Chicago PD is back and bringing out all the feels, especially anger. Some cases just hit harder, and this was one of them.
Season 9, Episode 13 started pretty quiet but got emotional quickly. Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) was just out for a casual six-mile run at night when she witnessed a car go over the bridge. She called it in, but Hailey being Hailey, had to jump in and save the passengers.
I have to give Tracy major props for jumping in freezing water. And for the character, who could have been seriously hurt spending that much time in the water. It was heartbreaking watching Hailey keep going back under, but she couldn’t find the car to save the woman. However, she did save the man, and at that point, that seemed like half a win.
Her emotions were already heightened for the woman when she was in the ambulance. All she could do was ask if they had found the woman while the paramedic tried to take care of the guy and her.
They got to the woman, but sadly it was too late. And then a gun fell out of the man’s pocket. There was clearly more than meets the eye to this accident. The victim’s husband could not comprehend why someone else was in the car with his wife.
So, Hailey and the team start digging, and it turns out the guy she saved has been stalking the victim for the last six months. They later find out that he has keepsakes from 12 women. It was hard not to feel Hailey’s anger on screen. He’s a predator, and he had to be stopped.
Some of Upton’s anger was fueled by her anger towards herself for saving the predator and not the victim. But at that moment she didn’t know anything was going on.
I felt more and more rage myself as we saw all the scenes of the guy stalking the victim, waving to her child and even breaking into her home. How is any woman safe when someone can do this? Then we saw all those boxes and wondered, as Hailey said, past, current and future victims, which each of them were. How can anyone feel like they have the right to violate a person like that?
The best cases on Chicago PD are the personal ones. Hailey has a history of abuse by her father, but this was personal on a female level. As a female, it’s hard not to get emotional when the team is hunting down a predator. Tracy did a fantastic job portraying how angry women get when they see this happening. Plus, there was another level added because she saved this monster. She had to get him.
Tracy’s strong suit is the passion and anger she brings to the case. She’s not the vulnerable kind of character. Anything she’s feeling fuels her work, and it works so well for these storylines.
The investigative work was also incredible. The team had to do a lot of work to track this guy down, from working backward to how he ended up in the bank to tracking him down once they identified him.
Thorugh all this, it was also her tenth anniversary on the job. That’s a significant milestone that she didn’t want to celebrate. But Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) insisted because she was why Upton became a cop. This was such a fun surprise. Trudy saved her and her family from an armed robbery when she was 10. So sweet.
There was more to the story, though. At the second robbery, the victim died because Platt went after the assailant because the restaurant owner was conscious and told her to go after the guy. Unfortunately, she lost the criminal, and when she got back to the restaurant, the owner had died. Sadly, officers can’t save everyone.
And to make matters worse, Hailey had to save the guy again, this time from drowning in a pool. She stood there for a while. I knew she would jump in after him, but wow, the irony of it all. The anger of after all he’s done, he gets saved twice and the poor victim didn’t have a chance. At least he’ll spend the rest of his life in jail.
Upton did get a little celebration for her anniversary. It was kind of perfect. An intimate gathering at the bar that even Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) attended and gave her a toast. We all should celebrate those milestones because there are so many highs and lows throughout a career. This case was an example of that. They lost the victim, but they got the bad guy.
How angry did this case make you? Tweet me @PrimetimeDrama or @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
