Chicago PD season 6, episode 17 takeaways: Pain Killer

What can One Chicago fans learn from this week’s Chicago PD? Look closer at Pain Killer with our Chicago PD season 6, episode 17 takeaways.

What did One Chicago fans learn from the latest Chicago PD episode? Here’s what we took away from this week’s installment, “Pain Killer.”

“Pain Killer” started on a shocking note when Alderman Ray Price (Wendell Pierce) was shot, but the episode took a hard left when it revealed that Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) was the real target. Voight uncovered a connection from his past, but was unable to make things right with the young man who was behind the sniper rifle.

If you missed any of this week’s episode or just want a refresher on the events that we’re about 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) Wendell Price was wasted

This Chicago PD episode was good, but it could have been great if it had made more use of Ray Price and not turned into a Voight episode instead. The show got hardly any suspense out of whether or not Ray would survive being shot—it revealed that almost right away, when it could’ve had him really fight for his life and kept up the tension.

We really learned nothing about Price’s wife or his daughter, who had brief roles just to move the plot along. And Wendell Pierce, such a brilliant actor, ended up being sidelined except for the opening and then one scene in the hospital.

So much more could have happened if the episode had stayed focused on Price and explored his life and career—but because it was really a Voight story, all of that had to be wrapped up in order for the reveal to happen. If there’s one plus, at least it didn’t demonize Price the way that Chicago PD revealed Brian Kelton (John C. McGinley) to be so terrible.

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2) How much of Voight’s past will come back?

“Pain Killer” was another Chicago PD episode where Voight had some previous connection to the suspect and/or the case. He had originally arrested Darius Tatum, and he felt guilty that the deal he’d made for Darius hadn’t been upheld.

But this is a well that the show goes to often. We saw a similar case in season 4 where Voight first uncovered Denny Woods’ (Mykelti Williamson) secret, season 5 was dominated by the Woods vs. Voight battle, and that season also had “Saved” where Voight knew the kidnapping victim. That’s just recent examples.

One Chicago viewers know Voight has been on the force a long time, and he’s done a lot of things that haven’t been perfect. Yet how many more times can we see the show drag his past out of the closet before it gets to be too many?

3) Awkward beginning?

The opening scene of “Pain Killer” was definitely awkward. Not only did it have virtually nothing to do with the rest of the episode, Chicago PD was making a pretty strange statement. What was the point of making Blair’s (Charles Michael Davis) employment a racial issue? Why is it weird that he’d support a white candidate? Would Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) ask the same question if it was a white person working on Price’s campaign?

It came off as the show saying that black people ought to be supporting black candidates, and that just makes it too simple. The question Burgess should have been asking is why Blair was working to elect somebody who’s already proven to be shady—she could’ve easily brought up how Kelton handled the police-involved shooting in “Night in Chicago.” But instead of asking about the actual issue, Chicago PD created a racial issue where there wasn’t one.

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.