Sumith Prasad
The tenth season premiere of NBC’s police procedural series ‘Chicago P.D.’ sees the introduction of Patrick O’Neal, the new Chief of Police. Patrick and Hank Voight form an intriguing professional relationship, which gets tested when Hank gets involved in a sex-trafficking case against Patrick’s son Sean O’Neal. Hailey Upton gathers enough evidence against Sean and presents the same in front of Hank, who gives her all the resources to bring him to justice. In the ninth episode of the tenth season, Patrick, as a father and not as the police chief, involves in the predicament. Since the episode ends with a startling turn of events, the viewers must be alarmed about the character. Well, let us share everything we know about the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Chief Patrick O’Neal’s Fate
Yes, Chief Patrick O’Neal is dead. The ninth episode of the tenth season begins with the Intelligence Unit finding out whose skeleton Hailey and Kim Burgess find in Sean’s cabin. Since the woman died years ago and there isn’t any evidence to link her death with Sean, Hank fails to arrest him. Patrick confronts Hank about the latter’s investigation into his son. A determined Hailey finds a girl who was raped by Sean. Although her testimony isn’t enough to have a strong case against Sean, Hank gives Hailey permission to arrest him. Patrick intervenes again with Sean’s lawyer and gets his son out of the custody of Hank and his unit.
Hank acknowledges Patrick’s feelings and chooses not to fight back against his superior. Instead, he gives Patrick the entire case file so that the latter can go through them and understand why Hank has been persistent about locking Sean up for good. The next day, Hank and Hailey go to Patrick’s house to capture Sean, only to witness his dead body above Sean, who is nearly dead. Since the case file is scattered around Patrick’s table, it’s evident that he read it as Hank wanted.
Patrick must have realized that Sean is indeed a rapist and sex trafficker. All his life, Patrick has tried to look after Sean and failed. The realization that his son has threatened and destroyed the lives of several girls must have made Patrick believe that the same happened because he failed as a father. The guilt of such a belief must have led him to kill himself as well. If Sean gets arrested, Patrick doesn’t have anyone to live for. He also may not want to live and lead the force as the father of a serial rapist and sex trafficker. Since Patrick is dead, have we seen the last of Michael Gaston in the show? Let’s see.
Michael Gaston Has Left Chicago PD
Since Chief Patrick O’Neal dies in the ninth episode of the tenth season, the story arc of Michael Gaston’s character comes to an end, indicating that the actor seemingly left the show. Although there isn’t any official confirmation regarding the same yet, NBC had previously revealed that Patrick and Sean’s storyline will end with the ninth episode. Considering the unlikeliness of Patrick appearing in flashback scenes or dream sequences, we believe that we have seen the last of Gaston in the show. We can expect Hank to pay his respects to Patrick in the tenth episode of the season as well.
Gaston’s apparent exit from the show isn’t a surprise since the character was originally conceived to play an integral part in a storyline that would last only a few episodes. In a recent interview, showrunner Gwen Sigan compared Patrick’s storyline to the one of Hank’s informant Anna, which lasted only a part of the (ninth) season as well. In one of the upcoming episodes of the tenth season, we can expect the introduction of the next Chief of Police, who may play an integral role in the narrative of the rest of the season.
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