Chicago PD season 7 finale recap: Silence of the Night

Hunting for the truth

Doyle convinces Atwater to have a drink with him that night. But as they’re driving, things get awkward. Doyle apologizes again; Atwater doesn’t want to talk about it again, to the point where he threatens to get out of the car. Then Doyle spots two black guys on a street corner, one of whom is holding a duffel bag. He thinks he sees a possible drug deal; Atwater replies, “Why? Because he’s black?”

But Doyle pursues his theory by pulling up alongside the guy with the bag and asking what was in it. The kid refuses to cooperate, and Doyle chases him into a building, after which shots ring out. Atwater follows only to get into a shootout and find Doyle wounded on the floor. In true Chicago PD fashion, we’re soon told that Doyle has died. He’s not the only one; the guy whom he approached in the first place also didn’t make it through.

Intelligence arrives at the crime scene and tries to figure out if Doyle was right or not. While the bag contains nothing but a pair of Air Jordans, Rojas confirms that the place was being used as a stash house because drugs have been found, and Ruzek has partial plates for the car the two shooters fled in. Voight informs his team that they’ll do whatever they have to do in order to find the cop killers.

Atwater gives his initial statement to the IRT investigator who has also arrived, explaining that the situation started as “a routine stop and frisk.” He also notices a Ray Price image at the scene, just before Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) arrives. She advises him to put in an appearance at Doyle’s father’s house, where his friends and family have gathered. It’s super-awkward, as Atwater hears how much Doyle loved being a cop, and meets Doyle’s father. Dad thanks Atwater for trying to help his son, adding that “he went out a hero.”

Atwater has nothing to say to that, and it’s worth noting that he’s the only black character Chicago PD put in this whole scene.

The next day Voight insists that Atwater and Ruzek go and interview the widow of the other person who died in the shootout. She is as snippy as you’d expect, yelling at Ruzek and Atwater about how the cops killed her husband and how they’re there “for no damn reason.” It’s a stereotypical scene that ends with her kicking them out of her house.

With some help from Doyle’s colleagues, Intelligence chases the man who owns the car that the shooters fled in. Doyle’s partner wastes no time roughing the guy up, though, and snaps at Kevin when Atwater tells him to back off. Voight doesn’t care much either; he’s only interested in getting an alibi. The guy insists that he let his friend Terrence borrow the car, and Terrence and “some other dude” are in the basement of his house.

Cue the scene where everyone busts into said basement, and the two shooters are arrested. Unfortunately, the other dude is also being locked up, because Doyle’s partner wants him to be charged for “harboring” the shooters. That starts a whole shouting match between him and Atwater, with Kevin shouting that Doyle got himself killed. When Ruzek breaks it up, Atwater tells him that he’s “nowhere close to okay.”