Sometimes, a show dangles a powerful storyline that is bound to change its direction but then abruptly recalls it, and one can’t help but feel highly disappointed. That happened with Noah Gorman (Bobby Hogan) in Chicago P.D. Season 11.
Chicago P.D. — and the wider One Chicago universe — is not known for its strong queer representation. Chicago Fire did a decent job in the early seasons, but it hasn’t been the same in recent seasons.
In Chicago Med, queer characters have popped up here and there, but they haven’t been around long enough since they usually are patients.
Chicago P.D. exists in a different plane altogether and is the worst with queer representation.
So when the show finally appeared like it might course correct in Season 11, it was exciting.
However, as the storyline progressed, it became clear that it was not aiming for representation, and when the arc finally ended, it became clear that it was exploitation.
Voight Finds Noah
The season’s tone changed, with the writers focusing on the darkness of the cases Intelligence worked on.
One of the darkest cases, which extended throughout the season, was that of a serial killer.
Intelligence Unit learned that there was a serial killer out there targeting people, and upon further investigation, they discovered that there was something very sinister about the serial killer.
He targeted people who had a great connection and relished seeing them both suffer as they watched someone they loved die in front of them.
Voight (Jason Beghe) found evidence that someone had been kidnapped after watching footage of the event happening, and he became fixated on finding the kidnapped before they were killed.
When he finds Noah, a scene from a horror movie meets him. Noah had his eyes stapled open as he was forced to watch someone else get murdered. It was one of the most disturbing images ever portrayed on the show.
Anyone who saw that will be haunted by it for the rest of their lives.
Who Was Noah?
The team would learn that Noah had left home because his religious family had kicked him out for being gay.
Noah had been surviving in Chicago alone and was caught unaware the night he was kidnapped.
The show did a great job of condemning Noah’s circumstances because of how his family treated him. They made it clear that anyone who disowns their child for being gay doesn’t deserve them—one point for that.
When he arrived in Chicago, Noah had the luck to fall in love with another young man called Paul, and that was what the killer — later revealed to be a member of the police force — singled him out for.
Noah and Paul’s love was so pure that the killer, Frank Matson, wanted to enjoy seeing them suffer while watching the love of their life die.
Voight and his team interrupted the ritual before Matson could complete it.
The next several weeks were hell on earth for Noah as he tried to move on from the traumatic experience while healing the physical wounds.
Voight took Noah in after he was discharged from the hospital because he reminded Voight of his late son, Justin.
‘Chicago P.D.’ Develops a Bond Between Noah and Voight
Viewers wanted to see Voight rise from the darkness that had consumed him as he worked some of Chicago’s worst cases.
Having Noah gave him purpose and something positive to look forward to after a long day.
Noah’s pureness, which the world sought to exploit, reminded him so much of Justin, and it seemed like Voight would finally begin to heal with Noah.
Eventually, the show killed off the character as the killer tricked him by being told that Paul was in danger and Noah wanted to save him.
‘Chicago P.D.’ Treated Noah’s Gay Arc As Creative Fodder
Needless to say, the story has an impact, but that’s not the kind of impact you want to make on your audience.
Cishet characters heavily dominate broadcast. It has been like that since forever. The broadcast audience doesn’t have enough queer stories to develop a broad understanding of Queer people.
Chicago P.D. decided to exploit queer trauma for entertainment. That is not a bad thing necessarily, but when your show has one Queer character, you can’t afford the luxury. The biggest issue with tokenism is that it doesn’t allow for variety.
There’s only so much you can tell with one character.
The show utilized some of the worst tropes found in queer characters, from young gay men rejected by family to fetishized queer existence and the ultimate tragedy — queer death.
It confirmed what Noah’s family — and some audience members — believe: that being gay is a tragedy and gay people cannot have happy endings. Noah and Paul were in love, but what did that get them? A gruesome death and staging of the same.
It’s worth reiterating that there are issues unique to being queer, but that’s not all there is. A consistent reinforcement of the same makes for bad representation and portrayal.
What a Missed Opportunity
Noah had huge dreams, but he had barely begun to explore them.
There was so much potential in the arc, especially with Voight. It was an opportunity to give the old man a break and start offering light in his life.
Noah’s death served to traumatize Voight more as it was repeatedly made clear that he shouldn’t grow attached to people because they’ll always leave him.
Wouldn’t it have been nice to see Noah he’ll under Voight’s care and maybe pursue his dreams or follow in Voight’s footsteps?
Having the character for a while would have fixed a glaring issue on the show. There are no gay people in Chicago P.D. — and One Chicago could use more of main ones.
With several actors leaving in the past few years, the show would have gotten another character who the audience liked and wanted to see for a long time.
Hogan delivered, and in the short time he shared the screen with Beghe, they had insane chemistry.
Yeah, well, just the musings of one disappointed viewer.