Warning: spoilers are forward for Episode 13 of Chicago P.D. Season 12, known as “Road Jesus” and streaming subsequent day with a Peacock subscription.
Chicago P.D.‘s newest episode within the 2025 TV schedule received off to an uplifting begin for Kevin Atwater as he helped increase funds for a neighborhood heart in his neighborhood… which after all meant that all the pieces went downhill because the episode continued, beginning with a taking pictures shortly after the fundraiser ended. The case hit near residence in multiple manner for the officer, so it was no surprise that he struggled. He earned a lecture from Voight for it, together with a callback to arguably the character’s most well-known line from the sequence premiere circa 2014.
Atwater did all the pieces he may to maintain the title of man out of the case for the sake of the neighborhood, to the purpose that Ruzek lastly needed to push him to return clear to Voight. The sergeant wasn’t blissful that Atwater had been withholding info, however wasn’t unsympathetic when the case ended with that good man useless on the road. Voight conceded that they did not need to let or not it’s identified that Hype had been carrying a wire for the CPD to guard his legacy, with Atwater responding with “Respect that, Sarge,” as it can “go a great distance with all of the native bankers, the companies.”
They agreed on a model of the reality that stored the person’s title out of any reviews, however Voight had one final parting message earlier than they went their separate methods:
Kevin, do not misinform me once more. I do not care how noble your aims are. Simply do not do it. That is not how issues work round right here…. You inform me the reality so I can lie for you.
And that is a message that Atwater first heard uttered by Voight greater than ten years in the past, when he mentioned the identical factor within the very first episode of Chicago P.D., manner again in 2014 when even Chicago Fireplace was solely in its second season. After all, “Road Jesus” wasn’t the primary time that the sentiment has been echoed over time since 2014, with Halstead even inverting it again in Season 9 when he informed Voight to all the time inform him the reality so he may defend the sergeant from himself. (Ah, the great outdated days of Upstead vs. Voight drama!)
Nonetheless, seeing Voight drop his “inform me the reality so I can lie for you” line made me need to rewatch the very first time he mentioned it, about six minutes into the very first episode as streaming on Peacock now. Whereas it was unusual the see the squad room stuffed with lengthy gone characters like Sophia Bush‘s Lindsay, Jon Seda‘s Antonio, and Elias Koteas as Olinsky (though he returned to play hallucination Olinsky in 2024), I really paused the episode after I noticed Patrol Officers Atwater and Burgess and found simply how younger LaRoyce Hawkins appeared in his first outing as his character.
If you happen to do not imagine me and do not feel like checking the sequence premiere for your self, simply check out then and now!
Clearly I knew that 2014 was a very long time in the past earlier than I queued up the pilot to rewatch, and LaRoyce Hawkins was in his early 20s when Season 1 began airing all these years in the past. However dang it, seeing Atwater again when he was an officer on Platt‘s patrol workforce jogged my memory of how far he is come since then, and the way a lot he is been by way of. I do want that a few of these experiences over the previous twelve seasons had resulted in him lastly making detective, however Burgess is the one officer to get the promotion to date.
Did Atwater actually need the reminder about the way in which issues work within the Intelligence Unit, and Voight’s coverage of mendacity for his officers in the event that they inform him the reality? Perhaps not in a standard episode, however he went by way of the emotional wringer in “Road Jesus.” That mentioned, I am nonetheless unsure how he may go from giving a speech in his neighborhood as Kevin Atwater after which going undercover later in the identical episode.
Based mostly on the promo for the subsequent episode that may air on Wednesday, February 26 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, Ruzek is about to be thrust again into one in all his most emotional circumstances in recent times. Have a look:
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As if younger Zoe hadn’t been by way of sufficient in her first episode, she’s apparently going to be kidnapped in her second! I do hope that the episode may even characteristic Jack Coleman as Disco Bob once more, and maybe Ruzek’s sister after the clues dropped final time.
As all the time, P.D. closes out NBC’s hit One Chicago block of primetime, which begins with Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET, continues with Chicago Fireplace at 9 p.m. ET, earlier than ending with Voight and the Intelligence Unit. If you wish to revisit the pilot like I did and even Zoe’s first episode forward of subsequent week’s, you will discover each P.D. installment streaming on Peacock now.