Chicago PD’s Midseason Premiere Returns with Horrors, Depravity and a Dark Voight Admission

Critic’s Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

4.2

What a horror show of an hour!

Much of Chicago PD Season 13 Episode 8 dipped into pure darkness and evil, and while that can often be an irritation in the series, the hour executed it so well.

Raymond Bell is no longer a problem, Imani has been cracked open, and Voight delivered one of his most compelling monologues of the series.

The Bell House of Horrors

Have we seen anything as dark as whatever the hell Raymond Bell was doing in that house? It was striking to me when Atwater spoke to Voight about it, and you could hear how disturbed he was by everything that he had been seeing.

The Bell case is something that roots in an individual and will stick with people long after the trial, and Bell goes away, hopefully, for good.

There have been many horrors over the years, but Atwater’s reaction to the many mummified bodies he found under the window sill really put so much into perspective.

How many times do they come face-to-face with a level of depravity that tests the limits of what they’re accustomed to? You can be on the job for years, decades even, and there will always be something that’s so profoundly evil that it leaves you speechless.

I loved how the hour acknowledged that a bit, especially with Atwater, because it’s an element of the series that they don’t dig into enough: how cases can still catch cops by surprise and stick with them permanently.

Atwater Showed the Job Can Still Disturb Even Seasoned Cops

How do you get all of those images and that feeling — the one where your skin crawls and hairs raise on end because your body is hyperaware that you’ve been in the presence of something horrific beyond what the human body should have to process.

Atwater was stunned, and by the end of the hour, you could still see the haunted look on his face and feel the heaviness of it all, and Voight noted it too. I really loved their brief exchange at the end of the hour as he encouraged him to go home and get some sleep.

It was a quiet acknowledgment that Atwater had seen things that just didn’t feel OK and that he understood that and wanted him to look out for himself.

Raymond Bell was pure evil in ways that we couldn’t begin to process. By the time Imani got into that dungeon, it was abundantly clear that he was the lowest of the low. That poor man chained to the wall made my heart sink.

And all of the blood covering the walls was simply horrifying. Hell, that entire house needs to be condemned, prayed over by every faction of every religion, and I don’t know what else. It feels like one of those places where the evil lingers in the walls and the soil, the very foundation.

Some Traits Are Baked into DNA with Little Escape

The hour, like the previous ones with Bell, really teased the idea that the family itself was cursed somehow and all evil.

It was a great tie-in to the hour’s title, “Born Screaming,” where there’s been so much emphasis on nature, legacy, and how we become who we are, let alone how much control we have over that.

It was a psychological horror that Chicago PD pulled off well.

The Bell family seemed cursed. An entire legacy of a family being depraved killers and mentally off. It’s no wonder Julie was left to ponder if she, too, was bad. Surely her father didn’t think he was bad at first, either.

Imani was quick to shut that down. After all, Julie was merely a victim of her grandfather. But then, so was her father. And we saw the things she did do as a result of being under her grandfather’s spell — or rather, being fearful of him.

Chicago PD Touches on Nature vs Nurture in the Cycle of Trauma and Abuse

She didn’t release Imani when she had a chance because of that fear, and while she didn’t partake in beating up that driver, she bit him.

The truth is closer to the fact that some victims of trauma and abuse can end up inflicting the same without the proper help to stop that cycle.

And then, of course, when it comes to depraved people like Raymond Bell, I’m reminded of that Breakout Kings quote: Some guns come out of the factory broken.

It’s a testament to why Intelligence is cops, and I’m not: after the second incident with Julie, I wanted Imani to throw in the towel. The girl left her there to die with another man in a dungeon.

Imani had to beg her to allow help, and it wasn’t until much later, after Raymond struck the poor girl, that he thought he killed her, that it sank in for Julie that she had to be away from her grandfather.

I know how trauma and abuse work and that she’s a child, lest anyone mistake this as blaming the victim. I’m just saying that this is why Intelligence is better than me, because my own self-preservation would have prevailed at some point.

Imani gets Some Layers, But It Still Isn’t Enough

The hour was undoubtedly intense for Imani, and they did more to flesh out the character. Trutfhully, I still struggle with Imani. It’s just generally frustrating that she ultimately keeps feeling like a newer version of Hailey or Erin.

It’s through no fault of Arienne Mandi, however, as her performances have been stellar, including during this installment.

Imani’s behavior irritated me to no end the whole time, because, as Voight said, “What good is a cop who doesn’t listen?” It’s just not fun to see someone go off the deep end like this. And it’s also so redundant, as they’ve worn that particular type of storyline out with Upton.

But I still appreciated the softer and vulnerable moments with Imani. I loved it when she told Voight about her sister, and it puts her approach into perspective even more. Her parents lost critical time, maybe trying to find her sister, because they assumed she was at a friend’s house.

I’m still a little fuzzy on what Imani’s background is supposed to be. Because when she posed as an addict and how she talked about addiction or even the rough life she and her sister had, it also made me think there was some history with addiction or even that she and her sister grew up in the system.

The Beast Within

Nevertheless, that admission to Voight seemed to further connect them. And it explained why she took the case to heart and went off the rails at times.

It still didn’t make her beating the hell out of Raymond any less shocking, though.

Everyone has beasts within them, so I suppose, we were seeing a firsthand look at Imani’s.

But, of course, it was the Voight content at the end that was delicious from a character perspective. Devlin popped up throughout the case, and the tension was real, but I wasn’t certain if they’d dig into his blackmailing and threats this soon.

Shockingly, they did. From the moment Voight told Devlin that he was going to clear the air, I was riveted with my eyes glued to the screen.

Voight Setting Devlin Straight is a Sight to Behold and Hear

Voight shared his history—the real history —and we know he doesn’t tell much about himself, so it was a fantastic scene.

His monologue about being born screaming and fighting was apt and confirmed what we already guessed about Voight.

There was an element to it that made me think of Dexter—the concept of using someone’s natural inclinations and shifting them toward a better, more honorable cause.

Apparently, Voight was a scrapper and fighter; he had a bone to pick with life itself and made it everyone’s problem for no real reason.

He unleashed his fury on the world until his father taught him to focus and gave him a new sense of purpose—using his instincts and skills to go after bad guys and monsters like Raymond Bell.

Voight’s Quiet Arc of Knowing EXACTLY Who He Is Remains Compelling

Using the darkness to fight darkness. It wholly makes sense for Voight to have suitable lore. And it dispels the idea that his father was abusive.

Voight’s arc for the past season and a half has been so much about him making peace with who and what he is, and there’s something so profoundly compelling about that.

He knows he’s a monster, too, and he admits that it’s his father, his memory, his legacy, that badge, upholding that honor — that’s essentially what keeps him in line even when he strays.

Ultimately, Voight honoring his father through the job is what keeps him from being an absolute monster.

And he knows that. He’s willing to act accordingly, but he can step outside of that if need be, feed into his baser instincts, and that’s what made his threat to Devlin so chilling.

There is virtually nothing but the grace of his father and his legacy — precisely what Devlin is threatening — that’s keeping him from killing that man by the end of the day and sleeping like a baby.

It Takes a Monster to Slay Monsters

It’s such a delicious antihero moment for Voight. It made me perk up.

Devlin copped to what he did, tried to make his little threats, and whined about how everyone views him as a coward because he gave in to Vooight after being blackmailed.

But the fact of the matter is, Devlin is cowardly, period. He’s never had to actually get his hands dirty or cut his teeth in the genuine parts of the job.

People don’t respect him because of him — he doesn’t demand it. He hasn’t earned it. That has nothing to do with Voight. But, where does that leave things?

Lingering Thoughts:

• The entire sequence of Imani in that dungeon trying to get out was fantastically shot. It felt claustrophobic and intense, and also like something out of a video game.
• It’s the first time they’ve explained Adam’s absence, and he’s handling something with Bob.
• Atwater’s swagger and comment when he had that gun in Raymond’s face was awesome.
• You can find me truly basking in that final exchange between Voight and Devlin because it really was rich with Voight lore.
• OK, so Devlin wants Voight’s badge because Voight punked him off, and now Voight has punked him off again. Where do we go now? Is this over? What’s the deal?

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