This week’s Chicago P.D., Due Process begins with Voight (Jason Beghe) participating in a press conference being held by Deputy Superintendent Samantha Miller (Nicole Ari Parker) where she talks about how she’s very proud of the process and her dedication to “transparency” and the “rule of law.”
She’s questioned about accountability when a journalist mentions that 5 officers have been suspended or fired due to misconduct. As she answers the question, we are shown a close-up of Voight’s expressionless face. He is then seen driving around after, as her speech continues in voice-over about solving crimes “the right way, the legal way” continuing to say that “change isn’t always easy or pretty, but that doesn’t mean it’s not necessary”
Voight responds to a call where a man named Ben Larson has been shot by his rideshare driver who’s also kidnapped his wife Jessica. Ben can only give a description of the car which is a black Ford Fusion, just before the ambulance arrives. Intelligence arrives and immediately finds the license plate and identifies the driver as Jonathan Eakin. With help from the rideshare service Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) find the Fusion but only Jonathan is inside and he claims his riders never arrived which leaves Chicago PD and the viewers unaware of who shot Larson and where Jessica might be.
The next morning Halstead confirms Jonathan’s story while Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) uses security camera footage to confirm that Ben and Jessica got into the wrong car. They mistook a black Honda for a Ford Fusion. The car was reported stolen and Chicago P.D. found the car completely burned out after being intentionally set on fire. Upton gets a call with a possible location based on Jessica Larson’s phone, and takes Halstead and Voight with her to the ominous empty warehouse where Upton discovers Jessica’s body. She was sexually assaulted and then strangled. She apparently put up a fight and should have the rapists DNA on her body.
Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) quickly identifies the perpetrator as Caleb Hoff, a convicted murderer and rapist whose conviction was overturned due to “unlawful use of force.” They recognize him as not only being released, but he’s also suing the city for $25 million.
At the hospital, Ben identifies Hoff from a photo, confirming Ruzek’s suspicion, and gets understandably upset when Voight admits the man has done this before. Ben doesn’t understand why Hoff is not in prison and Voight tells him “It’s the law.” “To hell with the law,” he says. “My wife is dead, Sergeant, because you let a monster go free! How could you?”
Intelligence begins searching for Hoff explaining that when he was released, all charges were dropped and there were no stipulations of his release. They discovered from the mini-mart clerk that Hoff was “high as hell” and bought cigarettes and condoms.
Miller turns up to question Voight about the situation. She tells him to talk to the officer who was fired over Hoff’s overturned conviction and to do it on the down low to avoid the scrutiny of the DA and the court of public opinion. Hank takes Upton to the woman’s house where she’s not surprised that Hoff is allegedly back to his old tricks. She gets her files and eagerly shares them with Voight and Upton. The officer named Lisa then goes on to explain when and how she crossed the line. She asked his roommate for consent to search Hoff’s room two times. The second time she asked, he spit at her and she responded with violence and forced him to sign the consent form. The illegal search provided DNA evidence of one of his many victims. With the information she gives them, our heroes narrow down their search, with Upton adding to Lisa “Stay strong. Justice and the law don’t always work in perfect harmony.”
Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) breaks the news that Hoff has another victim, complete with a 911 call where the victim is just telling “the driver” that he’s going the wrong way. We then hear her begging him not to hurt her and the call suits out. They discover her bludgeoned nude body and another burned-out car. A witness tells them that they saw him get into a red pickup truck and took off.
Miller arrives on the scene and reiterates that she wants to publicly identify Caleb Hoff. Voight advises her not to because it would expose her to public scrutiny for Hoff’s release, not to mention he would be much more likely to flee. He tells Miller that the second she mentions his name, he will undoubtedly take off and they might never find him. Miller tells him to “just do your job” and make an arrest before there’s a third murder. As Intelligence watches her next press conference, they also confirm that they have a DNA match to Hoff from samples taken from the victim’s fingernails.
Halstead tracks Hoff to a Mexican restaurant two hours before the second murder and he was with another man. Voight demands that they pull video from that Mexican restaurant.
Halstead and Upton disagree on the whole situation. “You’re saying you condone police misconduct?” he asks his ex-girlfriend, who replies, “Of course not.” However, she also adds that these two women would still be alive if the prosecutor on Hoff’s original case could have “looked the other way.”
Voight visits the arresting officer again to tell her that they have DNA evidence from the victims fingernails that prove who their suspect is. She admits that she was afraid of something like this which was why she stepped over the line. She admits that she believed if they didn’t catch him, he would keep doing what he’s doing. She feels responsible for these latest two rapes and murders and he reassures her that she has nothing to apologize for because she was trying to keep the city safe. Voight shows her photos from the Mexican restaurant and the ex-cop identifies Hoff’s dining companion as Kenny Rose, a meth dealer who grew up with him in the same foster home.
Chicago PD now has a way to find Hoff through Kenny. They know that Kenny owns the red pickup truck that Hoff fled to and they believe Kenny is aware of Hoff’s crimes.
When approached by Chicago PD he flees on foot but is tackled by Halstead in the alley behind his house. Kenny is easily restrained by Halstead and Halstead discovers a bag of meth on him. Halstead says, “your day just got a lot worse.” Kenny claims he has no idea who Hoff is. Voight gives Kenny two choices, The easy way or the other way and Kenny chooses “the other way.”
Inside the house they discover the jacket Hoff was wearing when he murdered Jessica and hope it has more DNA evidence on it. They also find quite a bit more meth. Halstead and Voight disagree on how to proceed and ultimately Voight puts his foot down and tells Halstead to do what he says. Upton breaks up the disagreement and gets the passel to split up and attend to their assigned tasks. As he leaves, Halstead shares a brief stare down with Voight.
Kenny has been taken into custody in his own home and he immediately asks for a lawyer. Completely frustrated over the fact that he can’t violently assault Kenny, Voight tells Ruzek to arrest him for meth possession. Voight goes outside and takes his anger out on Kenny’s windshield with a metal garden rake, which draws the attention of a bystander who threatens to call the cops. Voight responds with, “there’s no need, the cops are already on the scene” and tells the man to walk away “NOW.”
Intelligence finds footage of Hoff getting on the L. Upton suggests pulling footage from all possible stops to see where he gets off.
Voight gets a call from the team who tell him where Hoff disembarked the train. While they’re all confused as to why he got off at that particular stop, Voight gives them another name from the old file: Victor Salvano. The name is connected to an out-of-business company, two blocks from that stop and it would make a perfect place for Hoff to hide. Voight sends Intelligence there but Voight is the first person to arrive and he tells Jay that he will wait for the rest of the team.
When he hears something breaking inside, Voight goes inside and finds that the ex-cop is already there, determined to arrest Hoff herself this time. Before Voight knows what’s happening, gunshots ring out. As he calls in the update of “shots fired” Lisa the ex-cop sneaks away from Voight, determined to face Hoff alone. A gun battle between Voight and Hoff ends when Hoff runs out of bullets. He puts his hands up and the gun down, then Hoff tries to jump off the railing and falls several feet instead, injuring himself. Voight dares him to reach for the gun but Hoff doesn’t
Lisa the ex-cop joins the two of them with her gun drawn, almost in a trance of rage, telling him that she’s going to make it right. Voight attempts to talk her down, but she doesn’t hear him. Voight knocks her gun aside at the very same moment she pulls the trigger, missing Hoff. He then tells her to go home before she makes her situation worse as Intelligence arrives. Before the team gets there, Voight manages to inflict some pain on Hoff by kicking his injured leg as he reads him his rights.
Hoff is arrested on two new murder charges. Halstead asks if there’s anything he needs to know. Voight says “We’re good.”
Voight briefs Miller on how Hoff “awkwardly” fell off a second-floor walkway when she questions his broken leg and she almost praises him for the fact that Hoff’s face is clean without “bruises or cuts”. Miller informs Voight that Hoff is telling his attorneys the ex-cop was there and she asks if that’s true. Voight says “I arrived on the scene solo at around 7:21, waited for backup, we located Hoff inside an abandoned factory, he jumped off the second floor…” Miller interrupts him and recites his side of the story back to him and asks again if Lisa Martinez was there and implores him to tell the truth. He replies, “the truth is not your friend right now” and encourages her to move on.
The episode ends with Voight paying the ex-cop another visit and they share a drink over the case. She tells him that she dedicated her whole life to Chicago and being a cop, but “they took that away from me” and that she feels the politicians and the press picked Hoff over her. Voight replies that they don’t think the way cops do and leaves the shell casing behind from the shot that went off, covering up the evidence that proves she was there too.
In addition to Dick Wolf, executive producers include Rick Eid, Peter Jankowski, Arthur W. Forney, Derek Haas and Eriq La Salle.
Chicago P.D. produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
