What happened to Ruzek in the Chicago PD Season 11 premiere? (Did he die?)

Throughout the whole summer and fall, we’ve had one question about Adam Ruzek. Would be survive the gunshot in the Chicago PD Season 10 finale?

Caution: This post contains spoilers from the Chicago PD Season 11 premiere.

The Chicago PD Season 11 premiere opened up six months after the events of the Season 10 finale. We had Voight driving to work with flashbacks of things that happened in the finale with Ruzek getting shot.

Trudy had us worried for a minute. She made it clear that Voight had to fill Ruzek’s spot. What did that mean? Did that mean Ruzek had died, or was Voight just holding the spot open while Ruzek was able to return? If it was the latter, why would Trudy push so hard to fill the spot?

Is Ruzek in Chicago PD Season 11?

It was good news quickly after that in the Season 11 premiere. We saw Ruzek running up to Atwater. It’s clear that Atwater was timing him, and he wasn’t impressed with his coworker. Ruzek is too slow.

The good news is Ruzek has been cleared to return to work. The bad news is that he’s not fit enough to get back to work, and that’s what he’s now working on. It’s clearly going to be a long journey, giving us a real look at what the recovery process is like for some.

This could also lead to some problems between Ruzek and Burgess. We saw Burgess quickly return to work after being shot and almost dying. Ruzek mentioned that his pride is hurt by not getting back into shape quickly enough, and he may feel like Burgess is judging him even though we know she wouldn’t. He’ll just put a lot of pressure on himself.

At least we have Ruzek around. Now we need to see if he’ll keep his place on Intelligence.

Chicago PD Season 11 airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC. Catch up the following day on Peacock.