Chicago Justice episode 2 review: Did Atwater go to prison?

Through most of Chicago Justice episode 2 we had some fears about the fate of a certain Intelligence member. So did Atwater go to prison at the end of the day? There was a serious danger of it over some allegations of police brutality, but just as the name of the story suggests, justice found its way in the end.

The biggest issue that came through in the case tonight was the way in which the victim died: A wound that was mind during an altercation turned into so much more, and it was a resulting death nobody could have saw coming. Therefore, it was possible that Kevin could have just roughed up the guy and the complications led to what happened. It’s not altogether unheard of when you think that someone in Intelligence could be accused of brutality, given that Voight straight-up murdered someone in the finale last season and Olinsky wanted to do the same thing over the death of his daughter.

The good thing about Atwater is that he’s a good cop who tries to do the right thing, and he just found himself in a bad situation this time where everyone was looking for someone to blame. He was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

What this episode in particular did fantastically is show the public nature of the State’s Attorney job. Mark Jefferies held a press conference proclaiming that Atwater would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and they made an example out of to say that police would not be let off easy for crimes that they supposedly committed. Regardless of Kevin being let go at the end of the episode, this untrue reputation is going to continue to haunt him in some capacity. (Still, a wonderful performance by LaRoyce Hawkins tonight — we’ve long been an advocate of more Atwater airtime.)

Still, Peter Stone did his part to make things right, publicly apologizing to Kevin after identifying the real killer: The victim’s cellmate behind bars, a man who struck him in a petty argument over a cigarette. It was nothing, and this still turned into something so much more.

Is Chicago Justice on the right track?

We definitely think so. While we do still need to get to know some of these characters better, this was a significant step up from the pilot in terms of stakes, and delivering a great standalone hour of television that linked well with Chicago PD. If we do continue to see cases like this, we do think that Justice could end up becoming as a whole the strongest entry in the entire Chicago canon. Grade: A-.

Here’s the funny thing — we’re getting three episodes of this show in less than a week! The next installment airs on NBC Tuesday night, and you can some more news on what to expect over here.

What did you think about this past episode of Chicago Justice? Share some of your thoughts with a comment below right now! (Photo: NBC.)