Kim Burgess

Kimberly "Kim" Burgess is a fictional character from the American police procedural Chicago P.D., played by Marina Squerciati. She made her first appearance in the pilot episode "Stepping Stone", which was broadcast on NBC on January 8, 2014. Burgess was a patrol officer of the Chicago Police Department's 21st District. She also appears in a recurring role in Chicago Fire. As of season 4, she is an officer with the Intelligence Unit.

Kim Burgess
Marina Squerciati as Officer Kim Burgess
First appearance"Stepping Stone"
January 8, 2014
Created byMatt Olmstead
Portrayed byMarina Squerciati
In-universe information
GenderFemale
OccupationPolice officer
Former flight attendant
FamilyNicole Silver (sister)
Zoe Silver (niece)
Significant other
Children
  • Unborn child (miscarried)
  • Makayla Ward
    (foster daughter)
NationalityAmerican
Police career
Department Chicago Police Department
  • Intelligence Unit (S4–present)
  • Patrol (S1–4)
RankOfficer
Badge No.56686
Radio Code5021 Eddie

Casting

On August 28, 2013, Nellie Andreeva from Deadline Hollywood reported that actress Marina Squerciati had been cast in the regular role of Kim Burgess in Chicago Fire spin-off series Chicago P.D..[1] Burgess was initially billed as "a feisty, sassy former flight attendant-turned-cop whose beauty belies a formidable inner strength."[1] Following the conclusion of the first season, Squerciati was prepared to go back to her paralegal job, until NBC renewed Chicago P.D. for a second season.[2]

Squerciati took maternity leave from the show in March 2017, and Kim made her temporary departure in the season four episode "Last Minute Resistance".[3]

Development

Squerciati liked her character's "energy and happiness" and said, "I'm hoping that she maintains some of that joy. I think part of it is because she's green, but another part of it is because she's a driven, joyful person. She knows what she wants."[4] Squerciati liked that Burgess was not the perfect officer and made mistakes, as she found it very relatable.[5]

Burgess wanted to be promoted to the Intelligence Unit, but her partner Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) was promoted over her instead.[4] Squerciati was "taken aback" by the development and explained "when I read it, I went to executive producer Derek Haas and writer Michael Brandt and said, 'Are you kidding me? I didn't make Intelligence?' I kind of mixed up that I wasn't really Kim Burgess."[4] The incident made Squerciati realise that she had become protective of her character and was upset for her.[4] She also thought Burgess and Atwater's friendship would be tested by his promotion.[4] Sgt. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) later offered Burgess a promotion to Intelligence, but she turned it down. Squerciati commented that Burgess would question whether she had made a mistake and Squerciati hoped it was not a one-time offer.[5]

Storylines

In her fictional backstory, Burgess was a flight attendant for three years before joining the CPD Academy.[6] A native of St. Charles, she was born sometime in 1988.[7][8] Burgess started the series as a patrol officer and a potential candidate for Intelligence. She has a good partnership with former partner, Kevin Atwater. Both are constant targets of Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt's attitude. However, they are generally able to laugh it off after shift. When a woman is caught shoplifting bread to feed her son, Burgess pays for it and threatens the unyielding shopkeeper with fines for expired licenses. In a separate incident with a hoarder, Burgess discovers a kidnapped child hidden in the woman's basement.[9] Kim and Officer Adam Ruzek have a close working friendship, frequently spending time bantering at work. Adam even helps her get revenge on Platt, who treats Burgess and Atwater horribly.[10] After a particularly stressful call, Adam and Kim share a kiss. Kim regrets this almost instantly as Adam is engaged. However, after he breaks off his engagement, Kim and Adam begin a romantic relationship.[11] In season 2, after Atwater was transferred to Intelligence, she is partnered with Officer Sean Roman.

At the end of "Called In Dead", while Roman and his former partner were arguing outside, Burgess is shot in the shoulder by a shotgun shell connected to a trip wire, which was set as a trap and connected to the doorbell.[12] Upon investigation, in "Shouldn't Have Been Alone", it was learned that the house itself was booby trapped, and it was intended for police officers, by a murderer, Spencer York. She spent two weeks on administrative duty while nursing back to health. On her first shift back, she served as the district's desk sergeant while Platt rode with Roman.[13] After her shooting, Sgt. Voight offers her a promotion to Intelligence, but she declines in order to remain a patrol officer.

In "What Do You Do", Burgess and Roman (while on a meal break) respond to a suspicious activity in a warehouse, which was to be a drug deal, without calling for backup. She manages to kill a suspect with a shard of glass from a window on the floor. They manage to get out of there when Ruzek called her and she never answered, causing Intelligence unit to go into the warehouse to catch the suspect about to drive away. Her partner was seriously wounded during the ordeal. Kim makes it back to the precinct, complimented by Platt, and garnering a slow clap from a crowd of cops for saving her partner's life and taking down the suspects.[14]

In "There's My Girl", Burgess is promoted to Intelligence after Atwater is demoted following a suspect's suicide while in custody.[15] In "Born Into Bad News", she accepts Ruzek's offer of marriage when she discovers he has placed an engagement ring in her locker.

At the end of "Looking Out for Stateville" Kim calls off the wedding to Ruzek, in the very same place he proposed. In doing so, Burgess then applies for a transfer to a new district in "Hit Me" which Platt is very shocked and upset to her, surprisingly. Both Burgess and Ruzek feel devastated but try to hide it. During "Hit Me", Kim is involved in a car crash, which results Ruzek rushing to her side. She feels uncomfortable and finds an excuse to leave.

After Kim breaks up with Ruzek she starts to have feelings for her partner, Roman. This creates some tension between Roman and Ruzek.

In "Justice" Burgess is investigated for shooting a hooded man who opened fire on their patrol car whilst Burgess and Roman were kissing, when the man has no gun in his hand. The gun is however later found in the water.

Roman asks Burgess to go with him to San Diego; however, after realizing that this is what she wants to do, she decides to stay in Chicago.

In season 4 "The Silos" Burgess meets her new partner, Julie Tay. In "A War Zone", Officer Tay is reassigned to her old job after her Commander Fogel goes over Platt's head in revenge of what Platt did against Fogel. Then, in "Some Friend", Sorensen becomes Burgess's partner before resigning in "A Shot Heard Around the World" due to the stress of a targeted shooting of two police officers. Burgess is offered a job in the Intelligence Unit, which she takes.

At the beginning of her time in Intelligence, she clashed with her partner Alvin Olinsky, but she eventually earns his respect in "Sanctuary" when she saves his life by taking down a suspect who held him at gunpoint, breaking the suspect's arm in the process.

In "Little Bit of Light", Burgess' sister Nicole is in town and immediately clashes with Ruzek, before revealing to a stunned Burgess that she is getting a divorce. In "Last Minute Resistance", when her sister was found in the subway and also a victim of a brutal sexual assault, and her friend missing (later found dead from hypothermia in an abandoned parking lot); she took the case very personally and stopped at nothing to solve the case. It was revealed to be two men who had put Ketamine in women's drinks and taking advantage of them. When one of the men tries to sexually assault Burgess; she stabs him on a shoulder with a lipstick that had a knife in it, and then beats him. She took some time off to take care of her sister and her niece.

In "The Thing About Heroes", she mentored an officer named Frank Toma. When a terrorist attack happened at a street festival that claims many lives, he goes missing with many people convinced that he had something to do with it. While clearing his name, she disobeys orders to get evidence. When she was called to the lake by Frank Toma (knowing that there was nothing to be done) he commits suicide in front of her, leaving her distraught. It was soon discovered that a fellow officer and partner had contributed his problems even further prior to the investigation, when he found out that he was gay and Muslim. She vows to bring him down.

Also in season-5, she starts a relationship with federal prosecutor Matt Miller. Things get rocky in "Politics", when he becomes a subject of the investigation into a Ukrainian girl's death in the Senator's hotel. She has to choose between Voight's loyalty and her boyfriend. In "Monster", she reveals to Ruzek that he was still not talking to her, leaving their relationship uncertain.

In "Confidential", she gets her first confidential informant and when the informant reveals a possible murder which Burgess discounts but Upton pursues, revealing a corpse which ultimately leads to a prostitution ring. But when Burgess's informant ends up dead, Upton and Burgess butt heads on how to handle confidential informants. At the end of the episode, Burgess turns to her former lover Ruzek ending up getting a one-night stand.

In "Sisterhood", she reveals that her sister's attackers only received three years, with them only serving one year for good behavior. In "Homecoming", upon hearing that her former partner, Olinsky had died from his injuries sustained from the stabbing, she was distraught about the events that played out. And she was tasked by Voight to clear off Olinsky's desk. She soon went excessive when she slaps the wife of a drug runner when she refuses to cooperate.

In "Ride Along", she was requested by Deputy Superintendent Brennan to do a ride-along with the daughter, Kendra, of a VIP that wants to be a police officer. Things went sideways when she was involved in a shootout while on a call by Halstead to look for a car involved in a crime. Burgess leaves Kendra in the car while she goes to help a wounded victim; when she gets back, the girl is gone. Burgess later finds the girl at her mom's apartment. Voight sits Burgess down and urges her to tell the review board the truth in her hearing the next day. While looking for the shooter, she was summoned by Brennan into her office. In her office, Brennan tells Burgess not to follow Voight's advice; she is a “female hero” and that is good PR, so she should lie and claim Kendra was not there. Conflicted, Burgess decides to take Brennan's side, and tells the review board that she was alone in her patrol car during the shooting. It gets complicated when Burgess takes testimony from a witness who claims Kendra saw the shooter, which would then destroy her lie to the review board. She runs directly to Brennan, who then acts like she never said anything about omitting Kendra, and is “confident” Burgess can find a way out of the situation. With evidence assuring that Kendra saw the shooter, she appeals to Kendra's “make a difference” desire, and gets her to come down to the district for a photo lineup. She identifies Trent as the shooter. After finding and saving Trent's life, Burgess decides that she is going to return to the review board and tell the truth. Later on, Voight snaps at her for not taking his advice, after, she punches her locker in frustration. Platt drops by and tells her to not switch sides.

In "Ties that Bind", she, along with Upton, was kidnapped by gun buyers pretending to buy the cop killer bullets from them. They were eventually rescued by her team with Upton almost killing one of the captors. In "The Forgotten", she gets into an relationship with Superintendent Kelton's mayoral election aide, Blair Williams. Their relationship later ended in "What Could Have Been", when Blair was murdered meeting with his killer. The killer ended up being Ray Price's wife, Alicia Price, when she confessed to killing him to protect her daughter as Blair was attempting to blackmail into getting Ray to drop out of the race. Ray ended up taking the fall for her.

In "No Regrets", after being mildly injured on the job, Burgess learns that she is pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and Ruzek stands beside her. While temporarily working as a 911 dispatcher in "I Was Here", Burgess takes a call about a possible domestic violence incident. She follows the location of the call and finds a person has been murdered. She is physically assaulted by a sexual predator while saving the victim who made the 911 call, and she has a miscarriage.

Burgess becomes the guardian of Makayla Ward in season 8, a girl that she and Ruzek discovered walking in the streets after most of her family was murdered after her remaining relative is unable to handle the pressure of being a parent.[16][17][18]

Reception

Kate Stanhope from TV Guide observed, "You gotta hand it to Officer Kim Burgess of Chicago P.D. She has a real knack for sniffing out trouble. It's good for the residents of the Windy City, but bad for Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and, oftentimes, her partner Officer Sean Roman (Brian Geraghty)."[19] During her review of season 2 episode "What Do You Do", Lisa Casas for ScreenSpy praised Squerciati's performance, saying she "holds her own in an episode that was good enough, but didn't quite deliver the grit that we expect from PD."[20] The pairing of Burgess and Ruzek has become popular with viewers, who refer to the couple with the portmanteau "Burzek".[4]

Partners
  • Officer Kevin Atwater (Season 1)
  • Officer Delaney (Season 1, Episode 15)
  • Officer Sean Roman (Seasons 2 – 3)
  • Officer Julie Tay (Season 4, episodes 1 – 5)
  • Officer Mike Sorenson (Season 4, episodes 6 – 8)
  • Officer Frank Toma
  • Detective Alvin Olinsky (Season 4, Episode 9 – Season 5, Episode 2)
  • Detective Antonio Dawson (Season 5, Episode 3 – Season 6)
  • Detective Jay Halstead (Season 7, Episode 3)
  • Officer Adam Ruzek (Season 7 – present)

Appearances and crossovers

She often appears on Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, and made an appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

References
  1. Andreeva, Nellie (August 28, 2013). "NBC's 'Chicago PD' Adds Another Regular". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  2. Rackl, Lori (February 15, 2015). "Beaten, shot and now this: Burgess actress talks 'really intense episode' of 'Chicago P.D.'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on April 30, 2015. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  3. Wagner, Curt (4 April 2017). "Intense 'Chicago P.D.' sends Marina Squerciati off to baby leave". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  4. Pavlica, Carissa (May 20, 2014). "Marina Squerciati teases 'Chicago P.D.' finale, hopes for Kim Burgess' future". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  5. Gelman, Vlada (February 17, 2015). "Chicago P.D.'s Marina Squerciati Previews 'Frightening' Kidnapping, Possible 'Burzek' Engagement". TVLine. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  6. "Stepping Stone". Chicago P.D.. Season 1. Episode 1. January 8, 2014.
  7. "I Was Here". Chicago P.D.. Season 7. Episode 13. February 5, 2020. NBC.
  8. "What Do You Do". Chicago P.D.. Season 2. Episode 15. February 18, 2015. NBC.
  9. "Now Is Always Temporary". Chicago P.D.. Season 1. Episode 4. January 29, 2014.
  10. "Thirty Balloons". Chicago P.D.. Season 1. Episode 5. February 5, 2014.
  11. "A Beautiful Friendship". Chicago P.D.. Season 1. Episode 15. May 21, 2014.
  12. "Called in Dead". Chicago P.D.. Season 2. Episode 9. December 10, 2014.
  13. "We Don't Work Together Anymore". Chicago P.D.. Season 2. Episode 11. January 14, 2015.
  14. "What Do You Do". Chicago P.D.. Season 2. Episode 15. February 18, 2015.
  15. "There's My Girl". Chicago P.D.. Season 2. Episode 21. May 6, 2015.
  16. "In Your Care". Chicago P.D.. Season 8. Episode 5. February 3, 2021.
  17. "Tender Age". Chicago P.D.. Season 8. Episode 3. January 13, 2021.
  18. "Burgess Becomes the 1st Parent in Chicago P.D.'s Intelligence Unit: How Her Move Will Change Things". Us. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  19. Stanhope, Kate (February 13, 2015). "Exclusive Chicago P.D. Sneak Peek: Burgess Goes Looking for Trouble - And Boy, Does She Find It!". TV Guide. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  20. Casas, Lisa. "TV Review: It's the Burgess Show on Chicago PD's "What Do You Do"". ScreenSpy. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
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