The season premiere of Chicago PD was not your typical season premiere that we have seen in the past four seasons, but it does make a stamp that a new chapter for the series has begun.
The episode opened up to a very well-respected look back at Erin Lindsay's time on the show from the beginning to the end of last season. With only the two men in her life, Hank and Jay, it was at times emotional, no matter how many times you would watch it.
The episode begins with Hank talking about how the absence of Erin will be a mess, and it will not be the same. I feel that he was not only talking to her about it but to us, the audience, as well, and just trying to get through some of those thoughts is just so confronting.
When Hank gets a call about a gun exchange going down, the team assembles and tries to take them down, but it doesn't go as they had hoped. But when Halstead was chasing the suspects, he heard someone screaming and went in to find Upton with a girl who got shot.
They take the girl to Med only to get a small hope for her to recover, but it turns out she didn't, and the worst part is that the bullet came from Halstead's gun. With that, not only the media and the community but also Alderman Ray Price (Wendell Pierce ) is pushing hard to get Halstead fired, and even the new reform package set for the CPD isn't helping at all, either.
Hank and the team searched for the one suspect who could help clear Halstead from this, and the only clue to allow them to find him was to see if the suspect had a wound on his stomach. It took a while for the team to find him, and some very uncomfortable scenes, including Ruzek and Atwater trying to ask two kids a couple of questions.
The team gets help from a former squad member, Antiono Dawson, and does undercover work. He soon gets the suspect, turns him in, and gets Halstead out of the hateful media that Price has done. And even though Halstead was clear, he still apologized to the mother and gave her her daughter's necklace.
Meanwhile, Burgess is back, and she's got a new man in her life. Ezek found out the hard way as he was trying to not only buy her another beer but ask her out again.
Antiono is officially back with CPD after being at the State's Attorney's office got boring. Yeah, we could say that.
As I said at the beginning, this episode seemed like the beginning of a new chapter for the series. Erin is gone, and things are changing for the intelligence unit, just as Hank told Jay that she's gone and we need to move on.
I very much enjoyed this episode a lot. Not only the performances from Beghe and Stoffer were terrific, but also Mykelti Williamson and Wendell Pierce as well. The writing was so good as well. Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.
You can catch Chicago PD on Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.