S05.E18: Ghosts

[doLLish]

Upton brings back an old undercover identity to help take down a meth ring spearheaded by a former contact; with pressure from Woods mounting, Voight calls in a favor for Olinksy.

[FnkyChkn34]

What was Voight's favor? Did I miss it?

Also, are we to assume that Jay spends the night? 

The episode was pretty boring; I guess I still just don't care much about Upton. 

[rhys]

This show has become unbearable. Upton is awful. I don't care about her & wish she were terminated tonight. She's a terrible actor. Bring back more time with Al  & Kevin & Trudy.  Urg

[LittleIggy]

Titus Welliver was awesome as usual.

Upton sure has a fancy apartment. Wonder what the rent would be.

[preeya]

1 hour ago, LittleIggy said:

Titus Welliver was awesome as usual.

Upton sure has a fancy apartment. Wonder what the rent would be.

Welliver, always awesome. (Can't wait for Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch)

Upton, loathsome. (she is just horrible as the lead; keep her in the background)

[watcher1006]

In my opinion Tracy Spiridakos has gotten somewhat better over the time she's been on this show but I still don't think she can carry an episode centered around her Haley Upton character. This show used to annoy me from time to time because it was too often about Erin Lindsey, but Sophia Bush could pull off the acting required.

[Guildford]

That was like watching paint dry, Upton has zero personality & her and Halstead have all the chemistry of road kill.

[UNOSEZ]

Ugh.. Jay all up in haileys business.. So needy... And boring.. This episode was blegh.. And show please switch up the pairings... Maybe burgess and halstead would be fun.. Atwater and Upton.. Let's get ruzek and olinsky out on the street again

[greyhorse]

Wow, I guess nobody here likes Upton but me?  I have a crush on Tracy Spiridakos, so I am biased though.

I thought the storyline was compelling, and the Bosch guy was fearsome.  Loved all the attempts to trip her up and mess up her UC backstory.  I can't imagine doing UC work and the risk that you take personally.  I feared that she had gotten raped on NYE, and relieved that she got saved by her then partner/boyfriend.  Wasn't anticipating that they actually were together though.  Upton told Halstead that it was just all for show when he asked her. Would two cops already romantically involved be both on the same UC job? I suppose we've seen Halstead and Erin already together and they were partners, and it looks like he and Upton are headed the same direction.

The tag line says Voight calls in a favor for Olinsky.  Al was on for about one minute at the opening of the show at Millennium Park, where all I heard Voight say was that he would turn himself in if the heat got any worse.  Maybe I missed something?

[Sandman]

1 minute ago, greyhorse said:

I thought the storyline was compelling, and the Bosch guy was fearsome.  Loved all the attempts to trip her up and mess up her UC backstory.  I can't imagine doing UC work and the risk that you take personally.  I feared that she had gotten raped on NYE, and relieved that she got saved by her then partner/boyfriend.  Wasn't anticipating that they actually were together though.  Upton told Halstead that it was just all for show when he asked her. Would two cops already romantically involved be both on the same UC job? I suppose we've seen Halstead and Erin already together and they were partners, and it looks like he and Upton are headed the same direction.

I don't get the hatred for Spiridakos or Upton. I found this episode was very efficient, and ratcheted up the tension nicely. I think Spiridakos has done fine with the material she's been given. Though I really hope the show doesn't turn Upton and Brown Halstead into romantic partners. That's happened too often already. I have nothing against Sophia Bush, but Erin hasn't been on the show for nearly a year, and it's still all about her. I'll tell you what I don't care about: whether Voight is ever going to go down for murder. We all already know he won't. Dragging out this Woods plot is making me almost not care about Al. I already don't care about Antonio, but he's never going to speak out against Voight again.

[preeya]

8 minutes ago, Sandman said:

I don't get the hatred for Spiridakos or Upton. I found this episode was very efficient, and ratcheted up the tension nicely. I think Spiridakos has done fine with the material she's been given. Though I really hope the show doesn't turn Upton and Brown Halstead into romantic partners. That's happened too often already. I have nothing against Sophia Bush, but Erin hasn't been on the show for nearly a year, and it's still all about her. I'll tell you what I don't care about: whether Voight is ever going to go down for murder. We all already know he won't. Dragging out this Woods plot is making me almost not care about Al. I already don't care about Antonio, but he's never going to speak out against Voight again.

1

IMHO: She is not a good actress, especially as the lead character. Just sayin'

[Sandman]

There are much worse performers on the show, in my opinion. (Beghe himself is very limited, if you ask me. That raspy voice does most of the work of establishing the character.) That's fine; we can agree to disagree.

[Guildford]

10 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

What was Voight's favor? Did I miss it?

 

I guess they cut it & suddenly it will be mentioned again in about four weeks time & we will sit & scratch our heads & wonder WTF that was about. 

[doLLish]

I don't really care for the Upton character but I enjoyed the episode. I liked all the UC stuff and the bad guy was pretty excellent.

The "Voight calls in a favor" thing confused me too. I checked several episode descriptions and they all were the same lol.

I miss Sophia.

Edited March 22, 2018 by doLLish

[Sandman]

I think undercover stuff almost automatically makes me nervous, 'cause I figure someone's bound to screw up: somebody leaves a phone unattended, someone calls out to you using the wrong name; someone almost forgets what the hell were the names of my skanky cover identity's parental units ... yikes -- but I thought Welliver did a pretty believable job of playing Ronnie's simultaneous suspicion of and obsession with "Kelly."

[mommalib]

They need to pair Upton up with Atwater , I think he would make her more interesting.

[UNOSEZ]

16 minutes ago, mommalib said:

They need to pair Upton up with Atwater , I think he would make her more interesting.

Everyone is more interesting with atwater.. He brings bit out if them.. Just anything that isn't the paint drying boredom if Upton and halstead... I can imagine atwater and Upton actually laughing.. Can't see that with her current partner... Plus those two together are always gonna elicit memories of Erin and Jay 

[12catcrazy]

I think the problem with Upton is that the actress who plays her seems to have one facial expression.  No matter what the situation is, she always has this almost bemused poker face.   The actress is beautiful, so I enjoy looking at her,  and for a while I thought she was just playing Upton as being someone who can keep her cool all the time but c'mon.   She was put in some heavy-duty stuff in this episode and every scene she had the same expression - almost Sphynx-like.  

And re her apartment - I said to my companion that Chicago detectives must get much better pay than the Firepeople do because the Firefolk all seem to be rooming up so maybe they can't afford such a swanky-looking pad.   

[dreamcatcher]

I really can't enjoy this season and that's mostly because Tracy looks like a poor man's Sophia. I have nothing against Tracy, but they are trying to make her act like Erin, they're forcing jay/haley...it reminds me of how Criminal Minds handled kicking out two of their female leads-and it was never quite the same. Would it have been so hard for the writers to find something original to write AND to keep her away from Jay?

[eastfield]

I’ve read these forums for a while, never bothered to make an account till now because I really don’t get how the episode ended.

 

Are we really supposed to believe Jay would pull a gun and blow the entire operation just because the guy wanted to check for a wire?? I didn’t think they were wearing wires anyway? I didn’t get his reaction and I’m having a hard time suspending disbelief. They were about to bust the guy and Jay was going to blow the whole thing just because the guy was acting paranoid... anyone care to enlighten me?

[Lyanna19]

Ok just a quick comment cause I just skimmed this episode, gonna watch it later, but I really don't get the hate for Upton. I think she's an awesome actress, and to me she has wonderful facial expressions, she says so much more with one look than most actors do with most an episode.

The ending had me a bit wanting, I think the hookup with Jay is going to happen, but I really think they should have had Upton cry this one out on Jay's shoulder, that would have been powerful, much better than kissing ( which hasn't happened yet, but am hoping it will, I know I know there are haters out there, but there's something between these two, but this time I really think he should have just held her and let her weep it out) 

Gee maybe I should be writing for this show lol

[Lyanna19]

Ok sat down and watched it fully, just a thought here, if Upton (as Kelly) was almost raped by this guy, beaten and such, how the hell would he even think that she would ever trust him and come back to him for something more? Either she thinks he's stupid, or the show writers think we're stupid, I don't know maybe it's just me.

[Advance35]

I really liked it and I'll join the party table that actually enjoys Upton a great deal.  I think she's tenacious, meticulous, gutsy but her flaws make her interesting.  I think to a degree, she lacks an instinctive kind of strategy.  She knows the rules and plays by them and will even maneuver them to the best of her ability, but there is a quality the other characters have that she doesn't.  I wouldn't call it cunning, but it's there and it makes her dynamic with everyone more interesting to me because of it.

She's so solitary (by choice) that it automatically makes me root for her to connect.  The guy that saved her from Booth way back when clearly meant a lot to her and everything that happened is the closest thing she will ever get to closure.  Adding to that, I'm under the impression that the reason "Garret" was killed, was because he saved Hayley that night.

I also really like her chemistry with Jay and I would totally root for them if the writers went there.  

[Lyanna19]

@Advance35 all you said ?

@greyhorseand @Sandman we should start a cheerleading group for Upton. Just kidding, but in all seriousness I'm glad there are more Upton likers than just me.

I too thought this was a powerful episode, Upton was great, trying to hide her disgust, and doing an awesome job, but I literally felt her pain, and like I said before I think they should have had Halstead giving her the physical contact in just a hug, it would have done so much, I hope he didn't leave her, she may have said she wanted to be alone but she really needed someone

Edited March 25, 2018 by Lyanna19
Typo

[Jaelyn96]

Upton is horrible and wished she did leave the show. I was actually rooting for the bad guy. She isn’t that good of an actress. 

[Sandman]

On 3/25/2018 at 1:05 AM, Lyanna19 said:

Either she thinks he's stupid, or the show writers think we're stupid, I don't know maybe it's just me.

Yeah -- that's a definite plothole; keeping the events of that New Year's Eve as a Shocking Reveal (or, y'know, not) means that "Kelly's" reasons for coming back look pretty suspect. (I mean, Upton clearly does think Ronnie is stupid, but I never rule out the possibility that these writers think the viewers are pretty dumb, too.)

[Advance35]

Did anyone else notice Upton didn't cop to actually loving Garrett, we were led to believe she did and she didn't deny it, but even after everything that's happened, it's not something she's willing to speak about, not even to Jay, it's just too painful.

I've liked Upton since her debut but this episode really stoked the fire IMO.  She can exude camaraderie, empathy and even warmth, but she's still so closed off.  She really appears and feels like someone that prefers to keep the rest of the world at arms length.

Just very interesting character beats this episode.

[Dvldj]

Meh. 

Anyone think Hank would really step up if push came to shove?

The episode was slow which seems to have become the norm. Case was ok. Guess we got to see a little about Upton's background but nothing too revealing other than she too enjoys office romances.

Also, why is Upton's only expression halfway between a smirk? Her serious face, her resting face, her scared face, her bluffing face all half smirks that just can't be taken seriously.

[Dvldj]

On 3/24/2018 at 12:59 AM, eastfield said:

I’ve read these forums for a while, never bothered to make an account till now because I really don’t get how the episode ended.

 

Are we really supposed to believe Jay would pull a gun and blow the entire operation just because the guy wanted to check for a wire?? I didn’t think they were wearing wires anyway? I didn’t get his reaction and I’m having a hard time suspending disbelief. They were about to bust the guy and Jay was going to blow the whole thing just because the guy was acting paranoid... anyone care to enlighten me?

Jay was being protective of Upton because of her history with Booth. He warned him not to touch her in such an intimate way while searching for a wire because of the past rape attempt. And as he'd mentioned to Voight, he wasn't sure her head was clear for the case. So when Booth got handsy again he was prepared to step in and keep her from reliving that moment.