Chicago PD season 5, episode 14 recap: Sisterhood

Chicago PD dealt with vigilante justice, but could the case of the week be justified? Here’s what happened in Chicago PD season 5, episode 14.

With Chicago PD returning after a two-week break on Wednesday, the Intelligence Unit had to pick up their pieces and get back to work. So was it business as usual for TV’s toughest cops?

Season 5, Episode 14 is called “Sisterhood” and starts off in another Chicago dive bar, where Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) are trying to make a deal. The undercover gig isn’t going well, but Atwater hears that there are plans for a gang initiation in the works.

The two pass their information to the rest of the unit, and Intelligence swings into action. But the team can’t find the car that Atwater described. Instead, they venture iside and find blood all over the place, then a dead woman in the next room.

This is how horror movies start. And it has to be something far more than a gang initiation.

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Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) arrives on the scene to find out that the teenage victim was raped and killed. The car was located elsewhere, but it’s on fire and it was stolen anyway.

The bleak situation prompts Voight to call for help again, and Scott (that’s Johnathon Schaech from That Thing You Do, more than 20 years after that movie) works with Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati).

The two identify the victim as Daniella Rios, but her mother tells them that the bracelet they found at the scene actually belongs to the girl’s friend Tina. And Tina’s bruises prove that she was also there, but she won’t cooperate.

All of this is giving Burgess a headache, not to mention striking a nerve, considering that her sister was an assault victim in last season’s “Last Minute Resistance.”

Burgess tells Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) that after all that, the guys who attacked Nicole only got two years behind bars. Before she can elaborate any further, Ruzek interrupts to say he’s been able to crack the gang’s code of text messages. Some handy phone magic later, and it’s time for an arrest party!

Or it would’ve been, if their two prime suspects weren’t dead in front of their TV and missing the relevant parts of their anatomy. Yes, Chicago PD has another vigilante on the loose.

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Voight holds a one-on-one meeting with the gang leader, because Hank Voight can do that. The man doesn’t admit to anything, and so Voight puts him right on top of his naughty list. He also can tell that Burgess is ticked off, and warns her to “keep [her] head straight.”

Burgess and Scott question Tina again needing to know if she told anyone what happened to her and Daniella. She denies saying anything to anyone, but she has a boyfriend named Dante, and so they have to question him by default even though Tina swears he has no idea that she was hurt.

Dante is indeed clueless, but he mentions another rapist, saying that he knows of a high school janitor who raped someone else. And when our heroes follow up, turns out that guy wound up dead as well with the same modus operandi.

The only suspect was going by the alias of “Q,” which immediately makes us think of this guy. But no, Q on Chicago PD is a woman who’s in another gang, and now the title of this episode becomes immediately apparent.

"Upton: Most people cringe at something like that."

Upton and Burgess question her back at Intelligence. Burgess tries to play the “you’re a strong woman who stands up for people” card, saying that she deserves a trophy for triple homicide, but Q isn’t buying it. Not only that, but Burgess snarks at Ruzek a little, pointing out that everyone assumed she was a man. Yes, Kim’s still on tilt.

Ruzek and Atwater trace the two rapists’ last movements, and a guy at the local pizza joint says that he saw them with a woman named Veronica before they died. Veronica is, naturally, tied up with Q’s gang. Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) uses his contacts to set up a trap for Veronica. And the gender dialogue continues as Upton tells Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) that women are tougher to flip than men.

The would-be bust goes awry as Veronica hands the backpack off to another girl, whom Burgess and Scott corner inside a nearby high school. Who is she? Well, that’s Tina.

Halstead questions Veronica about being used as bait for Q’s murders. What happens next is what you’ve seen on several other cop shows: she won’t roll, and the team threatens to blame her for it instead. So Burgess convinces Tina to wear a wire and watches, emotionally, as Q talks about her own assault before they bust in and arrest her.

Chicago PD then cuts to Burgess asking Voight to cut their perpetrator a deal, because it’s not like she’s “killing choirboys” here. Voight cuts her rationalization off, but tells her that there is one way she could get a break: if Q rolls on Pena, the gang leader they were trying to catch at the start of the episode. Q even tells Burgess and Upton that she “appreciates” the deal.

"Upton: If you don’t mind me asking, how’s your sister doing?Burgess: Not so good. She’s trying. But it’s a process, a long, complicated process."

With just minutes to go, Chicago PD has a surprise car pass Q something they can’t identify. Voight proceeds with the operation anyway, and is anyone shocked when Q pulls a gun on Pena, then kills him? She tells Burgess that he was the man who raped her, and now she’s taken back her power.

That night Burgess finds herself in Voight’s office, and admits that she hesitated in reporting the car. Voight sits her down and tells her that it doesn’t really matter, because he was going ahead no matter what. He thinks “Chicago is a better place with Jorge Pena dead,” and he and Burgess drink to the man’s demise:

“Sisterhood” is an awkward episode for Chicago PD. Practically speaking, it’s an entertaining one with enough action and another meaty installment for Marina Squerciati.

But it also feels like it’s trying to make a point about women being overlooked that is never fully developed, and doing so in a way that is honestly quite heavy-handed. The scenes with Burgess and Ruzek, and then Upton and Halstead, seem there just to be there so the audience hears the message the show is trying to impress.

And the other female characters in the episode are stereotypical tough girls, down to the smarmy “look how tough I am” behavior. Whatever the point is, it falls flat when we don’t care about any of these people, except for Tina—and even her you can’t really empathize with, because she’s gotten herself into even more trouble by not cooperating.

Even the ending is one of those conclusions where it’s supposed to be shocking, but anyone who has seen enough TV can guess it before it happens. And we see Chicago PD‘s questionable morals come up again, where Voight shrugs off Burgess’s lapse in judgment because it’s okay, he wanted the perp to get his anyway. But is it really okay? That’s up to the viewer to decide, but it still feels uncomfortable.

Plus, some of these plot devices we’ve seen before, this season even. Burgess appealing to Tina to wear a wire, even though she can feel for her, is akin to Ruzek convincing his source to wear a wire while also being a mole himself in “Monster.” This episode may have had intentions to tell a good story about gender and systemic failure, but it doesn’t come together.

Which makes it all the more awkward that Chicago PD season 5 makes a callback to “Last Minute Resistance.” That episode had something to say, too, but it was a legitimate and timely point, and it was done in a way that was organic through the storyline. Bringing memories of that episode in this one, only points out how “Sisterhood” isn’t able to accomplish the same result.

Next: What Chicago PD season 5 needs next

What did you think of this week’s Chicago PD episode? Leave us your thoughts on “Sisterhood” in the comments.

Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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