Chicago PD season 5, episode 15 recap: Profiles

Chicago PD celebrated its 100th episode this week with a special One Chicago crossover event! Here’s what happened in Chicago PD season 5, episode 15.

Chicago PD celebrated its 100th episode Wednesday night in the first part of an explosive two-night crossover event with Chicago Fire. Did the episode live up to our expectations?

The 100th episode of Chicago PD, “Profiles,” began with some good laughs and a big bang, a really big bang! Members of both Chicago Fire’s Firehouse 51 and PD’s Intelligence Unit had gathered in their respective headquarters to watch the “new friendly face of the Chicago PD” Sergeant Trudy Platt’s (Amy Morton) deadpan television debut on a local Chicago Cable Access show. However, just as they were getting ready to share a few laughs at Platt’s expense an enormous explosion ripped through the television studio setting the tone and the agenda for the first One Chicago crossover of 2018.

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“Profiles” was less a “traditional” 100th episode celebration than we’ve come to expect from the One Chicago franchise. There was no “happy gathering” taking place that brought together characters past and present to reminisce about the previous 99 episodes. Instead it was a showcase of what makes Chicago PD, together with Chicago Fire, the surprise filled action-packed hour of television that it is.

Detectives had only one lead, the dying words of one of the bombing victims, Sherry, leading them to a man, Eric Mitchell, believed to have delivered the package that contained the bomb. As Intelligence approached the man to bring him in for questioning, his mailbox exploded, killing him instantly. Twelve minutes into the episode and we’re already on our second bomb! Bombs that Kelly Severide (guest star Taylor Kinney) and the CFD identified as being IEDs made with military grade C4 explosives.

The only other potential evidence they had was a low quality picture of a suspicious man near the original blast zone. With little else to go on, they released the image to the public asking for help in identifying him as a “person of interest.” In doing so, they played right into the perpetrator’s plan of using the media and its “fake news” to destroy lives.

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Social media tips quickly led them to a man named Mark, a former security guard in the building with a military history in Explosive Ordinance Disposal. When Intelligence arrived at his home, it was already surrounded by press, media and an angry crowd, who shared the arrest on social media. While he was being held, social media “blew up” with contrived accusations against him and phony testimony of his guilt.

Although Mark seemed to fit the profile of the perpetrator, there was no real physical evidence to link him to the crimes so detectives Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) and Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) started questioning his friends. They soon learned of an incident the morning of the bombing in which Mark had thrown a man out of the studio who had made threats against the now dead reporter Sherry, accusing her of ruining his life through a “fake news” blog post she had written on a gossip site years before.

But that isn’t all that happened while he was being held at the District; a package was also delivered to the front desk, a package that contained a third bomb. Platt saved the day by reading the packing slip before opening the box, a packing slip that accused Chicago PD of “hurting an innocent man by perpetuating the fake news.” Platt’s quick thinking put an end to the bomber’s plan and led to Mark’s release.

Intelligence was then able to quickly track down the blog that Sherry had written and a false murder accusation she had made against a reporter named Shepherd years before. Turns out, the accusation led to intense social media pressure against the newspaper and to Shepherd losing his job, his marriage ending, his ex-wife committing suicide and the loss of his future. In other words, they “blew up his life” based on a “fake news” story.

Shepherd left behind a videotape in which he raged against the media and laid out his plan to hold the media accountable, but when they raided his home he was long gone, having cleared his bank accounts in planning for the attacks. Luckily, the house was full of incriminating evidence. The only possible link they had was to the man who had most likely sold him the C4, George Lair.

In between working the case, Detective Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) was having his own struggles with social media and fake news when he discovered that his daughter had a secret second texting account with pictures of her apparently drunk at a party splattered across it. In reality, though, the pictures were of her arriving at the party to give her drunken friends a ride home.

Having done exactly as the media in his case had done in assuming false guilt, Antonio decided to apologize to the suspect, Mark. When he arrived at the home, it had been vandalized and his daughter hurt by bricks thrown through the window, another victim of fake news and unchecked social media accusations.

With suspect Sheppard in the wind, Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) came up with a possible way to track him down when she analyzed Lair’s phone records and discovered that Firehouse 51 paramedics Gabby Dawson (guest star Monica Raymund) and Sylvie Brett (guest star Kara Killmer) had made repeated visits to his home. They recognized him as a “frequent flyer” with heart problems.

Voight proposed using Dawson and Brett to get the CPD into the home, which at first Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) vehemently opposed. Being fearless, Dawson and Brett convinced him they could handle the undercover assignment which managed to set up tonight’s conclusion of the crossover with the Chicago Fire episode “Hiding Not Seeking.”

Next: Rick Eid, Derek Haas dish on Chicago PD and Chicago Fire crossover

What can we expect from the conclusion on Chicago Fire? It’s not every day that paramedics are sent undercover in a bombing investigation so the excitement and drama is certain to continue as the Chicago PD work more closely than ever before together with Firehouse 51 team to track down a deadly serial bomber.

Chicago Fire airs tonight at 10/9c on NBC.

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