Chicago PD - Big Friends Big Enemies - Review

I’ll be honest, this week’s episode of Chicago PD wasn’t my favorite. While it’s not necessarily fair to compare it to Chicago Fire, I obviously can’t help but do just that. Chicago Fire has always struck a perfect balance between the personal and professional lives of its characters. My biggest complaint with Chicago PD has always been that the procedural “case of the week” heavily outweighs the serial aspect. With all that carried over from the season finale, the first few weeks of this season did a pretty good job evening out the balance. But this week, it felt like we fell back almost entirely to the procedural. Anyway, let’s get into this week’s case.

“It’s the south side of Chicago. Murder’s always free here.”

While working overtime, Ruzek and Lindsay find themselves trying to contain a shooting outside a theater. Atwater finds a badly-injured boy, Terrell, who was the target of the shooting. The team doesn’t know that at first, and they call in additional help (like the FBI) as initial signs point to terrorism. Later evidence makes the case appear to be the start of a gang war. Yikes. As more shooting breaks out, it’s clear rival gangs are going at it.

Thanks to predictive analytics, the team is somehow able to predict which people are at risk and who might be a risk. Burgess and Tay come across Atwater’s brother Jordan, who is friends with a potential risk. No! Jordan says he’s not involved, and I believe him. But he might be hanging out with wrong people, and I hope that doesn’t have dangerous consequences for him. He has a great role model in his brother and a fierce protector in Burgess, so hopefully Jordan keeps out of trouble.

Though Terrell makes it out of surgery, there was too much damage. This sparks another potential gang retaliation, and if not prevented, could spiral out of control. The saddest piece of the whole case is that it’s actually a third party instigator, another gang. Voight knows who to pressure, though, and the team does find the original shooter. And this gang’s shooter was just a middle school kid! Just heartbreaking. But perhaps more importantly, they seem to have put a stop to the warring gangs.

For an episode that was intended to give Atwater a bit of the spotlight, I expected more. Atwater had some great moments during the hour, like the closing scene with his younger siblings. But it feels like his character has been put in a box by the writers, which is a shame. When the show first started, I found Atwater to be boring and one-dimensional. Through his partnership with Burgess, his guardianship over his siblings, and his hilarious pairing with Ruzek, Atwater has become such an enjoyable character to watch. The spotlight is frequently given to Voight, Lindsay, and Halstead, which I have no problem with given that they are the leads. It’s a bit rarer for the secondary characters to receive the spotlight, so I expect a lot when they do (like Platt’s episode last week). I suppose I just wanted more Atwater than we got in this Atwater “centric” episode (if you can even call it that). I did appreciate Voight’s sentiment to Atwater at the end of the hour, “I’m glad you’re in my unit, Kevin.”

Elsewhere…

Oh, what to make of the new Mouse. She’s the new Mouse, right? I’d still prefer to keep Mouse, obviously, but I can’t deny Jenny was entertaining. She’s a little awkward and a lot annoyed with Ruzek’s limited computer analytics knowledge. Jenny is also a bit taken with Voight, as she’s read numerous files on him during her time in Internal Affairs (aka the Ivory Tower). His response? He whispers, “They’re all true,” as he passes her. The look on her face was priceless.

Ruzek and Lindsay have such a fun relationship that resembles that of a brother and sister. The banter at the start of the hour was one of my favorite moments of the show. For a team that works so closely together, we don’t often see their lives off the job. Lindsay and Ruzek are friends? Like friends who hang out? I wouldn’t have known.

It seems like the beginning of the end for Antonio in the Intelligence unit. At the crime scene, he mutters that he’s “seen too much of this.” Normally, a comment like that wouldn’t signal a character’s impending departure, but because we already know he’s leaving and Olinsky later brought up the comment, I’m wondering if this is laying the groundwork for Antonio’s upcoming career change. I also couldn’t help but notice the intentional camera shot of Antonio’s face as the shooter, a middle school kid, was being cuffed. As a father of two (one, a boy, who isn’t much younger than middle school age), that couldn’t have been easy to see and might factor into his move.

Line of the night: Olinsky nonchalantly comments on Antonio’s suspect takedown

“Quite the nice hook there, Antonio.”

Number of beards Voight forcefully grabbed: two

What did you think of the episode? Was Atwater’s spotlight satisfying? What will lead Antonio to make his career change? Share your thoughts below!

About the Author - Meghan Reynolds

A Colorado native, Meghan was born a raised a Denver Broncos fan. Aside from football, she loves television and some might say watches too much of it. Some of her favorite shows of the past and present include Galavant, Blindspot, The Office, Veronica Mars, The 100, and Gilmore Girls. She reviews Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med for SpoilerTV.

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