Chicago PD season 6, episode 5 takeaways: Fathers and Sons

Did Chicago PD give Adam Ruzek fans the episode they deserved? Look closer at this week’s episode with our Chicago PD season 6, episode 5 takeaways.

What did One Chicago fans learn from this week’s Chicago PD episode? Here’s what we took away from this week’s installment, “Fathers and Sons.”

“Fathers and Sons” involved the return of Bob Ruzek (guest star Jack Coleman), the not always on the level dad of Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger). Adam questioned whether or not his dad was involved in the case of the week, and things around Intelligence got awkward.

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) Fatherhood is hard

Between this episode and the Chicago Fire one that preceded it, this wasn’t a good week for dads. We saw Benny Severide (Treat Williams) and Bob Ruzek both have better days, with Bob making things a lot worse for himself than they had to be.

Neither man has ever been up for Father of the Year but still, it makes you wonder why multiple dads in One Chicago can’t seem to get their stuff together (or in Bob’s case, get their stuff screwed up). It seems they all have issues, or are jerks, or sometimes both depending on the character.

This was a good episode for Ruzek, giving him plenty to do and some great moments with his dad, but it’s hard not to wish it didn’t come at the expense of his dad.

Maybe Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) should teach a parenting class, because he seems to be the best of the bunch.

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2) Some characters don’t get any love

While the added focus on Ruzek was great, since Chicago PD has short-changed him a lot, did anyone else notice the almost total lack of Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) this week? She had only one significant scene in the whole episode. Ditto Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), who was only in the opening scene.

All the characters can’t be stars every week, but there’s got to be a better way to balance the scripts so that one character having the spotlight doesn’t mean others wind up practically not in the picture. Especially when those are people like Platt, who already isn’t seen enough.

3) Dramatic license is alive and well

This is a minor nitpick, but “Fathers and Sons” bent a few concepts to set up its story. Given that it was Upton who went undercover, you’d expect her partner Halstead to work with her throughout this episode. Halstead was experienced, too, having gone undercover as a drug dealer with Upton in last season’s “Ghosts.”

Instead, Halstead was almost entirely sidelined in favor of Ruzek. Why? There was no in-canon explanation, but for fans it was obvious: so the writers could put Ruzek in position to run into his dad, and of course play with the budding Ruzek/Upton pairing more. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s another moment where the show is doing what’s a good idea at the time, rather than a good idea overall. That’s not something it wants to fall into the habit of doing.

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