S05.E12: Captive

[doLLish]

The intelligence unit rallies to rescue Atwater when he disappears from a convicted felon’s house.

[UNOSEZ]

Strong episode.. But that's usually the case with atwater episodes... Tracy spiradakos and Jesse Lee soffer made some free money this week... Atwater and Burgess are still really the only 2 I care abt.. But it was nice to see the Trudy join in the fun... Still waiting for Atwater and Upton to have a convo.. If they have I sure don't remember it

[spunky]

This episode was fantastic! Round of applause to LaRoyce and Mekhi for showcasing their undeniable talent. CPD writers please give LaRoyce more to do. Poor Kevin was in an impossible situation, but his brains over brawn approach not only saved his life but assisted his team in getting to him. I also liked that he had compassion for someone who wanted to kill him for doing his job. 

Kim and Adam being in fear of loosing their best friend showcased how close those three truly are. Adam's reaction to Antonio unintentionally killing their only lead at the time was priceless. 

Voight truly sees his team as family, he was willing to kill in order to find Kevin. I don't usually agree with his tactics, but boy was I ready for old Voight to emerge.  Thank goodness there was only a sighting of old Voight.

Kim embracing Kevin was not only sweet but showed their brother/sister relationship. Trudy's tearful hug has me thinking that she has played a major role in Kevin's life before he became a cop.

[UNOSEZ]

That was a very maternal hug from trudy wasn't it... I like ruzek well enuff but I just live the bro/sis relationship tween atwater and burgess.. If Jay Antonio and al all left I don't think I'd be too affected... Smaller cast means more character growth and if this season has shown me anything it's that voight burgess and atwater are by far the most interesting ppl on this show

[doLLish]

I thought it was the best episode of the season thus far. The show finally seems to be getting its groove back.

[Chas411]

Atwater has been the breakout of This season by all accounts. The rest have kind of lost me if I'm honest.

[Guildford]

Atwater, Ruzek and Platt....what more could an episode want. Far and away the best of the season. It felt like old school PD with all the team getting their hands dirty.

Platt has been so underused this season it's not funny so it was great to see her upstairs and helping out. I did wonder if the extra long hug at the end is foreshadowing that Platt is going to retire by season's end and that way they can completely ignore downstairs.

The Ruzek/Atwater bromance is one of the highlights of the show for me. They work well together and the actors themselves have great chemistry. Ruzek's emotional outburst was spot on.

Burgess returned to her non-pod self this week. Proving that you can be a good, strong cop without being an cold biatch like last weeks strange performance. It was also nice to see that they haven't completely forgotten that Halstead is struggling with his quiet moment at Molly's...and very little Upton so all in all....a job very well done by the PD writers.

[FnkyChkn34]

I mostly agree with all of the above comments, especially those that say this was the best episode of the season.  LaRoyce was fantastic.  Everyone had a role, even if it was small, so it was nice to see the entire cast again like last week.  I also agree with the above comment that it was nice to see Jay still a bit out of it, yet back to doing his job.  He's functional, but not whole.

I'm still not the biggest fan of either Burgess or Ruzek, but I don't really hate them either.  They're just "meh" usually, but both were good in this episode.  Antonio taking the shot to save his team when he knew he shouldn't have - but still had to do it - was a good scene.  He was right, what if the guy shot and killed them all?  Then Atwater would still be in trouble...

We all agree that we need more Trudy?  I hope she doesn't retire.  I don't think she's as old as her gray hair makes her seem; I think she's prematurely gray and not ready for retirement yet.  

[Xantar]

Even if this wasn't an excellent episode, I would like it just for Trudy singing karaoke.

[greyhorse]

Riveting episode.  Would love to see how they got out of the chains.  Was it just by having Atwater keep pulling?  Because that seems unrealistic.

I'm surprised that the guys on this unit don't have some other GPS tracking device (other than their phones) on their body at all time, given the crazy and dangerous stuff they do.

[Ailianna]

I wasn't sure if there were any other casting changes coming up, so at first I was concerned that Atwater wouldn't be in the episode and it would be all about finding him without getting his story.  Then I started to really worry about his safety and whether we were going to lose him.  Then I thought he was going to save himself and I loved him for it.  Then I thought Joe Baker would save him...  So for me it was good because it focused on a character and actor I really like, but as others said, also really well written and actual tension, which is rare for a main character in trouble story anymore.  

[mommalib]

15 hours ago, Chas411 said:

Atwater has been the breakout of This season by all accounts. The rest have kind of lost me if I'm honest.

Basically this, Atwater is my favorite character by far and this was the best episode of the season.

[JustS]

I loved the focus on Atwater. This season feels more like an ensemble show. I'm hoping they focus an episode on Olinsky and another on Antonio. 

I didn't hate the Lindsay character, but to me the drama surrounding her character was dragging down my enjoyment of the show. I'm glad other characters are getting the spotlight every week. 

I really enjoyed this episode. 

[Dvldj]

So far, this has been the best episode of the season. I really enjoyed watching Atwater work those two clowns. Mekhi's character was great as well. Really amazing job by these two. 

I will never tire of seeing Hank and Al in the cage intimidating people. I could watch a show centered solely around that.

Also, I am just so curious about how much is in that safe exactly. LOL. Whenever there is a need for flash money and a LOT in a short amount of time, Hank always goes to that safe.

[sweetandsour]

I don't doubt that there are variations in the actors' talent, but I have to wonder why the writers write some characters so poorly and other characters much better.  In some instances, that's heavily related to the actors' talent (like Scott vs. Stiles in Teen Wolf). LaRoyce gets better material than most of the cast.

Really I just came here to voice how I appalled and amused I was by Kim's Arsenio Hall fist pump during Trudy's karaoke song.  Yes, less appalling than last week, but appalling all the same.

I didn't know why Atwater gave the pseudonym "AD" which is clearly for Antonio Dawson, but called one of Ruzek's undercover burners. That wasn't the key to clueing Ruzek in on Atwater's buying-time ruse.  It doesn't mean anything, but it didn't make sense to me.

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, sweetandsour said:

I didn't know why Atwater gave the pseudonym "AD" which is clearly for Antonio Dawson, but called one of Ruzek's undercover burners. That wasn't the key to clueing Ruzek in on Atwater's buying-time ruse.  It doesn't mean anything, but it didn't make sense to me.

I think A.D. is Adam's undercover name (maybe just one of many).  It didn't even dawn on me that AD could have stood for Antonio Dawson until you said that now, because it was very obvious to me that if Kevin was going to call anyone, it would be Ruzek.  I was actually making AD an abbreviation for Adam, as in the first two letters...

[sweetandsour]

9 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I think A.D. is Adam's undercover name (maybe just one of many).  It didn't even dawn on me that AD could have stood for Antonio Dawson until you said that now, because it was very obvious to me that if Kevin was going to call anyone, it would be Ruzek.  I was actually making AD an abbreviation for Adam, as in the first two letters...

LOL that certainly checks out! I heard initials and thought, well this can't be arbitrary, who's initials are AD?

I'm gonna blame this brain-blip on two things - tv PTSD from the horribly convoluted "AD" plotline from Pretty Little Liars and being continually aghast at Arsenio Hall-Burgess.

[Lyanna19]

Awesome! 

Had to laugh when I saw Haley and Jay peeking out of that attack of pallets, 

I loved the scene where Rusek "lost" it there for a minute and Burgess threw herself between him and Antonio. Awesomeness...

Not enough Jay and Haley for me, but I loved that they are covering the others too. 

[Ailianna]

19 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

I didn't know why Atwater gave the pseudonym "AD" which is clearly for Antonio Dawson, but called one of Ruzek's undercover burners. That wasn't the key to clueing Ruzek in on Atwater's buying-time ruse.  It doesn't mean anything, but it didn't make sense to me.

 

18 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I think A.D. is Adam's undercover name (maybe just one of many).  It didn't even dawn on me that AD could have stood for Antonio Dawson until you said that now, because it was very obvious to me that if Kevin was going to call anyone, it would be Ruzek.  I was actually making AD an abbreviation for Adam, as in the first two letters...

He didn't call Ruzek specifically.  He called his own phone (remember they recovered both his personal and work cell phones from the car), and it was a number he could dial from memory, which I think rules out someone's burner which would change all the time.  He was taking a chance that the women wouldn't answer the phone, but he could just tell them to get the "man" on the phone if Burgess or Upton answered.  

[Guildford]

15 minutes ago, Ailianna said:

 

He didn't call Ruzek specifically.  He called his own phone (remember they recovered both his personal and work cell phones from the car), and it was a number he could dial from memory, which I think rules out someone's burner which would change all the time.  He was taking a chance that the women wouldn't answer the phone, but he could just tell them to get the "man" on the phone if Burgess or Upton answered.  

I think Adam said it was his UC phone when it rang when he was talking to Burgess and he retrieved it from his own desk. From that I assumed the Atwater called Ruzek's UC because he knew Adam wouldn't answer it like he would answer his regular phone and say his name. If it was his own phone he would have said 'Ruzek.'

[FnkyChkn34]

14 hours ago, Guildford said:

I think Adam said it was his UC phone when it rang when he was talking to Burgess and he retrieved it from his own desk. From that I assumed the Atwater called Ruzek's UC because he knew Adam wouldn't answer it like he would answer his regular phone and say his name. If it was his own phone he would have said 'Ruzek.'

I concur - Ruzek definitely said something just like that. 

Maybe they all have to memorize other undercover phones in case of emergency? Not sure why Atwater knew it, that's a good point, but it was Adam's phone. 

[VinceW]

On 1/20/2018 at 7:56 AM, Ailianna said:

He didn't call Ruzek specifically.  He called his own phone (remember they recovered both his personal and work cell phones from the car), and it was a number he could dial from memory, which I think rules out someone's burner which would change all the time.  He was taking a chance that the women wouldn't answer the phone, but he could just tell them to get the "man" on the phone if Burgess or Upton answered.  

(cell phone buzzing) Ruzek: "That's my UC phone. Maybe it's a tip. You know?"

(cell phone buzzing continues; he picks up phone) Ruzek: "Yeah"

Atwater: "Hey. A.D."

(Ruzek knocking on his desk) Atwater: "A.D. What's up man?"

[SnarkySheep]

On 1/19/2018 at 12:23 PM, sweetandsour said:

I don't doubt that there are variations in the actors' talent, but I have to wonder why the writers write some characters so poorly and other characters much better.  In some instances, that's heavily related to the actors' talent (like Scott vs. Stiles in Teen Wolf). LaRoyce gets better material than most of the cast.

While LaRoyce is certainly a talented actor, I actually don't like his scenes too much because he almost always mumbles. I haven't seen him in anything else, so I don't know if it's a LaRoyce thing or a Kevin thing. But it makes it harder for me to get into whatever he's doing when I have to rewind and give his dialogue another listen.