TV Review: Chicago PD Season 1 Episode 3 "Chin Check"

Chin Check is here. It turned out a little different than I anticipated. Let us get into it.

First, the main procedural story. It involved the group discovering "cop killer" teflon tipped bullets at what was supposed to be a drug deal.

They trace the insulin packaging that was going to be used, and end up finding a dead distributor.

After they interrogate what turns out to be a lying wife, they nail down the family member who is actually dealing the long guns with a sting operation. It was quite a cinematic sequence with so many automatic weapons firing.

I applaud the show for what I believe is a conscious effort to not have any "can you account for your whereabouts" and other cliche cop dialogue. So it was good for what it was - a procedural story just like many of the calls on Chicago Fire. There's a certain ceiling that you can hit with procedural elements, and Chicago Fire and Chicago PD certainly hit them.

However these stories pale in comparison to the character serialized stories. So that's what I like to concentrate on.

Let's look at the character stuff. Burgess and Atwater had a humorous story with three flight attendant friends of Burgess visiting and Atwater fawning over them. Still self-contained, so that doesn't count.

Since Antonio and his family were featured heavily in the first two episodes, he was rather light with character stuff this week. His wife sprung on him that she wanted to meet his hooker CI who we met the last episode using the "if nothing is happening you have nothing to hide" argument. It came off as pretty uncharacteristic of a cop wife who should have a pretty clear idea of what kind of relationships Antonio has to keep. So I felt a certain way about her.

It turned into a situation where Antonio had to invite the CI to dinner without telling her because she would have never showed up. However in the end it turned out to be a sweet moment with the wife actually wanting to give her a small gift for helping get their son back.

The CI/Hooker's response "No one's wife has ever thanked me before" made me laugh as well. Textbook sweet moment that people who watch Chicago Fire would know quite well.

Ruzek this week kept getting bugged to see his counselor after the shooting incident that took place. He eventually saw her and continually assured the counselor he was fine.

The more interesting interaction took place later, during his engagement party with his fiancee when he told her what he really does for a living.

Now that she's aware, I expect her to act a lot like I thought Antonio's wife was acting - very hypercritical of Ruzek's actions and choices.

Jay has a small scene where he celebrated what turned out to be a deceased person's birthday at a house, and then camped outside a house which upset a man in his 30's and his father. Apparently the man in his 30's murdered the girl who would have been fifteen, and apparently gotten away with it. The father threatened to sue, which turned things into a shouting match.

It was an interesting little nugget.

I could imagine all sorts of scenarios especially with Jay's last line which was something like "I'll give you something to sue about!" I could see Jay going to Voight and having him help plant evidence or something like that.

The possibilities with this one are quite endless so it'll be interesting to see if that picks up later on down the line.

Lindsay has two little stories planted in this episode. Severide shows up after Katie has been missing for 16 hours, and is particularly upset by the lack of results. This of course is the continuation of the cliffhanger from the last Chicago Fire episode. The story did not continue past Lindsay reassuring Severide. Apparently it'll continue in the next Chicago Fire episode when it comes back from a long break.

Basically, more complicated than I thought they would attempt. I'm excited to see if they can pull it off.

It must be a logistical nightmare. Since there is at least one Chicago PD episode airing before Chicago Fire gets back, it'll be interesting to see if they mention it or not. That might be too complicated.

The other small story involves Lindsay and Voight. Voight's son who was put in jail during his arc on Chicago Fire, was set to be released. The only person Voight told was Lindsay, which furthered my interest in their close relationship. However when the son was set to be released, Voight couldn't be there.

It was interesting to see Lindsay not be afraid to stand up to Voight even though she owes him so much. Lindsay instead met the son when he was released.

He was a creep as suspected, and kissed Lindsay trying to hit on her. Hopefully he messes up again and goes away for longer. I hope Lindsay crosses back over on Chicago Fire to conclude the Katie kidnapping story.

Voight does the majority of the heavy lifting in this episode. Which is fine - he's easily the most magnetic and polarizing character on the show. And with a particularly strong cast with no weak link, that is saying a lot.

The major story involved D'Anthony, the small kid from the earlier episodes that he helped save. He has come back and told Voight he was being initiated into doing a hit for the gang.

Voight goes to the gang and offers a get out of jail free card in exchange for D'Anthony being out. The gang leader instead insists on 10,000 dollars.

This of course doesn't sit well with Voight. He and Olinsky kidnap the leader and bring him to an undisclosed location. After they rough him up they tell him D'Anthony is out of the gang, and he gets nothing now for it. What is interesting is Voight visited Maurice, the gangster who pays him off for information, and got 5k from him before he and Olinsky kidnapped the leader.

He very easily could have gotten an advance on the next payment and get the leader the money. It was a very character move to not let the gang leader dictate terms.

So instead he roughs the guy up, meets with D'Anthony and his mom at the end of the episode (hence the inability to meet his son) and gives the mother the 5k as some starter money.

A very morally gray robin hood type of move.

This of course intertwines with his deal with the IA officer building the case against Maurice. Maurice ironically tells Voight that the state attorney told him someone is going to flip. Voight of course plays dumb.

Voight has to play dumb later with the IA handler when she demands the money that Maurice usually gives Voight, that Voight gave D'Anthony's mother instead.

He has to lie, and then promise to bring Maurice down in two weeks. It'll be interesting to see if he can pull it off without being outed as the rat like Cruz's brother in Chicago Fire.

Overall a strong episode. I hope this trend continues and Chicago PD can solidify itself alongside Chicago Fire as a perfect sibling show.

With enough daring crossover stories where the audience will have to go to Chicago Fire and back to keep up, they just might get there faster than expected.

Chicago Fire is on a break, but it looks like Chicago PD is back at least next week. See you then.

Photo Credit: spoilersguide.com