Chicago PD season 5 premiere review: Jesse Lee Soffer shines in ‘Reform’

Did Chicago PD season 5 do enough to write off Sophia Bush’s Lindsay? While we got a sense of her farewell in the finale last season, the opening minutes still didn’t feel like a lot of closure. We saw Halstead briefly dealing with empty rooms, and then Voight trying to emotionally process a woman who he treated like a daughter.

After all of that, though, the show quickly dived into the big case at the center of the episode: An incident around an illegal daycare center that led to gunfire and, at the end of the day, a young girl getting shot. Halstead would find himself eventually accused of firing the bullet, and things went from bad to worse that the “independent arbiter” on the case was Denny Woods. That’s complicated for Voight, and the same goes for the cameras that were being placed in interrogation rooms. It was clear from the jump tonight that police reform and hostility was going to be a key part of the hour — and also the remainder of the season.

One problem is clearly the optics: The public won’t care that the daycare center was an illegal operation. They also won’t care that it was gang violence that brought them. They’ll just care that a little girl was shot, or that Ruzek pointed a gun on a black suspect who ended up being innocent. When Jay learned that the little girl actually died, that accelerated both Jay’s devastation and the media attention on the case. He was stuck on desk duty for the rest of the case while Intelligence looked for the real responsible parties in the shooting while out in the field.

Upton and Ruzek were able to get a lead while out in the field, and that led to Voight having to do a different sort of interrogation with the cameras there. He was getting pressure from the higher-ups, but also getting pressure from Alderman Ray Price (Wendell Pierce), a man intent on stopping the police from disrupting his ward. We do think that Ray cares about the state of society, but his intentions weren’t in line with Voight or Intellience. He wants to unite his ward, and demonizing Halstead as a racist is one of them … even if it’s not true.

Voight’s negotiation; Jon Seda’s return

With his own people watching him at every turn, Hank had to get creative in an effort to get justice for what happened. With that, he did his part to arrange a deal late at night outside of the station.

Also, it was around this time when we got a chance to see Antonio Dawson back on the show, doing his part to help out in an undercover operation to pin Marcus for the acts. It’s value to have a face sometimes who is unfamiliar, and this was a starting-out point for him coming back to Intelligence. (This was also a part of an operation where Ruzek had to punch Atwater in the face.) when the whole team finally tracked Marcus down, they realize that he had the bullet wound in question. With that, the team had their guy. Not only that, but we understood more as to why Alderman Price was so protective of Marcus: He had taken donations from local gangs and had a relationship with him. From his vantage point, working with them was a part of politics given that bad people can do good things sometimes.

In the end, Price and Voight were able to come to an agreement: If he was able to lay off of Halstead, Voight would ensure the photo of Price and Marcus never got out. This was a different sort of negotiation from Voight, and we do wonder whether or not these two parties will meet again. We’re sure that Voight and Denny are going to have some further interactions to come, so brace yourself for that in advance.

The latest from Molly’s

Apparently, Burgess has met someone new, and she and Ruzek aren’t together as some people would’ve hoped. Meanwhile, Antonio is officially set to play more of an active role with the team again.

One more Lindsay update

After being assigned desk duty, Halstead asked Voight if he had heard from Erin. His answer? No. He told him to let it go, and so should we.

Our CarterMatt Verdict

This was a great, morally complex premiere that focused on the struggles of Chicago police officers in 2017. The one thing we will say is that we’re a little nervous about a Halstead / Upton pairing, just because it’s so soon and that seems predictable. Personally, we’d prefer to see her with Atwater or someone surprising.

It’s tough not seeing Bush on the show and we wish the show had a larger farewell for Lindsay; beyond that, though, we won’t argue that the performances tonight were anything short of outstanding — especially from Jesse Lee Soffer, who conveyed the character’s pain and loss in every way he could.

What is your own Chicago PD season 5 premiere review?

Let us know in the comments! Also remember that you can head over to the link here to get a better sense of what’s coming up next for the series. (Photo: NBC.)

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