Chicago PD season 8, episode 2 recap: White Knuckle
Ruzek takes a bullet
Chicago PD cuts back to a little more together Billy (emphasis on “a little”), who denies that the anchorman is the man he was describing. He’s also not happy to hear that his father has arrived; he doesn’t want Dad’s help. He opens up to Atwater and Voight while Chicago PD segues to the rest of the team doing their usual team huddle.
Billy says that he had just celebrated a year of sobriety until the night of the murder. Isla had texted him and they both got high on heroin. He claims he woke up to her having an argument with the mystery man, but passed out again and the next time he came to, she’d been attacked.
The one thing that stands out to Ruzek is why was Isla in Lake Forest when she texted Billy? He and the team go to her last known location: a rental house with a hidden security system. Ruzek forces entry into a massive drug lab just as Atwater gets a call from Jordan: the security system has been tripped. Atwater smashes Jordan’s cell phone before he finds a surveillance bug hidden behind their light switch.
Chicago PD skips to him showing Ruzek the footage from his security cameras. Ruzek, too, suggests that he “find a way out of this thing now.” He wonders if Nolan and McKenzie, the two cops who are leading this charge against Atwater, would take a deal. Voight interrupts to get them back on the case of the week; he needs Atwater to ask Billy about the drug house. After some encouragement from Kevin, Billy recognizes the drug house’s insignia on the heroin that Isla had.
That leads to a real second suspect: a drug dealer named Tim Rollins, who was hooked up with Isla before she met Billy. Oh, and he drives a blue car. When Intelligence goes to Tim’s house, he runs (like almost everyone on Chicago PD runs). Ruzek gives chase, but because of the Atwater situation, the dispatch tells him that there are units in the area…and that they’re not responding. Ruzek ends up taking a bullet to the chest, much to Burgess’ horror, while Rollins gets away.
Atwater is horrified and immediately starts blaming himself.
He demands answers from Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), who tells him that McKenzie was one of the people who ignored Ruzek’s call for backup. Atwater decides to confront McKenzie and the two get into a physical confrontation that’s broken up by the arrival of Burgess and Ruzek. McKenzie says that “he’s giving orders,” referring to Nolan.