S08.E06: Equal Justice

[jewel21]

After a seemingly innocent young man is gunned down in the street, the team works to bring in the suspected culprit, but the case is more complex than it appears. The grief-stricken father is determined to do his own undercover work.

Airdate: 02/10/2021

[CoyoteBlue]

Well, if it were Burgess, she would have flat-out told the father who the suspect was, so... one point to Jay?

Is everything with Voight these days going to be a philosophical / ethical debate? I mean, I get that they softened him up after Al's death in this post-BLM cop accountability era, but damn, dude. Is he managing by the Socratic Method now?

Nice compromise for Jay. I would have been disappointed if he'd let the father go altogether. 

[UnoAgain]

6 hours ago, CoyoteBlue said:

Nice compromise for Jay. I would have been disappointed if he'd let the father go altogether. 

Agreed... Tho I think for hank.. Jay didn't really leave him with a choice.. He was not too subtle in reminding Hank that he killed the guy that killed his son and got away with it... Overall solid epi... I'm guessing allbis well with the little girl as she wasnt even brought up. 

[GodsBeloved]

D'angelo Barksdale! It was good seeing you lol

I really enjoyed this episode. I was glued to the tv from start to finish. I liked all of the twists, even the fact that the big bad guy was innocent of the murder. I especially liked that the son was indeed a good kid and that he was working behind his father's back in order to buy an air conditioner for him.

The ending was great because I did think Jay was going to let Latrell go but he ends up arresting him. He didn't cross the line and he's going to let the system handle it and knows that they don't have enough to convict Latrell.

I hope Latrell calls Maury Levy though. He got him off once and he can do it again LOL

[nittany cougar]

I was pretty bored by this episode, but I thought the actor who played the father was excellent. I felt sorry for the dad.   Jesse Lee Soffer was also great.  Jay is consistently shown as having a high code of ethics.  At least that's consistent, because I get a really disconnected feeling from one episode to the next.  Jay and Hailey slept together two or three episodes ago, but they have not had any talk about their relationship.  Kim's kid wasn't mentioned in this episode.  You would think they would throw in a line about child care just for the sake of continuity.

It's like they don't remember their own stories.

Edited February 11, 2021 by nittany cougar

[FnkyChkn34]

34 minutes ago, nittany cougar said:

It's like they don't remember their own stories.

I'm wondering if they film out of order, and if so, does that mean they might not actually know when a show will air?  That's really the only excuse I can think of for the continuity.  I also wondered why no mention of the child.  I was doing a few other things while watching, but didn't think I missed it... I'm sure she'll be back soon enough.

I liked this episode.  It was nice to see an episode finally focus on a real police case, and a compelling one at that. The father was very good, as was Jay/Jesse Lee Soffer.  But, I might be biased since he's been a favorite from the beginning.  It was nice to see him have a bigger role again.  More episodes like this one, please!  (But also, more Atwater.  He was barely in this one and that's never a good thing.  Let's have an Atwater and Jay focused episode?  Oh, like that one with the mosque, that one was good...)

[Guildford]

Can Jay PLEASE interact with any other character? He is solely confined to engaging with either Upton or Voight & he is now completely devoid of personality & him & Upton together are painfully dull.

They need to re-introduce the patrol aspect because these cases are not interesting enough to fill a whole 45 minutes and Platt is completely wasted in this show now. I really don't get the point of keeping her around, not even for the snark, because that's all but disappeared as well.

Once again Jay tries to WhiteCop-splain away the Dad's grievances with cops, pretty much like he has done several times this season alone. He does love a good blue lives matters rally in his downtime doesn't he? He never learns, he's not evolving as a character & Voight is just feckless now. I'm not a Voight fan perse, but he at least bought some oomph to the show, now it kind of just meanders from one point to the next. Jay's whole purpose seems to be to fuck up & then have a moment of retrospection only to fuck up again in exactly the same way as before. I have no issues with people making mistakes, but when they don't learn from them time & again its kinda pointless & annoying.

And he actually seems shocked that the Dad, hell-bent on revenge who was smart enough to work out how to get into a gang, could figure out who the killer was with all his clues? Really Jay? He may as well just given him the name & address. The Dad was way smarter than Jay gave him credit for & way smarter than Jay.

I would have loved to see Atwater working with Halstead on this, bringing his perspective from his side of policing & growing up black but then Atwater isn't allowed to talk to Jay so there is that.

Soooooo......Burgess is out working two nights in a row & the kid is where exactly? No mention. I know this show sucks at continuity & drops things like hot rocks, but she apparently has this major life-changing event & the following week they can't even squeeze in a one liner about the kid. How about when she's in the car with Ruzek her phone beeps with a message and she mentions it's the baby-sitter...because she did remember to hire a baby-sitter right? 

[FnkyChkn34]

23 minutes ago, Guildford said:

Once again Jay tries to WhiteCop-splain away the Dad's grievances with cops, pretty much like he has done several times this season alone. He does love a good blue lives matters rally in his downtime doesn't he? He never learns, he's not evolving as a character & Voight is just feckless now. I'm not a Voight fan perse, but he at least bought some oomph to the show, now it kind of just meanders from one point to the next. Jay's whole purpose seems to be to fuck up & then have a moment of retrospection only to fuck up again in exactly the same way as before. I have no issues with people making mistakes, but when they don't learn from them time & again its kinda pointless & annoying.

And he actually seems shocked that the Dad, hell-bent on revenge who was smart enough to work out how to get into a gang, could figure out who the killer was with all his clues? Really Jay? He may as well just given him the name & address. The Dad was way smarter than Jay gave him credit for & way smarter than Jay.

I actually didn't get that at all, but maybe I missed something.  I liked that Jay went to the Homicide detective and yelled at him.  He criticized the other guy for just throwing away files of people he thought were worthless because gangs.  And then at the end, he had to do the right thing because the dad did commit murder, but he also told him how to get out of it.  I think Jay was trying to protect the dad by telling him to let the police handle it, not holding a "blue lives matter rally."  I'm not entirely sure what mistake Jay made in this episode, except I guess not getting to the killer before the dad did?  But Jay and the others do have to play by the rules, so how fast could they have really been?  I don't think he was shocked the dad figured it out, I think he just didn't realize how far the dad would go; Jay was probably hoping the dad would have called the police if he'd figured it out first, especially since they made a connection.

Maybe I'm just giving Jay the benefit of the doubt because this was finally a half decent episode that focused on an interesting police case and not... Burgess.  

[Mxh507]

1 hour ago, GodsBeloved said:

D'angelo Barksdale! It was good seeing you lol

I really enjoyed this episode. I was glued to the tv from start to finish. I liked all of the twists, even the fact that the big bad guy was innocent of the murder. I especially liked that the son was indeed a good kid and that he was working behind his father's back in order to buy an air conditioner for him.

The ending was great because I did think Jay was going to let Latrell go but he ends up arresting him. He didn't cross the line and he's going to let the system handle it and knows that they don't have enough to convict Latrell.

I hope Latrell calls Maury Levy though. He got him off once and he can do it again LOL

“Where’s Wallace, String!”

[SuzieQ]

It's great to see Jay evolving, at least a little!!  He's always been such a boy scout, so it's good that he was at least conflicted on what to do and actually had enough empathy for the dad to figure out a path forward that seemed true to his character.  Also great that there didn't seem to be any Upton/Jay "relationship" scenes, just normal partners.  Whole episode was straight case, so glad not to have all their personal lives dominate the episode.  I like the occasional personal life story, but not every damn episode!

[Guildford]

14 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I actually didn't get that at all, but maybe I missed something.  I liked that Jay went to the Homicide detective and yelled at him.  He criticized the other guy for just throwing away files of people he thought were worthless because gangs.  And then at the end, he had to do the right thing because the dad did commit murder, but he also told him how to get out of it.  I think Jay was trying to protect the dad by telling him to let the police handle it, not holding a "blue lives matter rally."  I'm not entirely sure what mistake Jay made in this episode, except I guess not getting to the killer before the dad did?  But Jay and the others do have to play by the rules, so how fast could they have really been?  I don't think he was shocked the dad figured it out, I think he just didn't realize how far the dad would go; Jay was probably hoping the dad would have called the police if he'd figured it out first, especially since they made a connection.

Maybe I'm just giving Jay the benefit of the doubt because this was finally a half decent episode that focused on an interesting police case and not... Burgess.  

Just different opinions. And I do enjoy reading opinions from people coming from different angles & who like & dislike other characters so have differing views.

I guess my 'blue lives comment' didn't necessarily come from this episode alone but more from a build up of him continuing to try & dismiss other people's experiences, even as far as he told Upton early in the season that Atwater would totally understand her comments about the whole BLM change in policing. It's not his place to tell people what they feel. I have just noticed it more these past few seasons & it bugs me. That's all. 

I thought it was pretty obvious how far the Dad was going to go so I was surprised when Jay told him all that he did. He doesn't think about consequences, he didn't with Marcus West's widow, he just blurts it all out then appears perplexed by the responses. 

I guess I'm just not enjoying his character, he seems stuck in a never-ending rut & I think that's really disappointing for his character because I used to really enjoy him. I feel like the actor is phoning it in most of the time. It's just all a bit meh.

[Guildford]

8 minutes ago, SuzieQ said:

It's great to see Jay evolving, at least a little!!  He's always been such a boy scout, so it's good that he was at least conflicted on what to do and actually had enough empathy for the dad to figure out a path forward that seemed true to his character.  Also great that there didn't seem to be any Upton/Jay "relationship" scenes, just normal partners.  Whole episode was straight case, so glad not to have all their personal lives dominate the episode.  I like the occasional personal life story, but not every damn episode!

This episode would have been the perfect chance to have Halstead & Atwater team up. If they aren't going to do the 'relationship' stuff in an episode then split the teams up so they work with others. 

[FnkyChkn34]

43 minutes ago, Guildford said:

Just different opinions. And I do enjoy reading opinions from people coming from different angles & who like & dislike other characters so have differing views.

...

I guess I'm just not enjoying his character, he seems stuck in a never-ending rut & I think that's really disappointing for his character because I used to really enjoy him. I feel like the actor is phoning it in most of the time. It's just all a bit meh.

I totally understand, and I like reading other opinions too!  I agree that I don't enjoy him as much lately as I did, but I am hoping that's because he's been put on the backburner too much.  Maybe with a few better and more prominent stories, he'll be good again?  Hopefully!  I also agree that I thought he phoned it in all last season. 😉  I wouldn't entirely blame him though, considering it's become The Burgess Show.  Blah.

[preeya]

4 hours ago, nittany cougar said:

I was pretty bored by this episode, but I thought the actor who played the father was excellent

That was Lawrence Gilliard Jr. who played  D'Angelo Barksdale on The Wire.

[UnoAgain]

3 hours ago, Guildford said:

This episode would have been the perfect chance to have Halstead & Atwater team up. If they aren't going to do the 'relationship' stuff in an episode then split the teams up so they work with others. 

I was actually taken aback when they had Atwater and Upton in a scene alone together in that van... But they didnt speak to one another so I guess it didn't count. 

[Guildford]

4 hours ago, UnoAgain said:

I was actually taken aback when they had Atwater and Upton in a scene alone together in that van... But they didnt speak to one another so I guess it didn't count. 

I wonder if they cut the scene where Kevin jumped in the van & introduced himself to Upton?

[Mxh507]

10 hours ago, GodsBeloved said:

D'angelo Barksdale! It was good seeing you lol

I really enjoyed this episode. I was glued to the tv from start to finish. I liked all of the twists, even the fact that the big bad guy was innocent of the murder. I especially liked that the son was indeed a good kid and that he was working behind his father's back in order to buy an air conditioner for him.

The ending was great because I did think Jay was going to let Latrell go but he ends up arresting him. He didn't cross the line and he's going to let the system handle it and knows that they don't have enough to convict Latrell.

I hope Latrell calls Maury Levy though. He got him off once and he can do it again LOL

“Where’s Wallace, String!”

[SuzieQ]

12 hours ago, Guildford said:

This episode would have been the perfect chance to have Halstead & Atwater team up. If they aren't going to do the 'relationship' stuff in an episode then split the teams up so they work with others. 

Atwater always seems to get the short straw.

[dsteele]

On 2/11/2021 at 6:49 AM, GodsBeloved said:

D'angelo Barksdale! It was good seeing you lol

I literally yelled out his name at the TV when I first saw him. And to think - he went from one of the best-written crime shows of all time to Chicago PD. Whose writing often leaves, shall we say, a bit to be desired.

I will hold out hope that perhaps Omar comin'.

[preeya]

4 hours ago, dsteele said:

I literally yelled out his name at the TV when I first saw him. And to think - he went from one of the best-written crime shows of all time to Chicago PD. Whose writing often leaves, shall we say, a bit to be desired.

I will hold out hope that perhaps Omar comin'.

They need Pryzbylewski to work under Voight

[UnoAgain]

34 minutes ago, preeya said:

They need Pryzbylewski to work under Voight

Hank woulda killed Prez... 

[spunky]

I kept wondering why Jay and Kevin didn't work this case together.  I like how Jay handled it in the end, but per usual he had to create a mess first.

So what happened to Kim's foster child? Who was caring for her while Kim was at work overnight?

[SnarkySheep]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:46 AM, SuzieQ said:

It's great to see Jay evolving, at least a little!!  He's always been such a boy scout, so it's good that he was at least conflicted on what to do

No, not always...remember back in the first season, when we learned about Jay's high school girlfriend's little brother being murdered? There was a serious question as to whether or not Jay would take things in his own hands to right the wrongs against that family. I still think he ultimately might have, if the murderer's own father hadn't ended up doing it for him.

On 2/11/2021 at 9:46 AM, SuzieQ said:

Also great that there didn't seem to be any Upton/Jay "relationship" scenes, just normal partners.

Honestly, I'm sick of the whole relationship thing in Intelligence. Remember the good ol' days, when Jay and Erin truly wanted to be with each other, a real relationship and not just a fling, but were holding back because Voight was so against it? Now Jay is the SECOND guy that Haley has slept with (in a tiny pool of immediate coworkers, and within a tiny amount of time) and Voight seems like he so doesn't even care who's doing who anymore. 

[catsitter]

Do people really say someone is "videotaping" something in 2021?! (A line early in the episode, I think Upton said it.)

[WinJet0819]

On 3/19/2021 at 7:46 PM, SnarkySheep said:

Honestly, I'm sick of the whole relationship thing in Intelligence. Remember the good ol' days, when Jay and Erin truly wanted to be with each other, a real relationship and not just a fling, but were holding back because Voight was so against it? Now Jay is the SECOND guy that Haley has slept with (in a tiny pool of immediate coworkers, and within a tiny amount of time) and Voight seems like he so doesn't even care who's doing who anymore. 

Couldn't agree more. I'm sick of the relationship thing on all these One Chicago shows to be honest. The relationship drama can actually dominate the actual story of the episode, and the cases and incidents will actually be built around that drama, instead of the issues staying in the background. And considering these are Dick Wolf shows, it's hard to believe he let his One Chicago franchise devolve into this. Not once did he let any of this stuff happen to his Law & Order franchises, or other shows he did, like Homicide: Life on the Street.

When PD doesn't focus on the relationship drama, it has good, intriguing episodes.

[Guildford]

3 hours ago, WinJet0819 said:

Couldn't agree more. I'm sick of the relationship thing on all these One Chicago shows to be honest. The relationship drama can actually dominate the actual story of the episode, and the cases and incidents will actually be built around that drama, instead of the issues staying in the background. And considering these are Dick Wolf shows, it's hard to believe he let his One Chicago franchise devolve into this. Not once did he let any of this stuff happen to his Law & Order franchises, or other shows he did, like Homicide: Life on the Street.

When PD doesn't focus on the relationship drama, it has good, intriguing episodes.

Always said the relationship stuff should be the cherry on top not the whole damn cake. 

Remember when they used to just catch bad guys because they were bad, not because they were somehow related to some forced personal trauma of one of our intrepid fuck-ups? One personal based storyline per character/per season would be more than enough. 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Guildford

[SnarkySheep]

On 3/24/2021 at 8:58 AM, catsitter said:

Do people really say someone is "videotaping" something in 2021?! (A line early in the episode, I think Upton said it.)

Maybe, if they grew up referring to it as that, as Haley (and I) would have...

It's kind of like how Voight says "get on the horn" but the younger people don't.