Chicago PD season 5, episode 20 recap: Saved recap

Chicago PD put Hank Voight on the other side of a case, so did that make it better or worse? Here’s what happened in Chicago PD season 5, episode 20.

This week’s episode of Chicago PD turned Hank Voight from boss of the Intelligence Unit into the witness to a crime—but it was business as usual for the Intelligence Unit.

Wednesday’s episode is called “Saved” and begins as Voight (Jason Beghe) and Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) have another heart to heart. Olinsky tells Voight that his attempt at planting drugs on the witness against him didn’t work, and that it’s time to just “let it come.”

Note that Voight has no reaction to Olinsky calling it “my plan,” so either he already knew or does not care.

Voight subsequently has Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) lean on a source to see where the case against Olinsky is, before getting a message from a girl named Hannah Cates and bringing Ruzek with him to find her.

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Ruzek asks what Chicago PD fans are thinking: Who is Hannah and why do we care? Voight tells him she’s just “a kid I met” before assuring Hannah he’ll help with whatever her problem is. They won’t be having breakfast, though, as she sneaks off and gets pulled into an SVU by a man she’s meeting in the alley.

Well then. Time for a car chase!

Or maybe not, as Voight has to pull the car over when he hears gunshots coming from a local credit union building. He and Ruzek have just walked into a robbery in progress.

But wait, the exact same type of vehicle that they were chasing speeds from the scene! How many Toyota Land Cruisers could be in this area at the same time? Voight connects the dots, and the rest of Intelligence rolls up to help him out. No one kidnaps someone and then stops to rob a credit union on the way, right?

When Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) brings up how Hannah had Voight’s business card, we get an Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) reference:

"Halstead: He gave one to Lindsay when she was 14."

But unlike Lindsay, Hannah appears to have stayed on the wrong side of the line. And Voight gets more bad news: Ruzek tells him that a special grand jury is convening on Olinsky’s case in just 48 hours.

Chicago PD checks in with Hannah’s deadbeat aunt, who could not care less about her niece. She does give Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) the name of Hannah’s friend she might be living with. Addie is equally smarmy with Ruzek and Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins), yet our heroes aren’t dissuaded.

Voight orders his team to reach out to Vice, before he makes a call—to the voice mail of the Assistant State’s Attorney on Olinsky’s case. Wait, how does he have this guy’s number? And then another robbery goes down, this one with video proof that Hannah was a participant.

It’s no surprise when Chicago PD brings in Denny Woods (Mykelti Williamson) to ask Voight what the heck he’s doing. Voight has to argue his case to Woods, and he’s convinced that Hannah’s been forced into breaking bad. Woods, like us, is skeptical and then has to throw in some shade on his way out:

"Woods: Pretty soon you and Al are going to be tied up. Damn shame about the girl. But you lay down with lions, you get hunted with them."

Antonio shares Woods’ skepticism and isn’t afraid to voice it, but Voight’s guilt shows as he says that Hannah had asked for help with that first ntoe and didn’t get it. “Saved” then has him decide to go shake Addie himself, with the new photos of a gun-toting Hannah. Oh, and here goes the table again.

Addie finally cracks and gives Voight two names to work off of, saying one of the robbers is Mike, Hannah’s boyfriend. The other is a guy named Trent with a rap sheet. But while they’re chasing these guys (and Voight is roughing up Trent), why is Voight sending Ruzek to the Assistant State’s Attorney’s house? Priorities!

Voight beats up Trent some more in the interview room, before finding out the ASA told Ruzek “you’re wasting your time” trying to intercede in the upcoming grand jury. That doesn’t stop him from storming into James Osha’s (Michael McGrady) office and roaring about how the prosecutor owes him. Not a good look, Hank.

Woods is there too, though, and Osha has to physically separate the two of them after another shouting match.

"Woods: The bullet is finally coming for you, Hank. Just has to go through Olinsky first."

“Saved” also reveals that it was Voight’s wife Camille, not Voight himself, who passed his card to Hannah. That doesn’t add a ton of clarity, but it’s a somber touch to the episode’s final ten minutes after Ruzek comes to get Voight back on track. Intelligence has found Hannah and Mike, and so this episode ends with a full-on battle of wits (and weapons).

Don’t worry about all those cars that are in the crossfire. They just have speed holes in them.

Voight decides to go into the car dealership to handle Mike and Hannah himself. He’s realized that she turned to Mike when he (and her aunt and everyone else) wasn’t there for her. But before he can say more, Mike drags Hannah outside and both of them are shot dead. Because you can’t walk out and aim a gun at the cops without them opening fire.

Chicago PD ends with Voight holding Hannah’s body and apologizing, before over a drink he tells Olinsky about how Camille was one of Hannah’s teachers. After Camille’s illness, Voight had been checking in on Hannah until his own son Justin died, and then he forgot—so he blames himself for her death. And we finally see him start to break, just a little bit.

“Saved” tries to change up the Chicago PD formula a little bit, but it actually doesn’t change that much.

We’ve seen our characters close to or involved in crimes before, including but not limited to cases with Voight’s son, Antonio’s son, Olinsky’s daughter, Platt’s dad, Lindsay’s mom, Burgess’s sister, and Atwater’s brother. This is in no way a new concept.

And Voight being a witness doesn’t have any real effect on how he handles the case—he doesn’t have to recuse himself, he doesn’t really put up too much of a fight compared to other examples (like Halstead last season with his undercover op), he just does what Voight does.

That’s a bit disappointing; it would’ve been a nice change of pace to see Voight sidelined, but then again, would he really do that? His own officers don’t listen when he tells them to do that!

On the big-picture front, Chicago PD introduces fans to James Osha, the Assistant State’s Attorney who will be prosecuting Olinsky. Michael McGrady is a great addition to the cast, and another actor who won’t be dominated by Jason Beghe, just like Mykelti Williamson. This plot has dragged, but it is at least cast very well.

Next: Chicago PD's most WTF relationship moment

What did you think of this week’s Chicago PD episode? Leave your reaction to “Saved” in the comments.

Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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