S02.E20: The Number Of Rats (3)

[WendyCR72]

While Antonio continues his off-duty security job for Asher and Layla, Asher is killed. Voight and Olinsky make sure Antonio is covered. While they work the case Halstead and Lindsay go undercover in a rather uncomfortable location. Kot shows up to ask Lindsay for an answer.

 

*Note: The 3 after the title is because CPD will again have a crossover with CF and L&O: SVU.

 

Also, CPD and SVU are switching time slots (just for this, I think!) which means CPD will be on at 9 ET.

[betsyboo]

I'm just sad. Not that I didn't see it coming, but I really liked Nadia's redemption story. I hope they carry this mourning through next week not just for Erin - I want to see Platt's reaction. Sophia Bush was great. I like that she isn't camera-ready (Beckett) all the time. She wears a hat. She has stringy hair when she's been flying all night. she has smudgy makeup after crying. She wears combat boots.

 

Dallas Roberts was sublime. Extra double creepy, but sublime. His facial expressions - his eyes! - as he imagined the awful things... He was a great. Guest actor Emmy nom for sure. (And he plays such a diff character on TGW!)

 

Somewhat off topic - but not, since it was a crossver --- Raoul Esparza makes me so tingly. They can't let him sing - just ONCE?? can't they all go to a karaoke bar one night? 

[Raja]

Did they really start with the L&O narrator and two tones

[betsyboo]

Did they really start with the L&O narrator and two tones

with a joint crossover logo no less! :-)

[Bringonthedrama]

Sophia Bush was fantastic. Hope we get to see her mourn this loss, with Halstead allowed to comfort her and Voight be okay with that. 

[MakeMeLaugh]

The plot described above re Asher etc. is not the episode that we watched tonight, I'm pretty sure.

[Samantha84]

What a great, sad, creepy, superb, amazing 2 hours of television. Brava to the writers, directors, crew, and cast.

Yes, Sophia Bush was great and though I'm said for Lindsay; I cannot wait to see her portray Lindsay's dark days arc. 

 

Sophia Bush was great. I like that she isn't camera-ready (Beckett) all the time. She wears a hat. She has stringy hair when she's been flying all night. she has smudgy makeup after crying. She wears combat boots.

 

YES, I love this too. And ya know what? Doesn't take away from Sophia being a beautiful woman. It simply allows you to get lost in the character she's playing and it makes her [Det. Erin Lindsay] feel real and believable. 

Edited April 30, 2015 by Samantha84

[Ailianna]

I hate that they killed Nadia off on another show. I watched it, but it would suck if you were a CPD watcher only and go form her being kidnapped to then instead of finding out they'd done their usual heroic save, she's murdered in NYC.  Not cool.  I really liked Nadia as someone who was genuinely trying to drag herself out of the gutter and doing a good job of it.  Not a fan of this "casting change."

[Ariah]

Nadia was really a tragic figure, and the manner in which she was killed, the brutal technicality of it, trully made the whole thing even more cruel.

 

For a young woman with a history of abuse to be sexually tortured before death - it just made my blood cold. Part of me thought this was too much, a step too far - on the other hand, things like this happen in real life, and real life is even more cruel. I should feel uneasy. I should feel shaken. I should want to murder Nadia's killer.

 

I don't know if that's what the writers aimed for - but that's how I felt. How I still feel. Hours passed and I usually stop thinking about tv shows five minutes past the credits. Now I'm still thinking about Nadia and her fate. Even the fact that her death was a detrmental factor in condemning the killer... Even this does not help.

 

It's unfitting to say I enjoyed this two hours of tv, but it sure was memorable.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Ariah

[callmebetty]

Never has someone putting on chapstick been more gross or chilling.  Kudos to the actor I wanted Jay to just take the headshot and get it over with.

[NJ RadioGuy]

The creepiest, most disturbing three hours of television I've sat through in a long time. Nadia could have been a great character, and frankly I found her far more interesting than St. Lindsay. I'm honestly sick of the psychopathic-killer-who-makes-no-mistakes-ever trope in television. CSI lost me years ago for that reason. There's too much horror in our real world. I like my TV fake cops to save the day and the scumbags to get their comeuppance. I like that in my real cops, too. Leave the "edgy" to HBO. Now, like with Shay on Chicago Fire, we'll go through a half-season of LindsayAngst™ and brooding, blah blah blah.

Edited April 30, 2015 by NJ RadioGuy

[Calamity Jane]

 I'm honestly sick of the psychopathic-killer-who-makes-no-mistakes-ever trope in television.

It is one of my biggest peeves, and it ruins any show, in my opinion,  that it shows up on.  I'm glad to know I'm not the only one!  

[Fostersmom]

I hate that they killed Nadia off on another show. I watched it, but it would suck if you were a CPD watcher only and go form her being kidnapped to then instead of finding out they'd done their usual heroic save, she's murdered in NYC.  Not cool.  I really liked Nadia as someone who was genuinely trying to drag herself out of the gutter and doing a good job of it.  Not a fan of this "casting change."

 

You know what really sucked? The fact they switched the times slots of the two shows and I missed CPD thinking it was on at 10 and only saw the L&O hour. That really sucked. 

[Happy Harpy]

I'm disturbed.

 

Did I need to hear "one count of sodomy", on top of everything else? Did I need to see Nadia, a character I know, and love, and had many hopes for on this show, being abused at length?

 

Usually, when TV shows show so much of a regular character being hurt, they're rescued in the end. I don't know how I'd have felt if I didn't know that someone was going to die. It disturbed me more when I saw that lengthy abuse of Nadia knowing she wouldn't make it, but maybe the shock in the end would have been greater if I didn't realize she was the condemned one. I feel that anyway, there was no winner here.

 

I watch GoT, so I'm used to graphic violence and all. I know horrors like this happens in real life. Worse, I know that many aren't drowning in their sickness as Nadia's killer, and don't ever get any comeuppance. Don't get me wrong, it was effective. But this one got to me...yet more than with the endless onscreen victimization of women all around, I guess I'm tired with the idea that women are treated like Nadia was and worse all around the world as I type, and nobody goes or will go to war "just" for them.

 

On a purely narrative aspect, I thought that Nadia a a character offered more opportunity than Atwater, who doesn't have a personality or anything particular so far imo. So I'm not happy she was the one to go.

 

What I loved?

Voight...oh, I'm so happy he didn't kill the bastard -maybe because it reassured me about myself not cheering for it- and put the fear of suffering into him instead. When he said that Nadia was family, I knew he'd do something. And it made me feel better.

Lindsay

Benson. I stopped watching L&O long ago but she's still one of the original badass women for me.

Voight/Lindsay, and how they're family

Voight/Benson (who I'm shipping like crazy now).

Lindsay/Benson, two kickass women who get each other and have each other's back. They were like sisters, or like mother and stepdaughter. *wink, nudge*

 

And of course, Boden. Because there's never enough Boden on a Chicago show.

 

Oh, and I knew they'd manage to weave Chicago Med into it beyond the name-dropping. Still, it unnerved me all the same. Hank siding with Olivia on the ambush made me love him all the more, though. Ha!

Edited April 30, 2015 by Happy Harpy

[Chas411]

 

On a purely narrative aspect, I thought that Nadia a a character offered more opportunity than Atwater, who doesn't have a personality or anything particular so far imo. So I'm not happy she was the one to go.

 

Atwater dying wouldn't resonate in the same way that Nadia's death will. Well it might if they'd bother to give him any sort of development but they don't. I'd say the showrunners had the tragic ending for Nadia planned from the beginning.

[Chas411]

Well that was a heartbreaking and emotionally exhausting two hours. Could Nadia's death have been explained any more graphically? That poor girl. What irked me was how close to real life it felt with all those rapists out there. Nadia was snatched so easily and in broad view... it was just eerie.

 

The whole episode took a different tone. It was creepy, eerie and something felt off from the beginning. Even had I not been spoiled I knew that Nadia wasn't going to make it out alive.

 

I've never seen Hank shook up during a case like this. I've seen him get angry, I've seen him lose his temper but I've never seen him look genuinely scared like he did during the initial search. I think by the time they reached NY he knew chances of her being found alive were slim.

 

Poor Lindsey, she looked genuinely devastated. I didn't realise her and Nadia had been living together.

 

Paul Yates... the creepiest killer on this show to date. He was terrifying.

[Happy Harpy]

Atwater dying wouldn't resonate in the same way that Nadia's death will. Well it might if they'd bother to give him any sort of development but they don't. I'd say the showrunners had the tragic ending for Nadia planned from the beginning.

That's why I said "narrative", I didn't talk on an emotional level. I wouldn't be happy if Atwater died because he isn't a bad guy, but unless he was victim of a hate crime, I wouldn't be terribly affected by his departure and I don't think I'd miss him.

Of course, the character I have no use for and really would like to be written off won't be...especially considering the Olmstead/Halstead thing that makes said character sound like a self-insertion (in my very biased and certainly very wrong opinion, although you have to admit that the coincidence is striking).

[Ailianna]

Platt had a lot of scenes with Nadia, in general and in this crossover.  And she's been protective and mentoring to Nadia in the past.  I think she's going to have a hard time with this loss too.

[kixfan]

The SVU episode was difficult to watch. It was one of the saddest and most graphic shows that I ever seen. I was almost relieved that Nadia died after listening to the court details. I don't know how someone could ever recover from such a brutal incident. The episodes were well written and incredibly well acted. My only complaint is that I would like to have seen more from Olinksy and Finn. The only problem I have with the crossover episodes is that with the exception of Voight, Lindsey, and Halstead the CPD cast disappears. I enjoy the crossovers but let's see Dawson, Olinsky or Ruzek take the lead from the CPD side on the next one. I know Voight will be front and center because it's his unit but Lindsey and Halstead do not always have to be the main detectives involved.

[Samantha84]

Did Yates kill Nadia on Lindsay's birthday?!? Nadia got the cake but was it for that night or the next? Nadia was either kidnapped or killed on Lindsay's birthday. I just ... whew! 

[MakeMeLaugh]

Yes, more Olinsky please, less pretty boys.

[BindsTheTuna]

God, I hate Voight. I know he's supposed to represent the kind of karmic retribution we're not allowed to get from the criminal justice system in Real Life, but he's so over the top I'm surprised he doesn't twirl a fucking mustache. I want to know what kind of hold he has on everyone (except Jay, who RULES. #TeamJay) that they bow and scrape to his every [illegal] whim. 

 

If it wasn't for me waiting for the day Jay punches him in the nuts, I'd quit this show.

[butterbody]

What in the holy hell just happened? My DVR cut off at the shot of the cake on the ground. I came here to see what i missed in the final minute only to learn that I missed two additional hours?? I don't watch those other shows! Grrrr.

So now I have to on demand Cf & SVU...Can someone tell me in which order they aired?

[Raja]

What in the holy hell just happened? My DVR cut off at the shot of the cake on the ground. I came here to see what i missed in the final minute only to learn that I missed two additional hours?? I don't watch those other shows! Grrrr.

So now I have to on demand Cf & SVU...Can someone tell me in which order they aired?

On Fire we find a murdered rape victim with an arson by cover. Enter Sgt Benson as they continue on to PD and then the story moves to SVU for the capture and trial as SVU is starting to look more like the classic L&O with the cop and DA portions of the show.

[Samantha84]

I want to know what kind of hold he has on everyone (except Jay, who RULES. #TeamJay) that they bow and scrape to his every [illegal] whim.

 

Agreed. Always team Jay. lol. Also wanna know what the hell Jay has done that Voight treats him like that read head step child of the unit. What Voight did in going along w Olivia lying to Jay to get his brother in for question was so fucked up. Would he have done that to Lindsay, Alvin, or Dawson? Nope. I was w Jay in his anger at the whole situation. Then Voight had the nerve to pull the "you can't questions your brother" b/c of the conflict etc. Really?!? The man who breaks every fucking ethical and legal rules? Ugh.

 

Nadia's death and the circumstances are really gonna hit Lindsay. Her "dark days" as Derek Haas has stated will be the arc going into the final episodes of this season [3 more left].

[MakeMeLaugh]

Another bad thing imo about the crossover is where to discuss it. I posted about Voight and Nadia on the Chicago Fire board (even though they are in PD and not Fire), and the L&O SVU board also discusses the character in its crossover episode thread.

[Ceindreadh]

I was trying to figure out why Nadia's death didn't really have much impact on me.  Granted, she wasn't my favourite character, but she was growing on me a bit and the scene with her tied up in the back of the car felt more traumatic than when we found out she was dead.

And I think it's because that apart from Lindsey being upset but trying to keep it together when they found her, we didn't really get any of the character's reactions.

It pretty much went straight into the court case segment of a L&O show, where the main focus was on characters who had no personal involvement with Nadia and were pretty much treating it as just another victim/case.  And there was (presumably) enough of a time jump to get to the trial so that the initial reactions of the people who *did* know Nadia was of necessity going to be muted.

 

I guess it's the down side of having the L&O ep be the closing ep of the trilogy, but I'm disappointed that we're not likely to see the Chicago PD team's initial reactions to Nadia's death and the immediate aftermath of it.  It feels like a bit of a cheat. 

(I really hope they're not going to keep doing these crossovers.  CPD is the only one of the three shows that I watch, and I resent having to pick up 2 extra hours of shows I don't care for just to get a resolution)

[Amelie06]

I'm disgusted by what happened to Nadia. Disgusted. The show should not have gone there. I know this kind of shit happens in real life, but this show is so unrealistic I don't know why they had to go for realism now. And real talk? When is the last time you've heard of a suspect kidnapping a member of the team investigating them? This happens in damn near every thriller but rarely if ever happens in real life. I just think that the writers took a certain pleasure in making her death as gruesome as possible and making sure we all knew how torturous it truly was. If we were going for realism, why didn't Nadia, a girl who until very recently had been on the street, do more than just try to reason with the murderer? She knew that he was a serial rapist/murderer! I kept waiting for her to turn into Nadia from the block and to fight dirty to get away from him. What stopped her from sitting up in the backseat of that car? If she could kick, why couldn't she sit up? Kick at one of the windows? I call bullshit on that, the writers were clearly hell-bent on raping Nadia to death but also wanted that gas station scene where our killer taunts her about how she almost got saved.

 

Here is what I think must have happened in the writer's room...

 

Writer 1: So what are we going to do for our latest crossover?

Writer 2: Well if SVU is involved, we gotta have a creepy rape angle.

Writer 3: True. Hmmm. But we already did one with a creepy child rape angle. We can't do that again.

Writer 2: What if we had one of our female characters get raped and murdered? That would be different.

Writer 1: That would be so edgy! But who to rape and murder?

Writer 2: Not Lindsay. She's so pretty. But it should be someone she cares about. So then we can write even more Lindsay scenes. In fact, we'll even find a way to make our victims rape and murder all about Lindsay.

Writer 3: Ok, so we're agreed. The best person to rape and murder is Nadia.

Writer 2: We should make sure to be super graphic about the pain, terror, and torture that Nadia goes through before she had the privilege to die. You know, just in case the viewers don't think rape and murder is vile.

 

I never really liked this show to begin with. I think I'm done. I stopped watching SVU ten years ago because it was too damn creepy. Surely, not all grandmothers can be sexing their grandsons!

[tvfanatic13]

You know what really sucked? The fact they switched the times slots of the two shows and I missed CPD thinking it was on at 10 and only saw the L&O hour. That really sucked. 

THANK YOU fostersmom! I DVR's both and watched in their usual order, and then realize I watched them backwards. Very frustrating watching CPD already knowing what happened in SVU.

[Pandorap]

Well, I'm late to the party, only watching this on Amazon years after the fact.  I thought I missed something and then was so upset that Nadia's death happened off screen.  One minute she was kidnapped and I stayed up late to watch the next episode and everyones upset - I couldn't figure out what was going on.  I really enjoyed Nadia's character and I absolutely hate that they dealt with what happened off screen.  But I'm glad I came on here to read about it because now I know I won't go to SVU and watch that episode - too terrible.  I'm not a fan of all these crossovers and have decided not to watch CF or CM out of spite.  I stopped SVU long ago.