When does Sophia Bush’s fan favorite detective Erin leave ‘Chicago PD’, and what were the dramatic BTS disputes that saw her jump ship?

The Chicago franchise has become something of a television juggernaut for NBC, with all four shows giving audiences characters that they can become invested in and grow attached to as the seasons go on.

In Chicago PD, Erin Lindsay was a firm fan favorite when the show started and stayed that way until her sudden departure after season four. Her final episode, Fork in the Road, sees her forced to take a job with a special narcotics unit in New York due to pressure piling on due to family mistakes and mounting trouble with Internal Affairs.

Erin, played by Sophia Bush, was a solid character who played an important role in the show. She did a good job trying to fit in with the habitual line-crossing that goes with being in Frank Voight’s unit while also giving viewers a character struggling to hold on to her own sense of self and morality rather than just getting lost in the flood.

Erin gave us a character to root for, someone we wanted to listen to her better angels and felt the sting each time she allowed herself to cross the line with the justification that she needed to get the job done any way she could.

As the show went on and things got more serious, Erin began to lose herself more and more, so, from a character perspective, it’s likely a good thing that she made it out of Chicago. We can hope that Erin went on to a steadier life and left the past behind her.

The sad news is that it was also a good thing for Sophia Bush, as well. While sometimes the stars of shows leave to move on to other things, Bush decided to part ways with Chicago PD because of a terrible on-set atmosphere that she no longer wanted to deal with.

Appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast, Bush said that she programmed herself to “tolerate the intolerable” and eventually got to the point where she no longer wanted to be a part of a show that was bad for her and had to make a positive change in her life.

While Bush never mentioned anybody as being the source of the workplace toxicity that would eventually drive her away, a short time after she left the show her co-star Jason Beghe was forced to apologize for his behavior after other actors complained about him. In his statement, Beghe said he has been working with a coach to help him learn how to control his anger issues. While neither has ever publicly acknowledged the connection, it would seem likely that Bush leaving and Beghe’s on-set strops were connected.

Hopefully, Sophia Bush has found calmer sets that are more conducive to creativity and a pleasant work environment, and whoever was responsible for creating such a toxic workplace in Chicago PD has learned that the world doesn’t revolve around them.