Chicago PD season 8, episode 7 recap: Instinct

This week’s Chicago PD was an Adam Ruzek-centric episode, but the plot was pretty much the same as many episodes past.

Wednesday’s episode “Instinct” saw Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) recruit one of his old friends to use in an undercover operation. only to see that friend make a series of terrible choices.

Meanwhile, Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) warned Ruzek about the new reality of policing when Adam’s own actions got him into trouble.

Here’s what happened in the latest Chicago PD episode for each of your favorite characters.

Chicago PD season 8, episode 7 recap

“Instinct” kicks off with Intelligence working their latest undercover gig. As Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) mocks Ruzek’s wardrobe, Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) talks to Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) about being a foster mom to Makayla; he asks if she’s thought about involving Ruzek (therefore revealing he’s not involved). Kim says she has but she doesn’t get to explain as it’s time to go to work. Or, time for Ruzek and Halstead to almost get shot in a drive-by.

Luckily for them, they’re okay but the dealers they were trying to bust aren’t. The rest of the team arrives at the scene and Voight states the obvious: the two victims are gang-affiliated meth dealers. Back at the district, Kim finds texts of someone threatening to kill the dealers. Ruzek offers to bring in one of his best informants, Tommy, and Voight gives him the okay; however, Tommy’s already in trouble with a few cops when Ruzek and Burgess arrive. He might be drunk and he might have stolen a bouncy house for his kid’s birthday party.

Ruzek gets the uniforms to leave it with them (although Tommy admits he did steal said bouncy house). Adam tells Tommy he needs his help on the case; his old friend is happy with his kid and his wife, and doesn’t want to get back in the game. Chicago PD fans can likely guess where this will end up, but first, Ruzek makes Tommy an offer he can’t refuse: a sealed record and a couple thousand dollars from the State’s Attorney. Tommy names Logan Teague as a potential suspect and goes with Ruzek to set up a meeting.

Despite Ruzek’s warnings, Tommy starts messing up early. He takes drugs that Logan offers him and rambles constantly. Logan says he’ll put them in touch with a guy named Monahan, so at least he seems unbothered, but the Intelligence crew makes clear to Tommy how much he should not be on meth. Ruzek makes him walk home, too.

Chicago PD confirms that Monahan is the prime suspect in the double murder, and Voight orders Ruzek to bring Tommy in so that he stays clean until they need him. But when Ruzek goes back to the house, Tommy’s wife tells him that he’s disappeared. Ruzek and Burgess track him down and Ruzek goes off on him before Burgess breaks it up. At the district, he placates Tommy (who’s clearly going through withdrawal) with coffee and a candy bar, before insisting he’s still good for the job.

Burgess warns Ruzek and Voight that Tommy is “a storm of bad news,” but a call about two more dead bodies tables the discussion. Monahan has taken out another dealer and his girlfriend. With the body count doubled, Ruzek is able to convince Voight to stick with Tommy.

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Later on Ruzek takes a still messed-up Tommy to his next meeting with Logan. Logan notices Tommy’s erratic behavior and offers him another high; when Tommy won’t take it, Logan demands that Ruzek use the drugs at gunpoint. Ruzek knocks the gun away and gets into a brawl that ends with him subduing Logan as Burgess and Atwater rush onto the scene. Logan is arrested and Voight is not happy.

Voight informs Ruzek that he’s gotten a call about police brutality because of how he took down Logan. “That’s just not the math anymore, understand?” he says. Ruzek says he gets it and then gets Logan to give him Monahan’s number so that he can pose as Logan to keep the meeting intact. Burgess worries that cutting a deal with Logan means that he’ll kill Tommy; Ruzek is not pleased with her criticism.

Well, this is Chicago PD, where most things usually go wrong.

Cut to later that night as Ruzek returns to Tommy’s house and his wife explains just how ill Tommy has become. Ruzek goes into the bathroom and tries to take care of his friend. Ultimately, he ends up driving Tommy to a place where he can score more drugs.

The next morning Intelligence is surrounding the location of the meeting. Ruzek and Tommy meet Monahan, and Tommy is rambling again but in a much more convincing way. Monahan agrees to do business with them which is the team’s cue to raid his warehouse. As gunfire breaks out, Ruzek urges his friend to get away and pursues the dealer. But Tommy doesn’t leave; he tries to tackle Monahan himself, and Monahan threatens Tommy at gunpoint with a half-dozen construction workers videotaping on their phones.

So Tommy is shot in the chest, and Ruzek instinctively kills Monahan with a hail of bullets. Neither man survives, leaving Ruzek to brood in the locker room, where Voight finds him. Ruzek admits he hesitated on shooting Monahan because of the cell phones. “I can’t trust my instincts anymore,” he says, “and I think I had a lawful shoot out there. Yet I hesitated and I didn’t pull the trigger until after he shot my friend.”

Voight repeats again that policing is “a whole new thing” now and it won’t be easy, especially with split-second decisions. But, he maintains, “right is still right.” At least they’ll be figuring things out together.

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