I don’t know how much more my Burzek heart can take. After Makayla was kidnapped, I was worried that Adam Ruzek and Kim Burgess might not be able to come back from that. It turns out my concerns were valid.
‘Adrift’ starts with Adam (Patrick John Flueger) coming home at 7 p.m. because that’s when he thought family dinner was. But Kim (Marina Squerciati) said it was 6 p.m. Chuck it up to miscommunication. Kim didn’t even want to talk about what their therapist told them to talk about because she was tired. You could feel how bad the situation was. ‘Adrift’ was a fitting title because they have drifted apart. They went from the status of the relationship complicated to not being able to look at each other. It’s no wonder Ruzek was okay with going undercover on a case. They seemed to communicate better that way.
Adam needed this case. It opened up his eyes, even if it didn’t do any good in the end. But more on that later. His English teacher found him playing poker with the guys at the bar, basically avoiding going home. His former teacher’s daughter, Olivia Pasquazi (Rylee Marshall), had been missing for two months. And she was a drug user. This teacher meant a lot to Adam, so, of course, he agreed to help. He didn’t need to start looking for her at midnight, but just another excuse to not go home. All the signs were pointing to a bad ending for Burzek in this episode, but I still had hope things could turn around.
Adam found Olivia in the dorms overdosing while two other students were ODing too. Things got worse when he found out that Olivia had been a runner for a dealer that narcotics had been after. He was just trying to find a lost girl and ended up with a case. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) wasn’t too happy with Ruzek going off on his own to discover three ODs and a case, but, of course, Hank took the case. Sometimes Chicago PD gives us interesting ways to find a case instead of just being called to a scene.
The case was pretty intense, with Olivia testing the product while Adam was trying to make a deal with the dealer, Donald Wade (Nathan Wallace). She wasn’t ODing, but she was too high to do her job. Luckily, Wade took the bait, but as mentioned earlier in the episode, he’s paranoid because his second in command got arrested. He’s rightfully paranoid, but I wasn’t sure what would happen when Wade was accusing Adam of being a cop. Ruzek said all the right things and dodged being forced to take the product. It was cut with fentanyl, so taking it could mean Adam’s death. However, he had no choice when Wade had his gun in Olivia’s mouth. At first, I thought he faked taking it, but then you saw the powder and knew he had taken some.
As messed up as Olivia was, she was trying to help him. That was the same in the dorm. She gave the ODing student her Narcan when she was also ODing. Olivia still has a good heart. She just needs to get herself some help. Olivia ran to Adam’s truck to get his Narcan, and sadly Wade ran after her and found Adam’s police vest. It was already intense with Adam slowly passing out, but then Olivia fought Wade for her life and got shot.
There were no shootouts or car chases in this episode, and not even any fights, but it was still an intense episode. Trying to fight against time to save Adam from fentanyl is just as intense as any car chase, fight or shootout, if not more.
As Adam was passing out, he hoped that Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) would be within range of him, so he spoke aloud about where he was and said to tell Makayla that he loved her. Kim said. “hold on, Adam,” as she listened to him. Of course, they made it in time to save him, but the writers made you feel like they might not. Or at least made you feel like you were unsure.
I thought with how scared Kim was for Adam that they could work things out, especially when Adam said he didn’t want to die with everything being broken and he wanted to fix things. I genuinely thought that this was the path forward for them to work it out. But Kim said the new schedule for her and Makayla was working out. It broke my heart to see Adam in his undercover apartment at the end. Yeah, he didn’t react well when Makayla was taken, but that was out of love. Surely they can move past that.
I don’t know if there is a path forward for them. This may be the end of Burzek for a while. I hope Adam gets a propper apartment. They can’t make him live in the undercover place. That’s even more depressing, and all I want is good things for Ruzek.
How is your Burzek heart feeling after “Adrift?” Tweet me @PrimetimeDrama or @MantyTTCarr or comment below.
