Chicago P.D. 2×08 Review – “Assignment of the Year”

Antonio fights for his job as well as his marriage, the Team comes together to help, and Linstead goes awkwardly undercover.

This week on Chicago PD the crazy random robbery and murder of a diamond dealer lands Antonio (Jon Seda) in hot water, as he was working security off duty for a guy who ends up being an international criminal. This of course brings a lot of heat to Roman (Brian Geraghty), whose security detail Antonio was making a little side money with when the robbery/murder went down. The whole team gets in on the action to help and save one of their own from an Internal Affairs investigation. The “old timers” Hank (Jason Beghe) and Al (Elias Koteas) get to work on trying to help Antonio keep his job, Linstead goes undercover at a sex club of all places, and Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) spends most of the ep sulking. Let’s jump into Chicago PD “Assignment of the Year!”

The quietest murder ever?

So as we had seen previously, Asher (the diamond dealer) and his wife Layla, don’t have the healthiest of relationships. Antonio and Asher drive away from a sex club, leaving wife Layla behind due to some marital disagreement that we are unable to decipher. Asher wants to stop for smokes and Antonio does his best to remind him that Asher told him never to buy him cigarettes. This of course doesn’t sit well with diamond dealer Asher, who makes Antonio stop to get his cancer sticks.

“Who are you? Jiminy Cricket?” ~ Asher to Antonio

Now, maybe we have been watching too much CPD and we are becoming investigators on this side of the screen as well, but that dump truck in the gas station??? All too convenient. We smelled a set up straight off and so did the CPD. The other thing that also seemed suspect this week, was that no one in the gas station mini mart heard a gunshot. And what’s up with the team getting into crazy shoot outs in the middle of public areas? While we appreciate the excitement of it all, we found ourselves covering our eyes hoping no civilians, as well as any members of the CPD team were hit. Something we could believe in this week though? Antonio’s heart. This week we saw a lot of Dawson’s heart on his sleeve, both for his job and his wife and kids. The passion that jumped off the screen from Jon Seda this week really made the episode for us, as well as keeping us hooked in to see if our boy Antonio would pull thru this mess. He was cleared of any wrong doing in this robbery gone wrong case, but it remains to be seen if he will make it through his marriage struggles as easily as he did with this would be very complicated matter.

When does a cover up become not okay?

While the team does various undercover work to try and clear Antonio in the case, Voight and Olinksy are at work to try and create an on-going investigation involving Asher the diamond dealer. Why do we get the impression that doing this isn’t exactly legal? But the intelligence team prefers to keep things in house as we know, so we weren’t actually surprised at this turn of events. Is this an example of real life internal shady dealings in police work? Or is this the magic of television? The thing that bothers us about this “in house” mentality and secrecy of certain details within the unit is that it starts to make us question the team and their integrity a bit. We love these characters; we believe in them and know them to be good guys. But the shady back door dealings and cover ups that Hank is able to seamlessly orchestrate does make us start to second guess his honesty in other matters.

“There are ways to re-write history?” ~ Olinksy

While typically these questionable police practices are only utilized toward the greater good of the case or the team, is this causing the viewer to have doubts about Hank Voight himself? While we love his rough nature and he almost always saves the day, we hope that these inside jobs that Hank always insists on doing aren’t foreshadowing a future incident that would cause either the team or the viewers to lose faith in our fearless leader Hank Voight.

Great cast of characters, Hard to learn more about them though

While every episode is jam packed with action, it is just that; jam packed. With a cast on the larger side, it’s hard to get into the nitty gritty of each officers backstory and home life situation. This show is very well written and we know that there is so much more to come from this season and we look forward to learning more about our cast of characters. Scenes with Burgess (Marina Teresa Squerciati) and Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) really pop off the screen because they are invested in each other as previous partners and most of all friends, so expanding upon the friendships between those as well as others would be a great way to get on a more personal level.

“It’s gotta be a couple… Halstead and Lindsay.” ~ Voight

The couplings on this show would also be another way that the viewers could connect with the characters in a more personal way. We haven’t seen very much of Ruzek (Patrick Fluegler) and Burgess (Marina Teresa Squerciati) this season at all, and exploring the past history of Hank and Al would be a welcomed treat as well!

CONCLUSION/FINAL VERDICT

This week’s episode Chicago PD was mild in comparison to recent weeks content, which only drew our attention to the back door dealings and not always legal methods of one Hank Voight. We trust this team and we want to trust Voight but all this “in house” activity makes us question his honesty to anyone other than himself. Jon Seda was explosive this week as Antonio fought for his career and it was nice to see him be a central focus in this episode. We look forward to more episodes which give us the chance to learn more about the characters on a personal level, and develop a connection to them other than just the officers of the CPD. After all, they have their struggles and successes as individuals as well, and that is what makes these characters such a joy to develop on our screens each week.

QUESTION COMMENTS AND CONCERNS

• When Jon Seda was boxing that bad guy in the face we were totally impressed! Turns out he was once in the Golden Gloves! Thanks for that fun fact @derekhaas !
• If Lindsay joins the task force, does that mean she and Halstead can date?
• That super awkward moment in the sex club when Halstead said “Play time… um um for my girl!” LOL!
• Ruzek really wanted to be the undercover on that job huh? He spent most of the episode whining about it!
• More of Atwater and Burgess together! Love their scenes and their friendship!
• When Roman challenged Voight back regarding his security business, well let’s just say we were surprised Voight didn’t give him a beat down for that!
• Loved it when Olinksy was kickin it old school on the typewriter!