Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14 recap: Ruzek gives Zoe her life back
NBC's Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14, titled Marie aired on February 26, 2025. The latest episode of the police procedural drama takes forward the storyline of the Intelligence Unit pursuing an elusive serial killer named Thomas Cronin, which started in episode 10.
The Intelligence Unit's investigation reveals that Cronin has a pattern of getting romantically involved with single mothers, isolating them, then killing his new family and fleeing. However, he always takes a child named Zoe with him, claiming she is his biological daughter. In episode 10, Cronin runs away without Zoe but returns in episode 14 to kill her foster family and kidnap her.
Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14 focuses on Adam Ruzek and his team trying their best to find Zoe, and they succeed by the end. After Zoe is safely rescued, an ancestry test uncovers her true identity, and she is taken in by her biological grandmother. Ruzek is able to give Zoe her life back, and despite the challenges, Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14, ends on a good note.
Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14: Cronin’s return and Zoe’s reunion with her family
In Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14, the serial killer Thomas Cronin resurfaces, and the Intelligence Unit races against time to prevent him from committing any more crimes. The only survivor and witness of Cronin's crimes, 8-year-old Zoe, was placed in a foster home in episode 10. However, her sense of security is short-lived when her foster mother, Sandy, notices a suspicious car circling their block and calls Detective Ruzek.
By the time he arrives, Sandy is brutally stabbed to death, and Zoe is missing. A witness from the neighborhood describes the getaway vehicle, and the van is eventually found, but there is no one inside. However, Ruzek finds a piece of paper where Zoe had written “my name is Zoe” and “help,” indicating that she is taken against her will and needs to be rescued.
With Ruzek's father's help, the team discovers that Cronin is receiving medical treatment under an alias at a VA hospital. Cronin is arrested at a warehouse near the hospital, but he refuses to give up Zoe's location. After Voight agrees to take the death penalty off the table, Cronin gives them Zoe's location but it turns out to be false. By the time the team gets back to Cronin, he has killed himself.
Luckily, Ruzek finds another note from Zoe, which reads "mote," short for motel. Ruzek and the team storm the abandoned motels nearby and find Zoe, terrified but unharmed. With Cronin dead, Zoe is finally safe, but she spent most of her life under the belief that Cronin was her father. When Intelligence ran her DNA through an ancestry database, it led them to her biological grandmother, Amy.
Zoe's real name was Marie, and Amy had been searching for her granddaughter ever since her daughter, Cronin’s first victim, disappeared. Marie was now in safe hands, bringing a conclusion to Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14.
Ruzek makes a difficult decision concerning his father in Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14
In Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14, while handling the Zoe case, Adam Ruzek is confronted with the painful reality of his father’s worsening Alzheimer’s. Famously known as Disco Bob, his father was once a respected cop but is now struggling to remember basic details of his own life.
In the midst of the Thomas Cronin case, Bob provides a key insight that helps Ruzek. One of Cronin's fake IDs was of a veteran, and Bob figures out that Cronin must be using veteran hospitals for treatment under fake identities, ultimately leading to a major break in the case.
However, Bob’s breakthrough does not come without complications; he shows up unannounced at the precinct, reads confidential case files, and struggles to differentiate the past from the present. He tells Ruzek that the lead in the case is Jackson Street but forgets his own theory by the time they get there. Ruzek gets to know his father's deduction once he reads Bob's notepad after going back home.
By the end of Chicago P.D. season 12 episode 14, Ruzek realizes that he can no longer provide the level of care his father needs and makes the decision to place Bob in a specialized facility. This comes as a painful but necessary choice for Ruzek, and fans can look forward to seeing how he navigates his personal life in the coming episodes.
Stay tuned for more updates on Chicago P.D. season 12.
