Chicago PD has over-delivered with every single episode this season, but there’s something particularly special about the Atwater-centric episodes, including Chicago PD Season 10 Episode 6.
Atwater episodes may be few and far in between, but the writers go the extra mile for LaRoyce Hawkins… and he never drops the ball, always giving a performance filled with so much heart, soul, integrity, and most importantly, empathy.
Anytime the storyline focuses on Hawkins’ character, I know we’re in for an exceptional ride from start to finish.
I don’t even care that the series pushed aside Upton’s takedown of the chief’s son for trafficking underage girls because this episode was so solid.
It all started when Atwater and Torres responded to a carjacking. You would think it’s a run-of-the-mill case, particularly in Chicago these days, but that couldn’t be further from the truth as the man was dragged by the carjackers for miles and ended up dying in Atwater’s arms.
Remember Atwater’s powerful speech about empathy he gave at the kickstart of the episode? This is where it comes into play.
While Intelligence didn’t know much about the offenders, they were able to pinpoint the car that they drove to a wealthy man’s home in Lakeview, where, upon arrival, they witnessed a tussle between three men.
One of the men got away, while the other two ran into an alley with a dead end, which is where Atwater cornered them. And here’s where it got really problematic—Atwater tried to de-escalate the situation but neither one of the men was receptive, with the older Black male whipping out a camera to document the cop who was willing to shoot and use the “fearing for his life defense. Eventually, the white teen, visibly shaken, lunged at Atwater as a shot was fired off. The teen was hit in the stomach as the Black male fled.
It was clear that the teen, who we later find out was Johnny Chaffey, the son of a prominent and wealthy man in Chicago, was innocent and manipulated by the other male, who remained unknown for a good chunk of the episode.
Unfortunately, Johnny wasn’t able to fill in the blanks for CPD or corroborate Atwater’s story because he died after being rushed to the ER. And it was a death Kevin did not take lightly.
Atwater is a good cop, so being there while two men took their final breaths and not being able to do anything about it was devastating to him. Moreso, he was even more upset by how quickly the situation escalated, for absolutely no reason, when all he wanted to do was hear their side of the story. Atwater did his best to avoid this outcome, later informing IRT that he kept his finger off the trigger, which Johnny pressed when he lunged at him.
It may have been his gun, but it wasn’t his fault. He even tried to point it away from Johnny.
Of course, none of that mattered because it was his word against a rich, notable, white man, so it didn’t look good for the “crooked cop.”
One of my issues with Atwater storylines, no matter how solid they are, is that they always revolve around the same race issue, but this time, it was reversed as a white teen was slain by a Black cop, which put Atwater in a new headspace where he was confident in himself and not shaken by the public scrutiny or perception of a situation they knew nothing about.
Johnny’s father, who couldn’t fathom that his son could do any wrong, asked the public to support him now in holding a Black cop accountable the way they do white cops, but honestly, it would’ve been nice if he tried to get the facts or even showed any remorse for losing his son; it all seemed to be this huge publicity stunt and takedown that, quite frankly, was racially motivated. He wanted to play the card so badly, but Atwater wasn’t interested in going down that road because he knew what happened.
There was one point where I considered Andrew to be the man who was responsible for manipulating these kids/teens into carjackings. Johnny’s poor mother was the only one who actually looked heartbroken and simply wanted to know what her son’s last words were.
Naturally, CPD wanted to avoid the legal circus that Andrew was threatening, so the chief advised Atwater to simply say that it was a synthetic reflex—he accidentally shot Johnny, but honestly, the nerve of them to even ask him to lie.
Atwater trusted the process, and most importantly, he trusted the police work. He’s not a sellout, so he definitely wasn’t going to go down for something he didn’t do, no matter how much everyone around him wanted that version of the story to be true. Truth is, he wanted the version where Johnny survived to be true, but that wasn’t the reality. And god, I love that Atwater stood his ground and maintained his innocence as he rightfully should. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.
Instead of allowing the situation to throw him off his game, Atwater was more motivated than ever to find the unidentified Black male who instigated and captured the video because that was the actual person responsible for his death.
Obtaining the information required a lot of patience. When they tried to get answers from Cam, he escaped in the stolen BMW and eventually drove his car off of a bridge. He didn’t survive. And it was likely the guilt of killing a man and not being able to free himself from Oscar’s grasp that sent him over the edge.
Eventually, Torress went undercover—some of his best work to date—to subtly coax Oscar into talking while they were in lockup. It was a masterfully played operation as they knew Oscar wouldn’t resist talking about his big “get,” entrusting Torres with the location of the phone—the key to Atwater’s freedom.
I actually don’t buy that Oscar would fall for that plan. He was smart and knew how to evade police and stay off the radar, so I don’t think he’d ever trust a dude in lockup that easily, but it is what it is.
The juicy twist was that Carlita, the unenthusiastic gas station worker, was Oscar’s “girl” and had the phone in her possession the whole time. She seemed remorseful, but only after Atwater made it clear that Oscar did not care if she went to jail so there was no point in protecting him anymore.
Once they had the footage, there was no denying that Atwater’s recollection of the incident matched up to the video play-by-play.
It cleared him in the eyes of CPD, but it didn’t make him feel better.
The truth is that Atwater was deeply affected by Johnny’s death as he would’ve done anything to prevent it.
Though he didn’t have to, he felt a personal obligation to pay his parents a visit, and while the father pretty much told him the video doesn’t change anything and slammed the door in his face (kind of to be expected based on his previous behavior), the mother was much more receptive as all she wanted was some closure. She never once blamed Atwater or tried to bring up the issue of race—she simply wanted him to connect on a human level and “fill in the blanks,” as Atwater put it.
It was that final scene that brought the whole episode together in a beautiful way as Atwater informed her of her son’s last words, emphasizing that she raised a good boy who was just trying to help and got caught up in a mess that cost him his life.
It’s all a reminder that just because something seems like one thing on the surface doesn’t always mean that’s the case. We could all use a little more empathy when it comes to each other.
And I hope the chief remembers all of this when Intelligence ropes him in on his creep of a son!