A new episode of Chicago P.D. focused on Officer Kevin Atwater and a new romantic relationship that he had begun.
This was a huge departure from what happened on the last episode of Chicago P.D., where Jay Halstead got Voight to admit to what he and Upton had done to and with Roy.
For most of the season, Atwater had become a background character to what was going on around Halstead and Upton, but on Wednesday night, we got to see him take center stage again.
In the opening scene, Atwater and Ruzek were hanging out at a bar, but when Ruzek went to have dinner with Burgess, Atwater went to talk up a woman who ended up taking him home.
Chicago P.D. Season 9, Episode 5 recap
Amanda Payton joined the Chicago P.D. cast as Celeste Nichols, an art teacher who began a relationship with Atwater in the opening scenes. She would become very important later in the episode as well.
When Atwater was leaving Celeste’s place in the morning after the bar meeting, he reported to a shooting scene at a nearby restaurant. Two kids had attacked a former gang member, killing him and an innocent man in the car behind him.
It turned out that the kids were part of the art program that Celeste was running, so Atwater volunteered to go undercover and help find out the names of the kids. She did not know that he was a cop at that point, so he thought that he could use that to his advantage.
The case becomes very personal for Atwater
Atwater went back to Celeste’s place, where he hung out with her as she talked about her bad day. While he was there, she got a call from the driver of the car (one of her students) and they went to meet him to try to help him out.
The rest of Intelligence arrested the trio after they had chatted for a bit and confirmed that he was indeed the driver.
Atwater pulled the 15-year-old kid aside and tried to coach him about what to say after Celeste explained his background. The kid had been manipulated into taking part in the shooting, as he and another kid had been threatened with consequences by a music producer if they didn’t do it.
Despite Atwater trying to help the kid, it turned out that he had sent text messages to the shooter, indicating that he knew what was going to happen at the restaurant. Atwater volunteered to transfer him to County, but on the way there, they were attacked by the shooter, who killed the kid.
Before he died, though, the kid told Atwater that he hadn’t thrown the gun away. Atwater figured out it was at the art school and after finding it, they discovered that the man who had manipulated the kids left his fingerprints on the bullets he had loaded into the gun. Intelligence arrested him on murder charges.
At the end of the episode, Atwater went back to Celeste’s place to tell her what had happened, but she had already heard that the kid was killed. As Atwater was about to tell her that he was a cop, she cut him off, telling him he had nothing to apologize for and that he was a good man. They agreed to have some beers and sit in silence, but that is a huge secret that will loom even larger down the road.
Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.