TV Review: Chicago PD Season 1 Episode 2 "Wrong Side of the Bars"

Chicago PD picks up right from the cliffhanger at the end of the pilot. Let's get into it.

The main story revolves around getting Antonio's kid back in one piece. Through a CI, Antonio is able to track down where the video of his son asking to be traded for the cartel member they captured was filmed.

(On a side note, I loved the part where it was in Spanish and Voight asked for a translation, with Lindsay's response: "scream and we cut your tongue out").

They see the guy at the end of the hall and a foot chase ensues.

I really like the cinematography done in every episode.

The handheld run and gun style really works for a cop show like this.

Because of the fact that they cross-pollinate not only stars but directors as well, there is a lot of familiarity and because of that a lot of comfortability when watching it.

Instead of cutting out his eye like Voight wanted, Antonio has him handcuffed and beaten on a fence at the station later after Antonio's wife tells him to do whatever it takes. They get a name.

This finds them searching Union Station. I appreciate the show actually shooting there - not some crappy green screen.

Lindsay tracks the man keeping Diego getting on a bus and has to get on before it takes away. Antonio gets with bus personnel at Union Station and gets in contact with the driver. They set up the plan.

The plan would be for the driver to pump the brakes hard, and give off the impression that their bus broke down, which she does. Antonio and Voight set up a sniper perch, and Olinsky and Ruzek drove a backup bus. They have everyone file off, and Lindsay strikes up a fake conversation with the driver as the guy with Diego gets closer. Eventually he eyes Lindsay looking at him and Ruzek staring because he's just in the academy and figures it out.

Que the gun drawing and yelling. Ruzek gets in the 2nd bus and tells Lindsay to hold on, before ramming the bus separating Diego from the kidnapper. Lindsay pulls Diego out of the way and Antonio shoots the kidnapper.

What I don't get is why Lindsay faked the conversation with the driver. I get it, being a barrier to the rest of the passengers, but why not just play along long enough for them to step off the bus and have the kidnapper tackled by Olinsky and Ruzek? From a writing standpoint, I get the whole raising tensions thing with the standoff. I just think the way it played out could have been avoided, or the "tipping" part could have been different where I don't see a way the cops could avoid it. But that's a minute detail.

Chalk it up to Ruzek staring I guess. I still think Ruzek or Olinsky could have ripped Diego away when they stepped off the bus, and the other one could tackle the kidnapper.

Lindsay would have been there to draw her gun on him if needed. Oh well.

We end with Voight getting full permission to run the unit like he wants. We got a "we are family speech", which was nice. It helped remind you why you root for a guy like this. The last scene is Voight meeting his IA handler telling her to wait for his signal to move in on a guy soon.

It's an interesting choice to give a seemingly no nonsense cop who hates being told what to do an IA handler. He must have done something bad to deserve it.

We will see. Apparently Voight got out of prison because a key witness ended up dead. Let's just say I'm intrigued...

As for personal stuff, there was a little of that. The majority of the episode was wrapping up Diego's kidnapping, so once we return to the regular police calls, I assume we'll get more personal stuff.

One of my favorites this episode was Olinsky trying to teach Ruzek to break up with his girlfriend who won't stop calling him on the job, because all the lying he has to do will kill it eventually.

It seemed pretty pedestrian until he came home and she started talking a million miles a minute, thinking Ruzek pushes papers all day.

There was some nice sound editing to go along with the actor's zoning out expression to really drive home the point that more often than not, these cops take their work home with them.

My favorite interaction continues to be between Lindsay and Voight. Her being the only one he seemingly has a real soft spot for, him being the one that Lindsay seemingly will follow to the ends of the earth for, etc.

While they were going through CI files, Lindsay ran across her old file. I paused it to read it fully. The crimes they had her committing were:

misdemeanor theft, simple battery, retail theft, solicitation, unlawful possession of cannabis.

So after Jay sees it and asked if Voight "turned her out" Lindsay gets kind of offended and tells him no, she volunteered to be a CI after Voight saved her life.

In a lot of ensemble shows, I find myself really invested in a certain storyline for whatever reason. Voight and Lindsay's history is the story on Chicago PD for me.

I'm really curious to see how the full story comes out. The moment where Voight comforts her shaking hands and tells her to put them in her pockets after the shooting was a sweet moment too.

After this big episode with really one major call, it'll be interesting to see if they adopt the same fast paced always moving, juggling story arc structure that has made Chicago Fire so good.

They have some options, so I'll be interested to see how they structure a "regular" episode.

Photo Credit: Examiner