Chicago PD’s premiere caught a killer and sent off Antonio Dawson in Doubt. Find out what happened in our Chicago PD season 7, episode 1 recap.
This week’s Chicago PD answered the question of who killed Brian Kelton, but left one big plot thread dangling.
Wednesday’s episode “Doubt” saw the Intelligence Unit searching for the murderer of the mayor-elect. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) was quickly the prime suspect in the case, but the team largely refused to turn their backs on their bos and eventually found who really did it.
Meanwhile, fans found out what happened to Antonio (Jon Seda), although viewers hoping to actually get a proper goodbye were left disappointed.
Click through this slideshow to find out what happened in the latest Chicago PD episode for each of your favorite characters, starting with:
The aftermath
Like the other two One Chicago shows, Chicago PD‘s premiere was a continuation of the previous season’s finale. The new superintendent (recurring guest star Paul Adelstein) told Intelligence to team up with Homicide in investigating the murder of Brian Kelton (John C. McGinley).
Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) lied and said that Voight was on his way to the scene, but admitted to Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) that Voight had been to see Kelton earlier. And actually, Voight was outside staring as the body was hauled out. He walked in and was told that his SUV had been spotted nearby before the murder. And why was Voight’s number in Kelton’s call log?
Kelton’s former right hand woman Katherine Brennan (returning guest star Anne Heche) also arrived to ask Voight for answers about her ex-boss’s death. “Despite our political differences, I did love the man,” she said. Interesting words for a woman who’d been hung out to dry by Kelton last season.
The Intelligence team, minus Antonio, got back together at the district to discuss initial suspects. They went searching for a gang member named Curtis Monroe without even getting a warrant. Turns out Curtis’s cousin was the guy Kelton had killed last season, and Curtis had sent Kelton a lot of threatening texts.
While everybody else was hot on Curtis’s trail, Voight bailed out Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and sent Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) to get him. Even Ruzek was suspicious of their boss, and told Atwater he was stripped of his police powers and stuck awaiting trial. But of course Chicago PD would give him something to do.
A cop, killer?
After an awkward situation where Chicago PD had Atwater have to defuse the overzealousness of the white homicide detective toward the black suspect, Curtis was taken into custody. He was quickly proven innocent, though he did reveal that Kelton had paid his gang and others to help him win the election.
Upton tried to reassure Halstead that Voight must be innocent, before they found that the gun which killed Kelton traced back to a member of another gang the mayor-elect had paid off. The team went and picked Franco up but he also was ruled out quickly, with cell records putting him in Detroit at the time of the murder. So how did the killer get his gun.
Finally, at almost the halfway point of the episode, Chicago PD had the Intelligence Unit address the Antonio issue. They asked Ruzek to look into it, and he arrived at Antonio’s place to find it wrecked and his colleague’s badge left on the nightstand. Blood was on several broken picture frames. It was clear Antonio had some kind of a meltdown, but where had he gone?
Ruzek called Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), who helped him find Antonio’s car. The car was equally a mess and also lead Adam to Antonio’s Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, who said that Antonio had come to see him the night before and was in a very bad way. They had talked and seemingly worked it out, but when the guy woke up, Antonio was gone.
Ruzek passed the news on to Halstead, who feared the worst. But he and Upton met with one of her informants, who gave them some (off-screen) information about Franco. That got them a search warrant for his wife’s salon, where they found guns and drugs. Voight used that as leverage against Franco, who said his gun was stolen…by a cop. It was taken during a raid and never seen again.
Voight claimed this piece of information “doesn’t really matter” since it wasn’t specific, but told Halstead to keep quiet about it anyway. Jay promptly went to Upton and told her that Voight was involved in that raid; his partner was still skeptical. You know who wasn’t? The Homicide cop.
The final showdown(s)
The Homicide detective asked for a meeting with Jay to tell him that (in a matter of minutes?) he’d found everything out anyway – plus the fact that Voight’s fingerprints were on a glass in Kelton’s living room—and Voight was officially the prime suspect. Despite the suspicions he’d already voiced, Halstead angrily insisted his boss was innocent.
He broke the news to the rest of Intelligence, while passing along the threat of being charged with obstruction. As has been the case on Chicago PD time and again the the unit was unanimous in their decision to stand together. Jay then went to ask Voight point-blank if he’d been involved in Kelton’s murder; Voight admitted he had been at Kelton’s house the day before the murder, and that he’d been the one to pick up Antonio from his sponsor’s place.
He’d taken Antonio to an off-the-books rehab clinic, so admitting where he was on the night of the murder would mean exposing Antonio’s drug habit and ending his career. He also said he didn’t kill Kelton, and wasn’t thrilled that Halstead had even asked the question.
So if Voight didn’t kill Kelton, who did? Platt found another suspect amongst the cops involved in the raid; David Baker had subsequently been dismissed for stealing from suspects’ homes. Unfortunately, Baker was also dead, having suffered a heart attack two weeks earlier. And his landlord identified Brennan as the woman who’d been paying his rent and come to pick up all his stuff.
Connect the dots: Brennan had gotten Franco’s gun from Baker and used it to kill Kelton. Voight went to Brennan’s house alone, while Halstead found her driving Baker’s car two blocks from Kelton’s residence. Confronted with the camera footage Brennan confessed, saying “I did what I had to do.” But Halstead and Upton watched Voight leave Brennan’s place alone.
That didn’t sit well with Jay, who once again ignored Upton’s advice, and went around the back of Brennan’s house as soon as Voight left. He found her in full dress uniform planning to commit suicide. Halstead took her into custody, which infuriated Voight, since he’d made a deal to let the former Deputy Superintendent go out on her own terms. The two had a shouting match in the parking garage which ended with Voight telling Halstead that if he didn’t trust him, to “get the hell out.”
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