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What we learned from Chicago PD season 5

By Brittany Frederick

CHICAGO P.D. -- "The Thing About Heroes" Episode 503 -- Pictured: (l-r) Patrick John Flueger as Adam Ruzek, Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead, Jason Beghe as Hank Voight -- (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)
CHICAGO P.D. -- "The Thing About Heroes" Episode 503 -- Pictured: (l-r) Patrick John Flueger as Adam Ruzek, Jesse Lee Soffer as Jay Halstead, Jason Beghe as Hank Voight -- (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC) /
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What can we learn from Chicago PD season 5? Here are the three lessons we learned from Chicago PD’s recently completed season.

As we continue to look back at this season of Chicago PD, it’s worth looking at the things we learned or took away from the events of Chicago PD season 5.

The fifth season of Chicago PD included the show’s milestone 100th episode, which was also a crossover episode. It was the series’ first season under new showrunner Rick Eid, and without original female lead Sophia Bush.

Meanwhile, several new characters were introduced, and the bad ending between Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) and Denny Woods (Mykelti Williamson) from last season became the main story throughout this entire season.

Here’s what we learned from Chicago PD season 5:

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1) People hold a grudge forever

According to this season of Chicago PD, people hold a grudge for a really long time. While what happened in last season’s “Grasping For Salvation” was bound to tick off Woods, but it was a shocker that he not only kept his job after that—but also rededicated his entire life to taking down Voight.

And there was Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) being held hostage alongside a man who was still upset about Atwater shooting his son in the episode “Captive.”

Plus, according to the season finale “Homecoming”, what led to the death of Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas) was a grudge carried by the brother of a man who had died during one of Olinsky’s cases years earlier. He had waited until now to get his revenge.

So don’t tick anyone off in the world of Chicago PD, because apparently no one ever forgets it or gets over it.

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2) Your cop family is as important as your real family

We’ve talked before about how loyalty at all costs is a through-line on Chicago PD, but in Chicago PD season 5, we saw several instances of loyalty to the team even coming ahead of family.

Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) originally became a mole for Woods because Woods threatened his sister, but then reversed course and told Woods to take a hike later on, without any thought of what would happen to the sister—and the show never mentioned anything about her after that, so it became a moot point.

Olinsky refused to turn on Voight, despite pleas from Meredith (Melissa Carlson) to protect himself. He clearly loved her, but not enough to listen to her or be that moved by the distress that she was in seeing him in prison.

And though it wasn’t his choice, Chicago PD also had Atwater sacrifice the only family he had early in the season, when he shipped his brother and sister to Texas in “Home.” They haven’t been seen since, and were only mentioned briefly.

That’s very different from past seasons, when we’ve seen Voight and others cross a work line to protect their loved ones. But this season, the series sent a clear message that even family needed to come second to the job.

3) The ASA’s on this show are underrated

They didn’t get a lot of screen time this season, but we did see them enough to realize that Chicago PD has amassed a good collection of Assistant State’s Attorneys. Incumbent Steve Kot had his biggest scene deleted, in what was mystifyingly the last time we saw Chris Agos, who is more fabulous than his screen time indicated.

Agos was followed by Monica Barbaro, reprising her role as Anna Valdez from Chicago Justice and reminding the audience how superlative of a talent she is and why One Chicago was lucky to have her.

And last but certainly not least, Michael McGrady came on the scene and kicked some butt as the newest ASA James Osha, an old friend of Voight’s who actually helped him put away Woods in the season finale.

These are some really great actors to have on your bench, so let’s hope that Chicago PD sees what they did this season and brings them back next season.

Next: Lessons learned from Chicago Fire season 6

What did you learn from Chicago PD season 5? Leave us the lessons or conclusions you took away from this season in the comments.

Chicago PD returns to NBC this fall.

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