Chicago PD: Season 1 - Episode Nine - "A Material Witness"

"A Material Witness"
Written By: Michael Batistick
Directed By: Sanford Bookstaver

The Plot: Olinsky’s daughter, Lexi, witnesses a gang shooting, and Voight is worried that Lexi will become a target if forced to testify, so he plucks the case out of the hands of the Gang Unit – not a popular move – and lets Intelligence run with it.

They discover a suspect, a gangbanger named Calaca who is a part of the Latin Priests. The squad tries to bring him in, but four members of the Latin Priests are executed by a rival gang, there is a war brewing on the streets. A tip leads Voight’s team to T-Mac, who is detained by Lindsay, and is convinced by Voight to stop the retaliatory murders while Lindsay and Antonio, following the tip further, find a torture room and, disturbingly, a solitary finger that is later determined to be Calaca’s

Cellphones are being stolen across the city and handed over to the Latin Priests, so Ruzek, without asking Voight, decides to use Officer Burgess undercover as a tourist, who aims to have her phone (with a tracking device planted within) stolen at Millennium Park. It appears to be a dead end – just kids stealing phones – until Ruzek’s is stolen downtown, leading them back to the same address. 

It’s a racket. The elderly woman who owns the house uses the money she gets from her kids stealing the phones on behalf of the Latin Priests to keep them off the streets. She gives the unit information on where Calaca might be.

That’s at his on headquarters, where Voight’s team go. Calaca is captured and despite Voight’s interrogation, won’t break. So Lexi, against her father’s wishes, decides to identify Calaca via a line-up, which is the evidence they need to lock Calaca away. The hope is that Lexi won’t have to stand up in court and do the same.

The closing scene is of Voight receiving a call from Stillwell: Lonnie Rodiger’s dead body has been found, and Stillwell is upset, thinking that Halstead is to blame.

My Thoughts: Another great episode where Elias Koteas gets to shine as Olinsky’s daughter gets mixed up in a gang shooting. Olinsky shifts perfectly from the grizzled, unflappable cop to a worried father, and Koteas does both brilliantly. It’s always good to see the other side of these characters. At times, Olinsky seems cast as Voight’s rough offsider, but we see him in a different light here. He knows the dangers of someone testifying publically in a gang-related case, and obviously doesn’t want his daughter to face them.

Ruzek and Burgess. Definitely gonna be a couple before too long. They’re making eyes at each other already. A certainty, for mine.

I wrote about the previous episode that Halstead’s situation with the Rodiger family would come to a head sooner rather than later. It’s sooner, as Stilwell and Voight find Lonnie’s body in the snow, and it seems like Halstead is going to feel the squeeze in the next episode.