Chicago PD’s Denny Woods is the villain we love to hate, so we’re counting the worst things Mykelti Williamson’s character has done in Chicago PD season 5.
Denny Woods has become the scourage of Chicago PD. He’s spent literally the entirety of Chicago PD season 5 on a vendetta against Hank Voight, which will come to a head in tomorrow’s season finale.
But whatever happens in Wednesday’s episode, Mykelti Williamson‘s character is going to go down in Chicago PD history. He’s gone from being Voight’s former partner and confidante to a man whose sole mission in life is to tear him down and see him behind bars, and he doesn’t care at all if anyone or anything else gets in the way. He’s done things that are illegal, unethical, and just plain make us want to throw something at our TV.
While we wait for the final showdown between Woods and Voight, we’re looking back at the season of Woods’ discontent by talking about his greatest hits—the things he’s done that have been the most problematic or the most annoying to watch. Meanwhile, we’ll talk about how great of a job Mykelti Williamson has done bringing him back and turning him from just a nuisance into a full-blown villain.
Click through the below slideshow as we count down the five most infuriating things Denny Woods has done this season, and let us know what you think about his actions in the comments before tuning in tomorrow to see if he finally nabs Voight in the Chicago PD season finale!
5) Blaming Voight for his daughter’s shooting
In the Chicago PD season 5 episode “Anthem” we thought we might see a more human side of Denny Woods. When Woods’ daughter Brianna became the Intelligence Unit’s best witness in the case of the week, he had to set aside his issues with the team in order to try and do right by his child. Certainly, he could calm down and clear his head enough to realize they all wanted the same thing, right?
Uh, no. The episode took a harsh turn when Brianna defied her father’s words and wound up on the scene when Intelligence was trying to close the case. She found herself not only getting taken hostage as the situation went south, but she was shot in the resulting gun battle and finished the episode in the hospital. We don’t know how long she was there, but it wasn’t until a later episode we found out that Brianna Woods had survived.
How did Denny handle this? Did he express anger at his daughter for not listening to him and her putting herself in the line of fire? No, when Voight (Jason Beghe) tried to comfort him at Chicago Med, he blamed Voight for Brianna’s injury. It was a wonderful performance by Mykelti Williamson but it also proved there’d be no humanizing Woods or being able to reason with him.
Look, we get it. He was terribly upset at the thought that he could still lose his daughter or that she might be paralyzed. We’re not blaming Woods for his grief or anger, but to say it was anyone else’s fault was frustrating. Voight didn’t take his daughter to that crime scene. She has to take responsibility for her actions, and considering that Denny Woods’ whole crusade is about Voight taking responsibility for what he’s done, you’d think he would realize that.
4) Letting the wrong man get convicted
Even before Woods started his campaign of justice against Voight, he was still a jerk. When the Denny Woods character was introduced in the Chicago PD season 4 episode “Grasping for Salvation” it was as Voight’s one-time partner, whom Voight reached out to when one of their old cases came into question.
As soon as Voight pulled one string, Woods’ case against Valentine unraveled fast. The victim’s widow testified that the last man she saw speaking to her husband wasn’t even the same race as Valentine, but that Woods convinced her she saw differently because she was traumatized. He also ignored physical evidence that Valentine’s daughter provided, which would have given her father an alibi.
Like a dog with a bone, Voight kept digging and not only proved Valentine’s innocence, but was able to point the finger properly at one of Denny Woods’ own informants, Mark Scalise (guest star Dana Ashbrook).
Not only was Woods willing to let an innocent man rot to cover for someone else, but he also tried to throw some shade at Voight’s checkered past in order to protect himself before Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) appeared to stop that hype train. Perhaps the most incredulous thing about this season is that Woods somehow kept his job after that nonsense.
3) Almost getting Voight and Price shot
Not only has Denny Woods constantly pushed his own agenda, he’s managed to make a few of the Intelligence Unit’s cases worse throughout the season. There’s no better example of that than the episode “Fallen” when he nearly got both Voight and Alderman Ray Price (recurring guest star Wendell Pierce) shot.
Voight and Price, who had a beef of their own but were able to act like mature adults and put that aside (something Woods could take a lesson from!), teamed up in this episode to try and coax out their murder suspect. They were able to resolve the situation peacefully and convince him to give himself up.
That was, until the three of them stepped outside and found out that Woods had shown up with a half-dozen armed officers. Naturally, the already short-tempered Kane freaked out again and took Price as a hostage before Voight was able to defuse the situation a second time. But it was Woods crashing the proverbial party, entirely of his own volition and making it a way bigger deal than was necessary, that almost got Price dropped and could’ve gotten Voight shot as well.
We get it, Denny: you hate Voight and you’d probably be happy if he died. But putting other people in the crosshairs too? That’s a bit much. In fact, showing up with a horde of SWAT cops is a bit much. But this is a great example of how Denny Woods can’t calm down and seems to only know one way of working: smashing things into pieces. Plus, how great was it that Mykelti Williamson could pop up and in less than a minute still make us want to slap him?
2) Making Ruzek a mole
The first part of Chicago PD season 5 got dicey when Woods began to put pressure on the rest of the Intelligence Unit, hoping someone would inform on Voight. That makes perfect sense; you go at someone through the people close to them, and there’s no one closer to Hank Voight than the officers under his command.
But Woods infuriated fans when he couldn’t get anyone to cooperate voluntarily and decided he would blackmail Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) into being a mole. If Ruzek didn’t give him a way to hang Voight, Woods would ensure that Ruzek’s sister went down for the DUI charges that her brother had helped with; she’d lose her children, wind up being bars, and Ruzek would be out of the force. Needless to say, Ruzek had to turn bad—to a point.
Ruzek told Woods to shove it, and Woods seemingly never followed through on his threats; the worst Ruzek got was grief from Voight. Although this episodes-long subplot gave us some great scenes between Patrick John Flueger and Mykelti Williamson, it was maddening to watch. For one of our heroes to have to choose between his family and his friends? The inherent hypocrisy of being willing to break the law to bust Voight for breaking the law? Taking advantage of a guy who had already been a bit messed up from last season? This one ranks high on our list because it hit so close to home.
1) Olinsky’s fake murder charges
There’s nothing more infuriating Denny Woods could do than what he’s done over the last few Chicago PD episodes. After uncovering the body of Jason Bingham, the man who killed Voight’s son, Woods pushed for Alvin Olinsky to be charged with Bingham’s murder—a choice that now has Olinsky’s life hanging in the balance.
Let’s be fair: there is a legitimate, if shaky, case against Olinsky. It’s Olinsky’s DNA that was found with the body, and Olinsky that a witness saw moving the corpse (along with Erin Lindsay). But Chicago PD fans know that it was Voight who actually killed Bingham, and there’s no way that Woods doesn’t at least have a reasonable suspicion about that, too.
If you really want to give Denny Woods the benefit of the doubt, you could say that he’s just seeing the evidence in front of him, and he’s charging Olinsky in hopes of getting to Voight through his best friend. But that would also be underestimating Woods’ utter lack of morals that we’ve seen throughout the season.
With everything he knows about Voight (he used to work with him, remember?) he has to suspect that Voight actually pulled the trigger. His comment to Voight last week, pointedly asking him who did kill Bingham, seems to suggest that he knows Olinsky is not the killer. Which means again, he’s willing to let an innocent man fall for his own ends. And this time, that innocent man could die.
That’s what makes Denny Woods a memorable Chicago PD villain. He thinks he’s on this crusade to stop a corrupt cop and make things right, but he’s just as wrong and he knows it. Two wrongs don’t make a right—so let’s hope that in the Chicago PD season finale, Woods gets justice; not the kind he wants but the kind he so richly deserves.
Next: Chicago PD season finale predictions
What’s the most frustrating, infuriating thing you think Denny Woods has done? Tell us in the comments and then tune into the Chicago PD season finale tomorrow to see if he gets busted!
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.