Chicago PD season 7, episode 14 recap: Center Mass
By Kari Highman
This week’s Chicago PD gave Vanessa Rojas a difficult case that reminded her of her past. Find out what happened in our Chicago PD season 7, episode 14 recap.
Chicago PD had the newest member of Intelligence in the spotlight this week, as Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez) took the lead on a messy case. The first clue she followed led her to a dead body; the second had her come face to face with a mentally ill young man.
“Center Mass” also saw Vanessa get a little more personal, especially with her partner Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins). She opened up about her past experiences, as well as how it allowed her to understand certain aspects of the investigation.
Between her interrogation tactics and her outstanding crisis management skills, this episode showcased sides of Vanessa Rojas we haven’t gotten to see since her debut.
Click through this slideshow to find out what happened in the latest Chicago PD episode for each of your favorite characters. Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments at the end of this article.
A simple favor
The episode began with Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) walking down a hospital hallway, picking up after the events of last week’s episode. Burgess was being discharged, and told Ruzek that she needed some space. She also said that he should go back to work.
Chicago PD then shifted to Vanessa, who ran into an old friend at the district. When Ben asked for a favor, Vanessa said of course she would help, as she “wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” His problem? An addict friend of his named Roberto Pena had gone missing. Vanessa assured him she would look into it.
Vanessa ran into Kevin in the locker room, and she explained why she was doing Ben this favor: she had known him since she was six. Atwater told her that he’d accompany her on her search, and while Kevin and Vanessa were questioning people in the neighborhood, they got a call over the radio that their missing person was found.
Unfortunately, Roberto was dead, much to Ben and Vanessa’s dismay. She promised Ben that they would find the person that killed him. After Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) told Vanessa that there was no problem with Intelligence taking the case, she swung into action.
Vanessa grabbed Detectives Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) to help her investigation Pena’s last known location, an abandoned church. They learned that Roberto used to hang around with someone named Sammy, who told Rojas and Upton that he’d seen Roberto the night before when they’d both attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
He also insisted that there had been a man following them in a blue pickup truck. Sammy claimed that the detectives ought to know who the guy is, as he’s “CIA rank.” And he revealed that he had traded legal advice to Roberto for snacks, since Sammy went to law school for two years.
Back at the district, Upton found security footage that confirmed Sammy’s blue pickup story. The blue pickup belonged to an ex-con named Joe Mason. Voight sent Halstead and Upton to stake out Joe’s place, and when he ran from them, they gave chase. Jay tackled him to the ground before he got very far.
Cut to Hank interrogating Joe, who told Voight that Roberto stole his cocaine. Joe admitted that he went to the house Roberto had been squatting in to get his drugs back, but insisted that he did not kill him. Vanessa and Kevin went to find the house and see who, or what, might be there.
While she tried to figure a way in, Vanessa revealed to Kevin that she knew squatters usually didn’t lock windows. When Kevin gave her a puzzled look, she explained that she knew that handy fact because she too spent some time on the streets. It was the first of many details about Rojas that Chicago PD would reveal in this episode.
But when the duo finally got inside, Rojas realized Sammy had lied, as they found evidence he had been at the house with Roberto. Suddenly, Sammy was their prime suspect in the murder, but he’d since gone missing.