Chicago PD Season 11: How Episode 12 Foreshadows Hailey Upton's Exit

Contains spoilers for "Chicago PD" Season 11, Episode 12 — "Inventory"

Hailey Upton (played by Tracy Spiridakos, who influenced her character's backstory) is definitely in a bad way as "Inventory" dawns. But to be fair, she hasn't been doing that well during Season 11 of "Chicago PD" in general. Still coping with her divorce from Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), she has taken to long, punishing morning runs to silence the accusatory voices in her head driving her along, but she's still miserable when she goes home every night. She's pushing herself to the point of exhaustion, and that sort of behavior's bound to have consequences. It takes Josephine Petrovic (Bojana Novakovic) finally entering rehab for her secret drinking habit for Hailey to reapply herself in a different way. Unfortunately, throwing herself headlong into her work has mixed results, and may result in both Hank Voight's (Jason Beghe) doom and the failure of her career.

All of the labor she puts into tracking down Frank Mattson (Dennis Flanagan), a serial killer who's been plaguing the city, finally pays off when she gets a name. Mattson, introduced at the start of the season, has been harmlessly working at the station's lock-up for months. Unfortunately, Hailey's positive ID isn't fast enough to save Hank, who's drugged at a local bar by Mattson and captured. With Spiridakos set to leave the series this season, there needs to be a proper exit for Hailey, and the plotline definitely leaves the door open for something terrible to happen to Hank — something that could be blamed on Hailey in a life-changing way.

Should something serious happen to Hank Voight, Hailey Upton's sleeplessness might be called into question, as well as her tendency to burn the candle at both ends. It's possible she might have missed some minor detail that would have brought in Voight's assailant more quickly. She could be fired and thus leave Chicago in disgrace — or worse, die in the line of duty to save Hank's life. It's even possible that she'll blame herself for not being quick enough on the uptake regarding Mattson's behavior.

NBC isn't giving up any hints as to what the drama's season finale has in store. The preview for the final episode of Season 11, "More," indicates that there's trouble ahead for Hailey. It references a big choice lying ahead, presumably one that will force her to choose between life on the force and some other career or locale. In any event, Hailey will be gone after this episode, and both the force and fans alike will have to deal with her leaving the show. Hailey's future will come down to next Wednesday night, for better or for worse.