I have mixed emotions about Chicago PD’s “No Way Out” episode. This storyline may really change the dynamics of the show.
Four weeks ago, Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) was faced with the impossible decision to turn Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) in or let himself and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) take the fall. It was the perfect opportunity to let Voight finally face some consequences for everything he’s done. And considering how straight arrowed Jay is, that seemed like the reasonable route for him to take.
What was so good about this episode, we finally know how Halstead feels about Voight. We’ve seen him so mad at him multiple times that if this weren’t a TV show, you would wonder why he’s stayed working under Voight for so long. Despite disagreeing with how he does his job, Jay thinks Voight is good for the city, which is true. It’s probably why Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) always has his back when she seems like a pretty straight arrowed cop herself, except when it comes to Hank, of course.
Just minutes before Jay had to see Special Agent Walker North (Alex Morf), Voight told Jay to give Agent North him. He said he always knew a case would be his last, and this was it. This is definitely the more vulnerable side of Voight I spoke about last month. We’ve never seen him admit defeat. But it was all because he didn’t want Jay to regret blackmailing an FBI agent.
This is very uncharacteristic of Jay. He doesn’t play dirty. But he’s also never had to before. This is not the Jay we all fell in love with. And things are never going to be the same after this. Once you cross that line, you can never go back.
Now, he wants Voight always to tell him the truth so that he can protect Voight from himself. Maybe this will be a good thing. The writers have clearly painted the picture that Voight can’t play by his own rules anymore. Chicago PD doesn’t want to be that type of show anymore, even if it is the show we all fell in love with.
But when Voight covered something up, it was done with. There were never any consequences. Since Voight covered up this death, Upton went crazy, and the FBI was closing in on them. The cover-up was shown in a very different light than in the previous seasons.
We’re in season nine now, so changing it up is unenviable, but I don’t like that they’ve changed the core of Jay’s character. We can tell he hates it. He’s trying his best to have crossed that line but not go completely over to that side. But it’s still not the Jay we know.
North really said it well when he told Halstead that he thought Jay was the only one Voight couldn’t corrupt. I thought the same thing. At times Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) has played semi by his own rules, but never anything to Hank’s level. Jay, on the other hand, has always been the boy scout. So I don’t feel good about him changing.
We can hope because this is eating at him so much that maybe he can retain that boy scout status. But can you ever really come back from blackmailing an FBI agent?
Hank wanted to clean up the mess himself because he didn’t want Jay to carry that weight around. It’s why he decided to take the fall because he didn’t want Halstead to cross that line. But between wanting Voight to continue to do good for the city and his loyalty, he couldn’t do that. And now we will see what effect that has on him moving forward.
And to top all of that off, we got an Upstead wedding! I also don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand, yah, but I wish we could have gotten a little bigger of a wedding, but that’s not really what this show is. But between Hailey getting caught up in Voight’s mess and then proposing to Jay in distress and Jay also getting caught up in it and saying they should elope, this is all too much haste. This will undoubtedly cause waves for our favorite couple. But it’s a TV show, so it’s supposed to have drama. Just be gentle with our Upstead hearts.
How do you feel about Jay blackmailing an FBI Agent? Tweet me @PrimetimeDrama or @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
