S09.E19: Fool's Gold

[jewel21]

Quote

After the murder of a wealthy Chicago man, Atwater and the team dig in to uncover the truth, suspecting there is more to the story than meets the eye.

Airdate: 04/20/2022

[NYGirl]

I really liked this episode.  It kept me guessing throughout.  I love Atwater.  I'm glad it was Kevin-centric

[mommalib]

This may have been my favorite Atwater episode. There was no Black vs Blue conflict for Kev just him being an investigator. He was so good and on top of everything and he has great instincts.  I liked his interactions with that woman as well she was lucky Atwater was the one that found her. Atwater needs to promoted to detective.  

[Snazzy Daisy]

This is by far my favorite Kevin-centric episode. No blue propaganda and agenda. No racial tension whatsoever. Pure Kevin! 👍🏻❤️

I am so sure that Raquel is the bad guy until proven wrong. I recognise the actress (Molly Burnett) from a Lifetime movie - The Lover in the Attic.

I want more episode like this, more Kevin Atwater!!! 😘

[jalady]

Great Atwater episode.  I’d have preferred that Raquel turned out to be guilty - to me, that would have been a bigger twist.  I knew she wouldn’t be so Kevin could be proven right, so that took away some of the suspense for me.  Plus the long search scene telegraphed that he’d find the phones.  

But, no way does she walk away scot free.  Reduced charges and a light(ish) sentence, but not a complete pass.  She aided and abetted, even conspired some might say, in the commisson of several felonies resulting in serious injury (the pistol whipped cleaning lady) and death.  There’s not enough coercion in the world that would let her completely walk away from all that!! 

[jabRI]

21 hours ago, jalady said:

But, no way does she walk away scot free.  Reduced charges and a light(ish) sentence, but not a complete pass.  She aided and abetted, even conspired some might say, in the commisson of several felonies resulting in serious injury (the pistol whipped cleaning lady) and death.  There’s not enough coercion in the world that would let her completely walk away from all that!! 

I think somehow Hank kept her out of the paperwork, I mean wouldn't the DA also be involved in getting her arrested based on circumstances? That's how it looks on L & O anyway.

[Guildford]

I'm a bit mixed about this episode, It was long overdue that Kev had another focussed episode, the fact he's had so little this season is ridiculous, and I am so glad it wasn't his usual black v blue episode so I wanted to like it more than I did. It just felt a little flat. I am not sure whether it was because they now seem to be trying too hard to 'mix' up the partners that it came off as disjointed. He was here there and everywhere with a different person each time. 

Mix them up fine, but do it for the whole episode, not 4 different partners in one. It just felt, i don't know, desperate from the writers.

I have hated the Celeste storyline from the end of the first episode, when they stupidly made Kevin lie to her and then continued to have him lie to her.....Kevin deserved so much better than that storyline. However I am on Celeste's side 100%. He broke her trust & not in a small way.

What I didn't like about this....aside from hearing zero about it for 8 freaking episodes, is that he is calling her every week and she clearly isn't taking his calls. For me (and perhaps because I've experienced something similar with an ex) it came off as stalkerish & disrespectful & I can't cop that from Kevin Bloody Atwater of all people. 

Maybe that's what left me feeling just a little meh about this unfortunately.

On the other hand.....Kevin Atwater deserves his Detective badge.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Guildford

[tvfanatic13]

Count me in on those who really enjoyed this episode. Great all around. 

[hookedontv]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:02 PM, Guildford said:

What I didn't like about this....aside from hearing zero about it for 8 freaking episodes, is that he is calling her every week and she clearly isn't taking his calls. For me (and perhaps because I've experienced something similar with an ex) it came off as stalkerish & disrespectful & I can't cop that from Kevin Bloody Atwater of all people. 

I get this, but a couple things:

1. She could have blocked Atwater's number so that he wouldn't be able to call, leave vmail messages, or text. She didn't, so maybe he felt that she was leaving the door a little open for him?

2. At the end of the episode, Atwater left what he said is his final voicemail message and that he wouldn't call again. 

Regardless, more Atwater please! Less personal stuff on the team (I don't care about who's with who at the moment, or who's breaking who's heart) - just good, solid cases of the week. More Atwater. Less Permasmirk. Maybe even seeing Ruzak have some happiness? I know I'm talking crazy now but a girl can dream. 

[Guildford]

3 hours ago, hookedontv said:

I get this, but a couple things:

1. She could have blocked Atwater's number so that he wouldn't be able to call, leave vmail messages, or text. She didn't, so maybe he felt that she was leaving the door a little open for him?

2. At the end of the episode, Atwater left what he said is his final voicemail message and that he wouldn't call again. 

Regardless, more Atwater please! Less personal stuff on the team (I don't care about who's with who at the moment, or who's breaking who's heart) - just good, solid cases of the week. More Atwater. Less Permasmirk. Maybe even seeing Ruzak have some happiness? I know I'm talking crazy now but a girl can dream. 

I do understand how people had no issue with it, I just had a personal experience with something very similar, by a cop no less, it just made me feel very uncomfortable...bad memories I guess. 

I don't disagree with anything else you said 😀

[jalady]

^^^
Hmm.  Now that you mention it, I had a similar experience with a police officer too, and it WAS scarier because of his job.  Luckily I knew someone fairly high up in the Department and was able to get him to intervene.  Not that I think Atwater would ever do anything really stalkerish, but Celeste’s perspective may be different.

[Guildford]

26 minutes ago, jalady said:

^^^
Hmm.  Now that you mention it, I had a similar experience with a police officer too, and it WAS scarier because of his job.  Luckily I knew someone fairly high up in the Department and was able to get him to intervene.  Not that I think Atwater would ever do anything really stalkerish, but Celeste’s perspective may be different.

I found it a little much also as in reality, with what they chose to show on screen, I didn't get any real connection with Atwater and Celeste. Because the show chose to not actually show any of their relationship, by not even mentioning it for weeks on end inbetween Kev's sporadic episodes it was hard for me to get any sense of how this relationship meant so much to him that he couldn't let it go.

It was just shitty story telling all round... which is sadly the norm for this show these days.

[SnarkySheep]

The line that stuck out most for me is Halstead with "everybody pretends something". Yeah, it's largely true as a general thing, but he just seemed so grim and bitter as he said it.

[WinJet0819]

OMG!!!! An Atwater-driven episode that didn't focus on his race or proving what side he's on. And it wasn't something where he went undercover as the token black guy. Color me shocked. This was long, long overdue. What a great episode. It is so amazing how much better the episodes are when they're not based around Upstead or Burzek and it's just about the police work. This type of story, and the last episode with Torres, are what keep me engaged throughout the whole show. Well done. Still have to catch-up to see if this just winds up being a one-off.

Really, Kevin deserved this after the screwed up story with Celeste. That was a terrible storyline.

And minor thing, but writers did screw-up with Raquel's age. Her real IL ID showed her birthdate being in 1990, but in the next scene, Kevin brings up that she would have been 18 in 2006.

[WinJet0819]

On 4/21/2022 at 4:44 PM, jalady said:

Great Atwater episode.  I’d have preferred that Raquel turned out to be guilty - to me, that would have been a bigger twist.  I knew she wouldn’t be so Kevin could be proven right, so that took away some of the suspense for me.  Plus the long search scene telegraphed that he’d find the phones.  

But, no way does she walk away scot free.  Reduced charges and a light(ish) sentence, but not a complete pass.  She aided and abetted, even conspired some might say, in the commisson of several felonies resulting in serious injury (the pistol whipped cleaning lady) and death.  There’s not enough coercion in the world that would let her completely walk away from all that!! 

That's usually always the case though. The spouse dead and the wife found bleeding with a non-lethal wound. They almost always are found to be the culprit. I'm sure plenty of people were already thinking Raquel had something to do with the murder after the opening scene. I definitely did. So the fact that she was not involved and was switching up her identities to hide from her obsessed ex was, in fact, bigger twist.