Chicago PD season 6 premiere takeaways: New Normal

What should fans take away from the Chicago PD season premiere? Learn more about this week’s episode with our Chicago PD season 6, episode 1 review.

What did One Chicago fans learn from last night’s Chicago PD season premiere? Here’s what we took away from this week’s episode, “New Normal.”

“New Normal” saw Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) suspended by Deputy Superintendent Katherine Brennan (recurring guest star Anne Heche), who really just wanted to use Voight as her weapon to help her boss get elected Mayor. And it turned out to be hard to run the Intelligence Unit.

If you missed any of last night’s episode, or just want a refresher on the events that we’re going to discuss, you can catch up with our Chicago PD recap.

Below are our takeaways from this week’s episode:

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1) Ruzek is a loose cannon

This is not a new revelation, but more reinforcing an old one. The Chicago PD season premiere proved in no uncertain terms that Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) needs anger management therapy.

Ruzek has never been a saint, but his fuse has been getting shorter and shorter over the last two seasons and Alvin Olinsky’s (Elias Koteas) pushed him over the edge. This whole episode was him in a state of meltdown, snapping at everyone and with little regard for anyone else. And oh yeah, trying to beat up on Antonio.

Every Chicago PD character is affected by Olinsky’s death, but in Ruzek’s case, it’s just pointing toward something that was already there.

Maybe he can ask Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) for his therapist’s number?

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2) Brennan needs to prove herself

To Chicago PD fans, that is. Katherine Brennan may be the Deputy Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, but is anyone else totally not impressed? Anne Heche doesn’t have the screen presence that Mykelti Williamson did, and the fact that she’s physically smaller than the actors she’s in scenes with doesn’t help her.

This isn’t to take anything away from her acting ability, but since Chicago PD is so much about being tough, that presence matters more. We have to believe she could hold her own with Voight and company (whether it’s physically or in her assertiveness). And right now, that’s just not there.

Remember Jennifer Beals’ performance as Superintendent in The Chicago Code? That’s what we’re kind of looking for. Let’s see if Brennan develops into the next Teresa Colvin.

3) Olinsky got the sendoff we all deserved

Chicago PD season 6 finally gave Olinsky the farewell that was long overdue. “New Normal” had the scenes that “Homecoming” should have had. It was kind of salt in the wound that the episode didn’t have enough time for the audience to mourn Olinsky’s loss; sure, the Intelligence Unit was busy for most of the episode, but knowing the importance of the character, the script should’ve carved out something at the end.

Instead, it didn’t really allow characters or fans to say goodbye, and the one scene where they did got cut out (and then deleted off YouTube, and then reuploaded). So with this episode, we finally were able to lay Olinsky to rest—and give him the respect he more than earned.

What are your thoughts about this week’s episode of Chicago PD? Let us know what you took away from this episode in the comments.

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