Warning! Spoilers ahead for Chicago PD season 10 episode 3.
Even before he fully left, Chicago PD has already set up Jay Halstead's (Jesse Lee Soffer) potential return next season. After eight years on the One Chicago police procedural, Soffer has ended his stint as one of the veteran members of Hank Voight's (Jason Beghe) Intelligence unit. While it was heartbreaking to see Halstead leave in Chicago PD season 10, the show has preemptively laid the groundwork for his possible comeback in the near future.
After building up the suspense, Chicago PD season 10 officially wrote out of the series Halstead in episode 3, "A Good Man." The troubled Intelligence detective, who was dealing with an identity crisis, decided to resign from the force and return to the army. It was a decision that he never discussed with the closest people in his life. In fact, his partner and wife only found out about it as he was packing for his overseas mission, while Voight made it just in time to catch him at the airport.
Despite Halstead's Chicago PD exit, the good news is that the show has also already set up his eventual return. As he explained his plan to Upton, his stint in Bolivia leading a team going after cartels will only last around eight months. From there, he promises that he will be back, and they will reunite. In an effort to address his identity crisis, he needs to get away from Intelligence, but it will just be a temporary separation. That means that he could be back stateside sometime in Chicago PD season 11 — if NBC decides to renew that show. The fact that Upton and Halstead are staying together throughout this difficult period is proof that Halstead is committed to returning home in the Dick Wolf-produced series. Perhaps, it's also the reason why he didn't even bid his brother, Will Halstead, (Nick Gehlfuss), and the rest of Intelligence goodbye.
Will Halstead Really Return To Chicago PD?
Despite Halstead's promise, the chances of him returning to Chicago anytime soon are very slim to none. Soffer has officially exited Chicago PD and there are no plans to bring him back in the foreseeable future. Fully knowing this, it's curious why NBC opted to give his character an open ending with a clear set-up for him to return. One show in the Chicago franchise previously did this when Jesse Spencer's Matt Casey exited Chicago Fire in season 10. Instead of cutting all of his ties to the Windy City, the franchise opted to keep his and Sylvie Brett's (Kara Killmer) relationship for quite a while until they ultimately broke up in the Chicago Fire season 11 premiere. If things pan out similarly for Chicago PD, Halstead and Upton's potential break-up would also happen off-screen, which is kind of a cop-out.
The police procedural has lost several major players in its eight-year run on Chicago PD. Aside from Al Olinsky (Elias Koteas), who tragically died in prison, everyone else has the opportunity to come back any time, but none of them has even visited Chicago. At the very least, Halstead got a farewell episode, unlike Jon Seda's Antonio Dawson whose exit didn't even play out on screen.
Chicago PD season 10 airs Wednesdays on NBC.