Chicago PD season 7, episode 3 takeaways: Familia

What can Chicago PD fans learn from Familia? Look closer at this week’s episode with our Chicago PD season 7, episode 3 takeaways.

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

“Familia” was a showcase for new arrival Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez); she got to go undercover and was essential to bringing down the drug ring running out of a restaurant. But she also made some troubling mistakes.

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) Rojas is a rookie

Rojas screwed up at least twice in this episode, and if you looked closely, you could see the other characters giving her little bits of direction in later scenes, too. It’s very clear that she’s still green, and that’s kind of a cool thing as viewers. After all, it would be weird and kind of off-putting if anyone could walk into this supposedly elite Intelligence Unit and just magically be great at it. What makes them the best is that not everyone can do it.

That being said, Chicago PD did bail her out by having Rojas figure out the way to crack the case, and also by giving her an episode that centered so strongly on her right off the bat. But you have to look at that from a production standpoint too—if the audience doesn’t see that the character brings something to the table, or doesn’t get to know the character, they’re not going to like the character. Certain concessions have to be made, to a point.

Which makes it all the more neat that they were willing to let Rojas fall on her face. Twice.

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2) Farewell to Upstead?

Chicago PD likely irritated some viewers when it partnered Rojas with Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) and broke up the partnership between Upton and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer). Upstead is the strongest professional team that the show has right now, so it was a huge risk to break the two up.

The question is, is it permanent? Upton was told that the bust-up was so she could evaluate Rojas in the field, and she’s done that, so there shouldn’t be any reason why she’s not back working with Halstead. But this wouldn’t be the first time Chicago PD has played musical chairs with its cops. Do you remember when Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) finally joined the unit full-time, and she ended up working with different partners in different episodes?

So let’s see how the writers play this, but if they know what’s best for the show, they’ll get Upstead back together sooner rather than later.

3) Platt is awesome

This really isn’t an observation, but who else was thrilled to see a meaty moment for Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) at the top of the episode? We don’t get enough Platt in general, so that would have been great enough, but the way she handled Rojas was so perfectly Trudy. She was both snarky and informative. That one scene, although it wasn’t very long, proves what the show is missing when Morton is underused.

For the latest Chicago PD season 7 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.