in heartbreak for Imani (Arienne Mandi) when it comes to her sister and reveals a new person for Voight (Jason Beghe) and the rest of Intelligence to deal with in their office space. Warning: Spoilers for the Chicago P.D. Season 14 premiere ahead!

First, the happy news: Just as the unit wraps up its case, Atwater gets a call from Tasha (Karen Obilom) that the baby’s coming! Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) rushes to drive him to the hospital. Next week will be his final episode.

Meanwhile, Imani has been giving every part of herself to her sister, Shari (Selin Cuhadaroglu), visiting her where she’s locked up — Voight let the officer decide what to do about the murder her sister committed, and she made a deal — but then Shari refuses to see her anymore. Plus, Voight spends the episode annoyed about all the extra people at the district after OCD HQ was sold, only to find out that specialized units are getting an FBI agent assigned to them, and yes, that includes Intelligence. Charlie is going to determine if the unit is an efficient use of resources and has full clearance and use of the bullpen. Uh-oh!

Below, showrunner Gwen Sigan sets up Atwater’s exit after that tease, explains the new addition to Intelligence’s space, and more.

I feel so bad for Imani because she’s trying so hard with her sister. She’s doing everything she can. The decision she made was the best one she can make. She’s making basically Shari her entire life and then Shari cuts her off. So what does that do to Imani? Because it’s not just like, “Oh, I’m not going to see her today.”

Gwen Sigan: It, for us, offered so much opportunity to see this character. We’re forcing her to cope with it because she would never stop seeing her sister. That would be her whole life. And I think even now it still is. Even off-screen in Episode 2, I imagine that character was still going to the prison and trying every day and calling and sending letters, but getting nothing back and putting her in a position where, OK, you have to look at your life and figure out a way that you move forward. And for her, so much of who she is and how she defines herself is based on her sister and the search for her sister.

Lori Allen/NBC

So now, without that, I think it’s this wonderful time for her to figure that out and ask some questions and explore some things. And we see her do that. I mean, the character is definitely built to be someone who I think is very uncomfortable sitting at home and thinking about things and feeling bad for herself and wallowing, and she’s not going to want to do that. So what we see is her being able to compartmentalize, still come to work every day and do really well at her job and then find ways to occupy the hours afterwards and ways that, I’m going to feel better. I’m going to force myself to feel better. Something is going to help. I’m going to distract myself. I’m going to find an escape. I’m going to find something I’m interested in. And so it’s this very active journey for her to try to discover something new and sort of reinvent a bit in the wake of everything that’s happened.

Talk about moving an agent into intelligence and how Voight’s going to deal with that — we already know he’s pissed — and what it means for the unit and just what those dynamics are like. Is there anyone who’s welcoming him at all?

[Laughs] Not really. There’s some who are nicer to him, but no, I don’t think any of them are excited about him being up there, and they definitely all know the threat. And I think the fun thing about Charlie, the FBI character, is he doesn’t necessarily present on page as a threat. Him as a person, he is very awkward. He’s kind of socially unaware. He’s somebody who speaks his thoughts out loud. He just doesn’t present in the way that usually this person would. And so it’s a bit disarming, and it’s hard to navigate, and the team is not really sure what to make of him. And even Voight is not completely sure what to make of him, which never happens for Voight. I feel like he’s very good at reading people; he’s very good at navigating people, and this guy poses a challenge. So it’s been very fun. The dynamic between them has been very fun and sort of writing those two in this dance of trying to figure each other out and their motivations with all of these stakes at play.

So is that the ongoing storyline when you’re looking at multi-episode storylines, it’s really like what’s going on there as opposed to a case or something?

Yeah, we’ve got it all. So there’s big bads in the world and in Chicago that we will be looking at serialized over the course of a few episodes, but also this interior threat, which is Charlie and he sticks around for a while as well. So Voight’s got stuff he’s battling on all fronts this year.

And then he’s also having to say goodbye to a member of his unit because Atwater is leaving. He’s going off to the hospital at the end of the premiere. So are we going to see that moment in the hospital? Are you going to do a little jump in Episode 2 where they’re already home with the baby? How is that going to be?

We do a little bit of everything. Yeah, you get to meet the baby, you get to go home with them, you get to see that little family unit starting and what it looks like and the stress of it, but also the fun of it and the joy of it and how Atwater’s feeling. And then we do jump to him going back to work for the first time. So he’s taken a few weeks at home with the baby, at home with Tasha, and then we see what it feels like to go back to the job knowing, I have this wonderful family and this thing at home that now I have to also think about and that transition for him.

How much are we going to see great moments between Atwater and Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Atwater and Ruzek because those are two really big relationships for the show?

Yeah. Obviously, real estate, I always wish we had more of it, but we have such short little episodes now. So we do have moments we have a little bit for Burgess and Atwater. We get to see them together on screen quite a bit, and then we have some nice Ruzek and Atwater moments as well.

You’re going to be bringing someone new in after Atwater leaves because the unit’s going to need someone new. What can you say about that person?

Yeah, you’re definitely going to see some new faces. We will be running low. This is the smallest the unit has been in a minute, so we will have some new faces coming in and new ways that we’re working, and how they come into the unit’s really interesting, and that’s kind of all I’ll tease for now.

Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC