Chicago PD midseason finale recap: Descent

Chicago PD’s midseason finale put Antonio Dawson to the test and he failed. Here’s what happened in Chicago PD season 6, episode 9.

The Chicago PD midseason finale brought out the worst in Antonio Dawson, but it also left One Chicago fans wondering where he—and the show—go from here.

“Descent” focused on Antonio’s (Jon Seda) drug problem, but decided to start not with that, but another scene of Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos). Ruzek wanted Upton to move in with him; he also wanted to have sex with her on the kitchen island.

This was eyebrow-arching on a number of levels; for one, this is the guy who moves so fast in relationships that he’s been engaged three times. For two, that’s not sanitary. Mercifully, their makeout session was interrupted by a phone call.

Ruzek then phoned Antonio, who was at his doctor’s office trying to get more drugs. When that didn’t work out he erupted at the doctor insisting he wasn’t an addict, then went home and put his fist into a mirror.

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This drew the attention of his daughter Eva, who no doubt was already wondering why her dad looked like he’d been up on a week-long bender. That talk did not go well.

Unable to reach Antonio, the rest of Intelligence went on a drug bust without him. It was suspicious as heck that they were “flying blind” with no information on their suspects whatsoever, but let’s chalk that up to dramatic license.

Because without it, Chicago PD couldn’t have given fans the moment where Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) chased a suspect down an alley only to find out it was Antonio.

Confronted by his colleagues, Antonio ran through more awkward excuses: he was already on the scene, he was working a lead of his own, of course he forgot to call. Burgess went so far as to follow him to his car to make sure he was okay, but it only led to her seeing a pill container in his car.

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The next morning Intelligence started to pull together notes on their new drug case while Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) continued to press Antonio on his weak story. Lying to Voight is a cardinal sin, but Antonio still had excuses for every question his boss posed.

He then went down to lockup, to try and shut up his drug dealer, who was not happy to wind up behind bars. He expected things to be fixed, or of course he’d start squealing about the cop who was hooked on pills.

Antonio urged him to cooperate and save both of them, then went back to Voight wanting to offer up a deal, but Voight wasn’t interested in giving Carter immunity. Not in “an election year.” When did Hank Voight start caring about politics or optics? But the conversation was enough to have him call an unseen Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), telling her to move the dealer far away from Antonio.

Chicago PD then cut to a desperate Antonio being busted by Voight while he was buying drugs on the street. He was caught red-handed, and went from making more excuses to crying and making apologies. Well, that de-escalated quickly.

Voight promised to look out for his right-hand man, because Intelligence always looks out for one another, no matter what. Of course, Hank Voight’s idea of help was not hand-holding. He decided that Antonio needed to pack a bag. But that was before somebody abducted Eva.

(For those of you keeping score, that’s two people close to One Chicago main characters who have been put in jeopardy during three fall finales. Small world.)

Chicago PD‘s drug case was now a kidnapping case. The rest of Intelligence came over to check out the apartment and look for clues, which allowed Antonio to confess to them about his habit as well. The best part of this scene was the very slight arch of Jesse Lee Soffer‘s eyebrows as if Jay Halstead couldn’t comprehend this at all.

Carter didn’t have any information about Eva’s abduction, so it obviously had to come from a place higher up the food chain. At least Halstead and Upton found a woman who had seen it happen and a security camera. The camera led them to a license plate which gave them a car owned by a guy named Jason, who was both a drug dealer and a convicted rapist. Cue warning speech:

"Voight: From this moment on, we are off the books. You want to walk, walk now. No one’s going to judge you."

“Descent” saw the whole Intelligence team raid Jason’s house, but the only person there was his roommate. They found Eva’s backpack in the garage, just before Antonio got a demand call from Jason, ordering him to release Carter or else.

Voight went back to Carter, who Chicago PD revealed was also Jason’s cousin. Carter continued to claim innocence, but now also told Voight that Jason was crazy. With that knowledge in hand, our boss called in a favor—he wanted to acquiesce to the demand and cut the dealer loose. News of that made its way to Deputy Superintendent Katherine Brennan (Anne Heche), who refused to do him the favor.

Meanwhile, news hadn’t yet reached Antonio’s ex-wife Laura Dawson (a returning America Olivo), who throttled her husband once she heard the truth. While she slapped him, Voight put the hurt on Carter to get the name of one of Jason’s associates. The team went to his house and recovered Eva, bloodied but alive.

This was the setup for a classic Chicago PD scene: having tracked down Jason, Voight and Ruzek let Antonio beat him up for a minute or two. But this one didn’t stop there; things went too far and the dealer slash rapist fell out the window to his death.

While sirens were heard just moments later, the three of them had to decide how to cover all this up—and that’s where Chicago PD season 6 is leaving the audience. Will Antonio be on the hook for murder, or will Intelligence somehow make it go away, like they’ve done with so much else?

For the latest Chicago PD season 6 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.