Chicago PD boss explains big Olinsky decision
Al Olinsky, as played by Elias Koteas, is gone from the show. This isn’t the sort of series that is going to revive the character or have him wander around in zombie form, so with that, we have to just accept the fact that he is gone. There’s obviously a big question still out there, though, and it’s simple: Why? Is it something that Koteas wanted? Judging from what show executive producer Rick Eid told Us Weekly, it stems more from a creative decision:
“It just evolved from a story telling perspective. Once we started down the road of Woods and Voight going at each other, Bingham’s body being recovered and Olinsky’s DNA being found on that body, we started playing it out to its creative, dramatic conclusion, it just felt like an interesting way to wrap up that storyline … I think the real creative idea behind it all was that we felt like Voight killing Bingham needed to ultimately, cost him something. There needed to be a consequence to what he did. We thought that possibly losing his best friend became this interesting idea that we all graduated toward. We could see this long arc playing out in that direction.”
Were there other things that the writers could have done here? We imagine so, given that they could have almost killed Olinsky and had him go off somewhere else. Or, Voight could’ve just been arrested. We understand the logic here insofar that Olinsky living and Voight not going to prison isn’t much punishment for Hank for some of what he did. There needed to be a way for him to pay the piper for murdering Bingham and getting his revenge for his son’s death. This was a way to do that and still have Voight leading the team. We love Koteas and appreciate everything he did with the show; that’s the part that makes this difficult, especially since he had so much more to give the series.
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