Chicago PD season 5, episode 18 takeaways: Ghosts
Did Chicago PD teach us something about Upton? What about her partnership with Halstead? Here are our Chicago PD season 5, episode 18 takeaways.
Last night’s Chicago PD answered some questions about Hailey Upton, but we’ve got a few more now that we know the secret she’s been hiding.
Wednesday’s episode was called “Ghosts” and saw Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) go back undercover when a former adversary resurfaced. But Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) found out that the case was deeply personal for her, as the target had also killed her partner and tried to rape her.
If you missed any of this Chicago PD episode or just want a refresher on the events that we’re discussing, you can catch up with our “Ghosts” recap.
Here are our Chicago PD season 5, episode 18 takeaways:
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1) Upton’s imperfect past
When we met Upton in Chicago PD season 4, she was a pretty by-the-book Robbery Homicide cop. But in “Ghosts” we learned that Upton is willing to color way outside the lines.
So much of her behavior in this episode contradicted our original perceptions of her. Was she behaving so recklessly just because it was this case, and she had so much personal at stake? Or has she always been willing to bend the rules, and we just haven’t seen it that much until now?
That’s a question worth asking, because what made Upton such an interesting addition was how her way of looking at the world was different from the rest of Intelligence. If it turns out she’s living in that same grey area, then she’s not that different.
Regardless of the answer, we did get to see a Hailey Upton who was flawed, vulnerable and in a bad way—and much like we saw with Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) last season, that’s often when we find remarkable things in our characters. Upton certainly gained a few respect points in this episode.
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2) Are Halstead and Upton great partners?
After how much stuff Halstead went through earlier this season, it was a nice touch to make him part of Upton’s story and be the one that had to pull her back. “Ghosts” could have just made this all about her, but it chose to have Halstead play a big part, too.
We saw Halstead trying to rein Upton in much as she did for him in the whole Camila storyline, and that he was willing to be firm with her. He didn’t threaten to get another partner, but he showed a dose of tough love and turned up at her apartment at the end of the episode. They’ve come pretty far from partners who couldn’t quite figure each other out 17 episodes ago.
And their partnership has been genuinely fun to watch on its own merits. Obviously there was a high bar here with the shadow of Linstead, but Upton and Halstead have had different strengths and weaknesses, and are helping each other develop together through these storylines where now both of them have been in trouble.
They make a good match as partners (and please, let’s not have the revelation that Upton was in love with her ex-partner be planting the seed of some new attraction to Jay—these two are friends and don’t need to be anything more!)
3) Will Voight really give up?
There was one footnote at the start of this Chicago PD episode, and that was Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) declaring that he’ll turn himself in if the investigation into the death of his son’s killer goes any further. That’s a bold statement for Voight to make, and we wonder if he’ll stand by those words. He definitely means them now, but can he follow through if push comes to shove?
That would be jaw-dropping, considering the number of times Voight has either been able to get off the hook or keep someone or something else from being uncovered. His whole career is about skirting the law, so now for him to say he’ll accept it—that could be a game-changer. Let’s see if he has to keep his promise.
Next: Learn more about this week's Chicago PD guest star
What did you take away from this week’s Chicago PD episode? Leave your thoughts on “Ghosts” in the comments.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.