Chicago PD season 8, episode 2 takeaways: White Knuckle

Chicago PD season 8, episode 2 takeaways.

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

“White Knuckle” featured Intelligence trying to find the killer of a young woman while suspicion fell on an ex-cop’s son, while Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) took a big step forward in dealing with his own police-related problem.

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:

1) Was it odd that Voight and Atwater resolved their differences off-screen?

When last we saw Atwater and Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), Voight was yelling at Atwater about how Intelligence was his unit and Kevin needed to find another job. But in this episode, which seemed to start a short time later, the two were hunky-dory again. In fact, Voight was Atwater’s biggest ally in this installment.

Creatively, it felt like a missed opportunity to not see the resolution from that scene, because it was so explosive. But in terms of character development, it also felt strange. The two of them had clearly made up, so did Voight realize he blew a gasket and apologize to Atwater? Did Atwater cool off and have a more reasoned chat with Voight? It was great to see that they’re back on the same page but a little bit more exposition would have helped.

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2) Why isn’t Burgess doing more for Atwater?

Atwater’s current partner Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) continued to voice his support for Kevin in this episode and was the one Atwater vented to. But what about Atwater’s first partner Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati)? Why hasn’t Chicago PD given us even one good scene between Kevin and Kim?

The Burgess and Atwater relationship has gotten really neglected for seasons now, as the show has focused more on Burgess’ romantic relationship with Ruzek. Even when Burgess has gone through tough times, like her miscarriage and the murder of her then-boyfriend Blair Williams, we haven’t seen much of Atwater supporting her. And the last great scene where Kim was there for Kevin was when he had to send his siblings to Texas awhile ago.

One Chicago viewers know all three shows are big on romance, but there have been some great friendships among the series too, and Burgess and Atwater were one of them. With her big heart and her history with Atwater, there’s no reason she wouldn’t be one fo the first people to come to his aid.

3) Is Miller trying to be a politician or a cop?

She’s only been in two episodes, but it’s hard to tell what Chicago PD is going for with the new Deputy Superintendent (Nicole Ari Parker). In some scenes, she’s trying to make small talk with Voight like they’re friends, even though they just met a short time ago. In others, she’s chewing him out like almost everyone who’s come before her.

So what’s the role of her character? Is she going to be another one of those politically minded authority figures who’s more concerned about how things look than what they really are? Or is she actually serious about working with Intelligence to police better and solve cases in new ways? And is it a bit strange that no one has mentioned her boss, Superintendent Jason Crawford, yet this season? Would he have weighed in on reform by now or is he just letting Miller do all the work?

Next. What happened in this week's Chicago Med. dark

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