S05.E14: Anthem

[Jaded]

Quote

A basketball star is found murdered after an anti-police rally; a politically charged environment must be navigated while tracking down the killer; complicating matters further, Woods' daughter Brianna is tangled up in the case.

[Dvldj]

This episode was a bit boring and very preachy. I know Dick Wolf likes his ripped from the headlines story but, in my opinion this one was not executed in the best way. 

Best part was when Hank and Danny started shooting. It kinda seemed like Hank was about to get some ammo on Danny with the way he was firing. I was expecting the perp to have dropped his weapon and for Danny to continue shooting so he would owe Hank who would help him get out from under it but nope. It ended up being a clean shoot.

And once again family is lost. None of these characters get to protect their loved ones...what do the writers have against happily ever afters? Hank lost his wife, son, and never sees the grandkid. Alvin lost his wife (separation), daughter, and long-lost daughter was never seen again. Kevin lost his brother and sister (moved away for fear of retaliation). Antonio lost his entire family and we rarely hear about or see his kids. Kim lost her sister. And now Danny's daughter. Man...it's not safe being their kin.

With that said, I feel that now (with nothing to lose) Danny will blame Hank for his daughter's death and the inaction he feels led to it and come after him harder.

[Tony4Brett]

5 hours ago, Dvldj said:

This episode was a bit boring and very preachy. I know Dick Wolf likes his ripped from the headlines story but, in my opinion this one was not executed in the best way. 

Best part was when Hank and Danny started shooting. It kinda seemed like Hank was about to get some ammo on Danny with the way he was firing. I was expecting the perp to have dropped his weapon and for Danny to continue shooting so he would owe Hank who would help him get out from under it but nope. It ended up being a clean shoot.

And once again family is lost. None of these characters get to protect their loved ones...what do the writers have against happily ever afters? Hank lost his wife, son, and never sees the grandkid. Alvin lost his wife (separation), daughter, and long-lost daughter was never seen again. Kevin lost his brother and sister (moved away for fear of retaliation). Antonio lost his entire family and we rarely hear about or see his kids. Kim lost her sister. And now Danny's daughter. Man...it's not safe being their kin.

With that said, I feel that now (with nothing to lose) Danny will blame Hank for his daughter's death and the inaction he feels led to it and come after him harder.

Antonio didn't lose his kids. His daughter was last seen in episode 3 and his son Diego was last seen in a cut scene on Fire. Kim didn't lose her sister, Burgess took time off to take care of her. But yeah, I agree with what you said although I did find the episode awesome. 

[preeya]

I absolutely hate Bubba Gump's (Mykelti Williamson) character. He needs to be eliminated, sooner than later.

Edited February 8, 2018 by preeya

[Dvldj]

49 minutes ago, Tony4Brett said:

Antonio didn't lose his kids. His daughter was last seen in episode 3 and his son Diego was last seen in a cut scene on Fire. Kim didn't lose her sister,

Right. Forgot Kim's sister was raped and not raped then murdered (for some reason I was thinking she was also killed). But when I said Antonio lost his kids what I mean is he didn't get custody of them. The last we heard about custody was that the wife had full custody and had taken the kids off with her to be with her rich boyfriend (and was subsequently neglecting them) so that is what I was going off of. I know we've recently seen the kids but there was no mention of what, if any, changes to custody occurred. 

15 minutes ago, preeya said:

I absolutely hate Bubba Gump's character. He needs to be eliminated, sooner than later.

The character is not one of my favorites either but they need a "bad guy" this season. Last season it was the Alderman until Hank turned him around. Still, I am in accord. Unless the series is ending with this season, we all know how this investigation into Hank Voight is going to end. It's just a matter of time before Denny Woods is caught with his hands in the cookie jar or goes one step too far in his pursuit to catch Hank red-handed.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Dvldj

[FnkyChkn34]

Why does Denny Woods need a family and a backstory when we haven't even seen the main characters' families and backstories in years?  I'd much rather have an update on Al's wife and daughters, or Antonio's kids, or even Burgess' niece, than some brand new character related to a villain I don't care about.  I didn't care that she died because I didn't even know her.

This episode was ok, but it could have been so much better than it was.  I've been a huge fan of JLS/Halstead since I started watching, but for the first time I thought his acting last night was subpar.  Maybe he was meant to show no emotion when talking about Afghanistan?  But it was just a bit off to me; didn't come across well.  

It is nice to see Voight squirm a bit, knowing that Woods is on to him.

[Andrew Wiggin]

They should Hank squirm ?

It was all his own fault.

He spilt the Beans that would happen to his own daughter.

Without that she wouldnt be there.

[Xantar]

Am I supposed to feel sorry that the girl got shot and possibly died? She basically made the dumbest possible decision at every turn. 

[VinceW]

19 hours ago, Dvldj said:

With that said, I feel that now (with nothing to lose) Danny will blame Hank for his daughter's death and the inaction he feels led to it and come after him harder.

Voight stopped Danny from rushing into the lounge in order to avoid a slaughter inside, but Voight let Danny decide about giving the suspects a car. Antonio did his part by getting the suspects started on negotiations for a getaway car. The daughter was just headstrong over her feelings for the boy friend which led her to the lounge after the father trashed the boy friend and their future together. Antonio warned the girl not to run once she was taken outside no matter what happens. I don't see what else the team could have done except it did look like Halstead had a shot at both of them once the suspects reached the car especially the suspect holding Antonio, but the girl ran and events went sideways fast.

Edited February 9, 2018 by VinceW

[watcher1006]

Danny Woods knew the team was sending in the basketball player wearing a wire into the bar. If he knew his daughter well at all he might have anticipated she could go off the rails when she learned the truth about the deal her boyfriend was getting. I would think he would have put off telling her until after the operation went down.

[Guildford]

While this season has been a vast improvement over last year and in general they are showing more of the team solving cases they are constantly letting themselves down with the lack of continuity. And not the big things like suddenly talking about Jay's time in the Rangers, Hank's sons murderer rearing it's ugly head, it's the little things. 

By that I mean they bring in these people related/tied to characters we know for one episode & we are supposed to care about them. It doesn't work. They need to established the connection to our favourites before they kill them off (or rape them, torture them or banish them to the other side of the country never to be seen again) The reason Al's daughter's death was more impactful was because we knew Lexi. Nadia's death was shocking because we had established a relationship with them.

We were supposed to feel sorry for Antonio last week when he bonked that cop & then she died - sorry didn't care about her & didn't really care about the impact on Antonio because you knew that it would not even be acknowledged this week, and low and behold it wasn't.  Ruzek almost destroyed his career over a sister that we have never heard of before or again and Woods has been around for the past two weeks and it's like that SL no longer exists. Atwater got drilled in the leg & didn't even have a limp or a comment that he was on desk duty for a week until it healed, nope completely fine. Burgess had this new wonderful guy that we met once & were supposed to feel sorry for her when she got dumped...maybe if we had the chance to like the guy or hell even know the guy, but you know she's fine now - so again why should we care. If they put a bit more effort into fixing up these minor things...and all it takes is a few lines here and there it would go a long way

So this week we are supposed to care about Woods's daughter and Wood's...nope. But I guess we will now get Woods being even more vengeful than ever. Yay!! (because this storyline hasn't dragged on long enough already.)

A very weak episode to go on a break with tbh...but at least we got more Al..so yay for that.

[SuzieQ]

This whole episode seemed like just a plot device to make Woods hate Voight even more and come after him even harder.  The whole rest of the season will be dedicated to this.  We already knew he wanted Voight gone, so seems like overkill to me.  These "Hank in trouble" plots are getting tiresome.

Edited February 8, 2018 by SuzieQ

[Tony4Brett]

I know running was a bad choice but the guy didn't have to shoot her. He could have just let her run to her father. 

[Raja]

On 2/8/2018 at 6:36 AM, Dvldj said:

 

The character is not one of my favorites either but they need a "bad guy" this season. Last season it was the Alderman until Hank turned him around. Still, I am in accord. Unless the series is ending with this season, we all know how this investigation into Hank Voight is going to end. It's just a matter of time before Denny Woods is caught with his hands in the cookie jar or goes one step too far in his pursuit to catch Hank red-handed.

The minute that he started with :forget the past, this is my family" all that I could see was Captain Acevedo doing the same thing over and over again with Sergeant Vic Mackey on The Shield. I think every season will have a big antagonist just in case they get a cancellation notice and are able to put up the story with Sergeant Voight being brought to justice for a finale.

[preeya]

15 hours ago, Raja said:

The minute that he started with :forget the past, this is my family" all that I could see was Captain Acevedo doing the same thing over and over again with Sergeant Vic Mackey on The Shield. I think every season will have a big antagonist just in case they get a cancellation notice and are able to put up the story with Sergeant Voight being brought to justice for a finale.

Off topic, but The Shield was a great show and Acevedo was as unlikeable as Bubba Gump. 

[Sandman]

Boy, I'd hate to be the agent for any actress guest-starring on this show.

"So, it's a new female character introduced in this episode. She's the daughter of this season's Big Bad (or "She's a visiting detective, training with Homicide, who gets tagged into an investigation Intelligence is running.") I think you'd be great for it."

"Is there potential for recurring?"

"Er ... Let's go with No." (Alternatively: "Hahahaha! You're funn -- oh. No.")