Marina Squerciati on Burgess’ Detective Test, Ruzek Support

This week’s Chicago P.D. is one we’ve been waiting for: An officer is getting promoted to detective!

In the November 6 episode, “Pawns,” Burgess (Marina Squerciati) is put to the test as she looks to make an advancement in her career. “I think that it’s been a long time coming,” Squerciati tells TV Insider. “I think she’s really excited. I think she’s really nervous. When you want something so bad, do you kill it? I don’t know. I think she deserves it and hope she gets it.”

The good news is she has great support at home, from her fiancé Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger). “I know that Adam is generous as a partner and filling in at home more while she studies,” notes Squerciati.

Now that she’s going for her detective badge, Burgess’ eyes are opened to other aspects of the job that weren’t necessarily on her radar before. “Burgess is sort of put to the test with the politics and the dirt that she doesn’t realize how much Voight shields her from in the force that has sort of tainted or made other people grow to be stronger,” Squerciati reveals. “It could go both ways. and I don’t know that Burgess exactly knows how to deal with it quite yet.”

The star is right that this has been a long time coming; Burgess, Ruzek, and Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) have been officers for all 12 seasons. But as showrunner Gwen Sigan explained to us, when it came to that promotion, it was about coming up with the right story.

“It’s somebody I think who’s wanted it for a while and that it made a lot of sense for us,” Sigan shared in September. “In the [writers’] room, we’ve talked about that storyline for so long, but how do you make it a story? How do you make it interesting? How do you make it something that really reveals something about who this person is and is not just a piece of paper?”

The timing is also perfect: Another officer (Toya Turner‘s Cook) has joined Intelligence, there’s a need for a higher-ranking member, and the test has come up.

What are you hoping to see as Burgess goes for her detective badge? Let us know in the comments section below.

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