Chicago PD celebrated 200 episodes this week, and whereas it wasn’t the milestone episode some had been hoping for, it was a giant one for Kim Burgess with the hour specializing in her and coping with the previous.
Let’s be actual, 200 episodes of a tv present is nothing to sneeze at and it deserves to be celebrated. While lots of people have proven their disdain on-line for the selection to make the two hundredth episode a personality centric one, myself included, it was an excellent episode with an excellent story and I’ve gotta give credit score the place it’s due as a result of everybody actually delivered on this one.
Kim Burgess has been by way of all of it in terms of trauma on this present. She’s been kidnapped, shot, come near dying one too many occasions, and has seen nearly each darkish factor you may think about. And what do the writers do along with her on this milestone episode? They traumatize her some extra after all and drive her to take care of the previous, however as powerful as it’s to observe, they do it in a really possible way even whether it is lengthy overdue.
The episode opens with what seems to be a standard evening at house for Kim, Adam, and Makayla, however inside moments, Kim is catapulted to the previous and suffers a panic assault. It knocks her down, actually as she falls to the ground, unable to breathe or focus, terrified and so sure it was a gunshot she heard, and her and her household are at risk. Adam is by her facet, attempting his greatest to consolation her, speak her down and guarantee her it wasn’t gun pictures, however a automobile backfiring and that they’re all secure, but it surely’s not a truth Kim is definitely capable of consider.
We’ve seen smaller moments like this with Kim scattered all through the earlier 13 episodes of the season — flashbacks and shaking palms, staring off into the space, or reaching for her gun to verify it’s nonetheless holstered at her facet — Easter Eggs of what to anticipate when all of it lastly reached the floor and boiled over.
PTSD is not any joke, however it’s spotlighted on this episode in a refreshing manner given how darkish this present could be most occasions and I loved how they leaned into it. They didn’t stigmatize or wave it off, however as a substitute, they acknowledged how very actual of a difficulty it’s. They confirmed the nitty gritty of what trauma does to an individual, how the traumatic act itself isn’t the one factor to recuperate from. It’s the aftermath that may be simply as crippling, if not worse. There are very actual fears and triggers that outcome from these experiences, and so they had been portrayed so splendidly on this episode that you could’t assist however really feel for Kim and all that she’s been by way of, and it makes you root for her restoration that rather more as she grapples with every part.
She’s trapped on this episode a lot because the title suggests, each in her personal head and actually by the top of the hour. The case involves a detailed and she or he races to avoid wasting a bit boy who’s been abused, and in the end finds him on the backside of a nicely within the woods. She goes in after him and the offender traps them, main Kim to have one other panic assault.
The scene is one other heartstopper that strongly parallels the season eight finale when Kim practically died. I at all times take pleasure in seeing these parallel moments, however the ones on this hour, as cinematically stunning as they could have been, reduce deep and so they damage. They introduced us proper again to that junkyard the place we noticed Kim combating, not just for her life, however combating to return house to her daughter, too.
Kim mendacity beside the sufferer on the prepare, staring up on the roof of the automobile whereas carrying the identical shirt with the identical digital camera pan on her face as we noticed in that junkyard warehouse.
Her whispered “get him out” when she’s trapped within the nicely with Lucas similar to when she whispered “don’t die” to herself earlier than breaking the automobile window.
Or how she pulled off her belt and tied it across the nicely ladder for Lucas to carry onto, her instincts and fast considering coming in clutch the identical manner she pulled off Kent Darby’s belt for a makeshift tourniquet after she’d been shot.
These moments, the place viewers are transported again in time to a spot the place their favourite characters have been, are a giant a part of what makes tv and storytelling so enjoyable for followers, as painful as they could be generally. Those moments are the identical cause why we preserve watching although, aren’t they? We fall in love with characters and their tales, their triumphs, and flaws and even their ache. We cheer for them after they’re at their greatest and root for them at their worst.
It was a giant factor I took away from this episode. I’ve by no means been quiet about who my favourite characters are on this present, and regardless that I don’t consider the two hundredth episode ought to have been a personality centric one, I do suppose this was an unbelievable hour of tv and deserves to be acknowledged for that.
Kim’s trauma has constantly been brushed beneath the rug, and at occasions, used as a crutch to additional different storylines and promote others’ therapeutic as a substitute of her personal. It was a reduction to see it lastly delivered to gentle and given the eye it so sorely deserves practically two seasons later.
Kim has her demons, and she’s going to proceed to face them as she goes to remedy and works by way of issues to free herself from the previous. But the best way she acknowledges it’s a actual concern now, that it’s one thing she will not keep away from, that her trauma and the best way she responds to it isn’t one thing she will management with out assistance is a stupendous full circle second on this episode.
How she continues to struggle to be higher for herself — to be higher for her daughter and for her relationship with Adam and for the job itself — makes her a personality you may’t assist cheering on. She deserves recognition for what she’s been by way of, and much more importantly, she deserves the closure that was stolen from her, and hopefully because the season goes on, we’ll lastly see her get that.
What did you consider the episode? Share your ideas within the feedback under.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays on NBC.
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