Chicago PD season 5’s best moments, ranked

1. Atwater’s monologue

Speaking of characters dealing with incidents from their past, the episode “Captive” pulled out some baggage for Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins). Atwater found himself abducted and stuck in close quarters with Joe (Mekhi Phifer), a man who still held a grudge against him for the shooting of Joe’s son years earlier.

A large portion of “Captive” dealt with the story of that incident, and the differing points of view that each man had about it. Atwater responded to Joe’s anger by telling him how he looked back on the shooting—not only upset about taking a life, but also having to think about the store clerk whom Joe’s son robbed in the first place. He explained how the shooting weighed on him, too.

This season of Chicago PD was supposed to be topical and deal with what it means to serve as a cop in this complicated time, but the season really didn’t deliver on that front. “Captive” was one of the episodes where the show felt timely, and also emotionally moving.

Atwater’s response to Joe was an illustration of him not only as a police officer, but as a man of color and a man in the Chicago community. It captured him and the concerns he had to deal with in a nutshell, and it showed how powerful this series can be when it tackles the hard truths of being a police officer.

Let’s hope for more moments like that in Chicago PD season 6, because this scene was everything that the fifth season was supposed to be.

What was your favorite moment from Chicago PD season 5? Let us know which scenes stood out to you in the comments.