TV Review: Chicago PD Season 1 Episode 7 "The Price We Pay"

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Chicago PD picks up right with the cliffhanger from the last episode - Justin and his bloody hands in Lindsay's apartment. Let's discuss.

He initially tells Lindsay it was a bar fight. Sure. He gets skittish and leaves.

From there we watch as the real incident Justin was involved in gets discovered by the cops.

Turns out it's a former B+E crew leader and crime boss type of guy - who is a rival of Joesph Catalano's uncle. The same Joe Catalano that protected Justin while he was in jail.

There was a nice push of tension from all angles here for Voight. Not only was it a case involving his son, but the IA lady he meets with pressures him for a result after the constant dragging of his feet. After Voight visits with the uncle, Voight confronts Joe.

Joe plays his ace in the hole - claiming Justin was there to witness the murder.

That way if Voight had brought him down to the station, he would tell anyone who would listen about Justin's involvement. Which wouldn't be good for Voight or especially Justin, who Joe claims wouldn't last in prison without his protection.

I was glad Chicago PD didn't fall into the normal trap every other cop show has with surveillance videos. None of this "ZOOM IN, YES YES, ENHANCE, ENHANCE, GOT IT! The perp's text message says 43 Lincoln Street!"

Instead, Lindsay and Jay get the video footage from a Chicago PD pod near the crime scene, and can only make out the vehicle. However in the blurriness, they make out a construction site they later go to for their camera footage.

Soon the squad would find that Justin was the driver. The walls were closing in.

Before that happens, IA lady gets mad that Voight lies to her about knowing the rival crime boss. So much so, that she goes to Antonio to try and get him to flip.

Antonio doesn't flip, but instead uses her evidence to dive deeper into the case. This causes a temporary riff between Antonio and Voight.

Jin finally gets the security footage in on his extremely fake computer layout that was second only to Dexter Morgan's laptop in terms of unnatural computer setups. After Voight and Lindsay view it privately, they ID Justin as the driver. Voight leaves to confront Joe again who in turn threatens to have Justin stabbed in prison. Lindsay tracks Justin down and sits him down with Antonio, where Justin says he was forced at gunpoint to drive and dump the body.

Voight later comes in beyond angry only to find Antonio is honest about the IA's play to have him flip on Voight. He also reveals the IA's true target is Joe, and not Justin.

Then we see some cool "don't need further explaining" type of scenes where cops cover for their family - other cops.

Jay reads Lindsay's response enough to know what is going on, and Jin tells Lindsay he deleted the surveillance footage two hours before her request to do so - reading into Voight's "we'll call you if we need you" comment from earlier when the footage first came in.

Antonio's decision to have selective memory loss was explained at the end of the episode, where it turns out he has a history with the IA lady. She is a ladder climber, and turns out pressed hard on some routine small charges against Antonio's ex partner.

The partner ended up losing his pension for his family, and he eventually committed suicide.

It was a pretty telling scene to watch, where Antonio really drew the line in the sand when it comes to how different regular cops feel IA cops are.

They will never have that family type atmosphere like most cops do, and therefore will always butt heads with them.

Meanwhile Jin and Antonio head to a body being recovered from a river, only to find it is Joe, and Voight is already there with the IA lady. Voight gives a chilling "funny how things work out" line that only signifies he killed Joe. Voight then sends Justin off to the army with a "I'll see you in four years." Like I've said before, this was the right move for this character. He needed a dramatic flare up, and then be sent away or killed.

I would have preferred killed, but hey: this is NBC. They probably want an option to bring him back dramatically in some way - dishonorable discharge or something.

Which is fine. If that was the route they wanted, the army gives the show the opportunity to set that character on the side for awhile until a good story comes up down the line.

I quite liked this episode. Similar to the Antonio's son kidnapping story, the tension was at an all time high. It wasn't just the action scenes or yelling, it was in the facial expressions and long pauses as well.

The "funny how things work out" moment with Voight and Joe who was pulled out of the river dead had a Dexter vibe to it - similar to scenes where Dexter would be in a lot of hot water from multiple pots - but somehow figures out how to get out of it, and kill the threat in the process.

The fact that we didn't see it happen made it that much more thrilling of a reveal. You can't help but smile at moments like that when your main protagonist is the smartest person on screen.

Only a few Chicago PD episodes left.

Photo Credit: TVFanatic.com