TV REVIEW: Chicago PD’s Fall Finale “Called in Dead”

It’s been an extra long three week break without our favorite cop show, but Chicago PD returned with its fall finale featuring a fast paced case of the night and a couple of shockers at the end. Well, maybe more like one semi-surprise, but it didn’t need the heavily promoted jaw dropper. It’s a good enough show without the smoke and mirrors. CPD is at its finest when it sticks to what it does best – showing us Chicago’s finest caring about each other and the city they love with the backdrop of some ultra-bad guys needing to get a Voight knuckle sandwich. The show delivers on all accounts tonight.

When Good Guys Turn Bad (It’s Hot)

“Called in Dead” opens with a frantic Erin rushing into an apartment with Nadia helping a friend who’s overdosing in the bathtub. Erin questions her about the drugs she took. Hmmm interesting interrogation tactic. The drugged out girl gives up where she got the bad batch of heroin and we’ve got our case of the night.

The frenetic pace continues… cut to a robbery at a strip club. A group of masked men brandishing some big guns are hitting the place, and I’m wondering if they’re going to get rich one dollar at a time. Nope, they want in the basement where a huge stash of heroin is waiting. The bad guys make their escape with Erin waiting in the getaway truck. What? It’s Halstead, Antonio, and Olinsky! The bad guys are our good guys. This was all part of a scheme to make the players think they were hit by a rival gang. The operation will continue giving IU a chance to bust the top heroin dog.

Three’s a Crowd

Burgess and Roman giggle into the station asking Sergeant Platt about the big heroin shenanigans and volunteering their services to Intelligence.

“You didn’t get upstairs, Burgess, so give it up,” deadpans Platt. She adds that she likes young cop’s enthusiasm so she’s giving her the super exciting assignment of making sure the visiting Bulgarian president is kept safe.

To make things even more exciting, a K-9 cop’s been assigned to help them. Problem is, it’s Roman’s former partner, the one he fell for. She’s a real charmer who won’t even shake Kim’s hand. “I shoulda called in dead,” says Roman. The ex couple start arguing immediately about “anger issues,” a chick from Facebook who friended Roman, and twenty three other things; I think world peace may have been mentioned.

Pictured: (l-r) Brian Geraghty as Sean Roman, Marina Squerciati as Kim Burgess — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Oh No, Olinsky!

Erin and Antonio call in the strip club manager, squeezing some intel out of him in about three minutes. He gives up “Blue,” the muscle he calls when he has problems. The team gets a meeting set up and our cops bust Blue. Okay, that was too easy.

They take Blue to the cage with Ruzek and Halstead trying their hand at a little Voight interrogation. The questioning resembles a couple of Boy Scouts trying to earn that Eagle designation. Not surprisingly, Blue doesn’t flip and asks for a sandwich instead.

Things are about to turn from easy to messy.

Olinsky goes home with flowers for his ex(?) wife and she’s being held by two bad guys with some extremely large guns. They want their twenty kilos of heroin back.

Wifey is dead if Olinsky tries to warn anyone. Alvin easily makes it into the evidence room, saying he’s got to get something for court tomorrow and heads out with a duffle bag full of drugs. Again, way too easy. He opens the bag, revealing the heroin. “See, just that easy,” says bad guy #1.

Boom! Alvin blows the guy’s head off. Yes, that was pretty easy. He drives back to his house with Voight, scary music playing, Hank looking, should I say it, a little scared. We’ll say apprehensive instead.

The old cops show they’ve got more than a little spring in those steps left and save Mrs. O.

“He doesn’t have to walk out of here,” tempts Voight looking at bad guy #2.

Olinsky lets him live. For now.

How Deep Does This Go?

The guys realize that there’s gotta be some high level baddies involved. How did they get Alvin’s address? Apparently, Atwater’s the new Jin because he’s on computer duty all episode working those fingers on the keyboard like Erin works those dimples on men.

Surprisingly, it’s Ruzek who finds out that all the bad guys had one thing in common – a judge. The judge saw the wiretap with Olinsky’s name on it and must have given the information to the heroin dealers. Atwater’s techie skills finally come through and he gets a hit. It turns out it’s not bad judge after all. Phone records show one of the bad guys called a judicial clerk – he’s the kingpin. The team busts him and our case is solved.

Of course, we can’t end it there. This is a fall finale and we haven’t had our “shocking ending” in the last ten seconds yet.

Pictured: Jon Seda as Antonio Dawson — (Photo by: Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Bye, Bye Erin (maybe)

Voight questions Nadia and Erin about the girl who overdosed. They have to give up the truth and he’s less than thrilled.

“If your head is someplace else I need to know. This offer to join the task force, maybe has got you distracted.”

“My head is where it needs to be,” Erin insists.

Later, a special agent shows up to see Erin and talk to her about the task force. He makes his case for actually shutting down operations, making a difference in the country, not just a few neighborhoods.

Erin talks to Voight admitting that he was right. “I’ve been thinking about this task force a lot. I’ve been cleaning up after people my whole life. This feels like my chance to get out in front of it.”

“Fifteen years. Fifteen years ago you were a girl barely surviving on the streets. Now you’re being courted by the feds,” says proud Papa Bear.

We haven’t had a misty moment yet, but here it is. It always comes down to these two — the heart and soul of Chicago PD. Beghe and Bush, our dream team, are such a tour de force when it comes to eliciting real emotion with their real emotion.

“I’m proud of you Erin and whatever decision you want to make. I’ll back you.” Kleenex alert! They hug it out, and we’ve got something in our eyes. Erin walks out and tells the team that she’s going to take the spot on the federal task force. Did I imagine a little look between her and Halstead that said “Yay! Now we can date”? It’s going to happen the second half of the season, people – mark my words.

So this was the semi-shocker of the night. Will it last? Of course not. Erin’s got to come back to her family, IU, eventually, but CPD seems like it will be going down the Erin as a fed road for a bit.

It’s a Love/Hate Thing

Our angry couple (Roman and K-9 cop) is still arguing with Burgess trying to talk fun facts about Bulgaria. “Did he ever tell you the real story of why he left? Me and Sean had a fling. It was hot. But I moved on to bigger and better things.” K-9 cop flashes an engagement ring. “Does Sean ever talk about me?” she asks. “A little,” Kim answers. Is there anyone out there who does not think these two will be back together?

Burzek has a little moment in the file room. “Would that happen to us if we broke up?” Burgess asks. Ruzen says, “We’re not breaking up.” They make plans for a romantic microwave dinner later.

The final scene shows Burgess, Roman and K-9 cop on one more call with the exes arguing again. Kim’s had it and heads to the door alone. Uh oh, you know this is not ending well. A huge blast barrels through the door and straight into Burgess’s shoulder. It wasn’t really shocking or unexpected but that’s okay. It will set up for some interesting drama when CPD returns. Would the episode have ended just fine with the big Erin announcement? Yes, but Chicago is now the land of double surprise endings (think Chicago Fire’s baby Boden AND missing Mills and new girl).

So, what did you think of the episode? Did it live up to the hype? Will Erin really leave Intelligence? Will Burgess survive? And most importantly, will Roman and his ex kiss and make up or kill and take out each other?