“It doesn’t have to be somewhere fancy, just some place where you can’t hear the noise. Some place quiet, empty, right when the sun’s coming up. I’d like someone to take me there, and I think it’d be all right if right at the water, someone left me there—to stay.”
When a fifteen-year-old ward of the state is found dead, Voight takes a different approach to the case—he sends Jay undercover to Brady, a home for troubled girls and last known residence of the DOA, Sam. Brady is shady (sorry for the rhyming) and Voight exploits (seriously, this is not intentional) the opportunity to get into the place and potentially shut it down once and for all. I was initially excited for this episode because of the departure from the typical format. But honestly, it fell a little flat for me. Regardless, here’s what happened…
Jay, or Ryan, as he introduces himself, take a job at Brady. He quickly finds himself breaking up a fight between Ellie and Tonya, two girls who end up playing major roles in taking down Brady. Ellie takes a liking to Jay, and I can’t really fault her for that. What’s heartbreaking is how she approaches it. Ellie (and the other girls, I’d imagine) has gotten so used to trading sexual favors for help that her jaded approach to it all is devastating. This show has its flaws, but revealing harsh truths is not one of them—there are women (and men, I’m sure) who feel the only way they can make it is to give up themselves, literally. Talk about heartbreak. She attempts to make that sort of trade with Jay, who is obviously not having it. Perhaps for the first time in her life, Ellie is shown that a man can help you without wanting something in return.
Turns out the girls and Vince, the supervisor, have quite the scheme going. The girls continually escape through a hole in Tonya’s wall, which leads to a room chock-full of shady evidence. The room has an exit the girls use to leave and work the streets as prostitutes, bringing more profit to Vince and Tonya. Or is it Ellie who’s running the show? I’ll admit, that was a nifty curve ball they threw at us, but in the end, Ellie’s story checks out—Tonya killed Sam when she wanted out of the “game”.
I was a bit surprised to see how the team reacted to Jay’s work this hour. Not only was his intel and intuition questioned, but his integrity as well. I understand questioning his intuition to some degree—the writers need to keep the team guessing as much as the viewers. But questioning Jay’s integrity? If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Jay over the past four-ish years, it’s that the man arguably has more integrity than anyone else in that unit.
Much like Herrmann tugs at the heartstrings on Fire, Platt fills that role here. Erin asks Platt for info on Sam, because as it turns out, Sam spent some time behind the desk with Platt a year prior. Platt doesn’t remember her at all, and that tears her up inside. As she typically does, Platt goes above and beyond to make up for forgetting Sam. She takes care of Sam’s wishes, and the closing scene proved to be the hour’s best.
Other thoughts…
Not that I want to break up the Erin/Jay professional partnership, but Erin and Atwater are awesome together. I wouldn’t mind seeing them as partners every so often! Or really, just more Atwater. He just gets better and better.
Not to take away from the case, but I was disappointed with Jay’s story this hour. I think it’s safe to say that most viewers have been dying for a story for Jay that 1) doesn’t involve Erin and 2) gives us more information about his backstory. An episode that focused on him undercover would have been the perfect opportunity to give us something, but that’s not what happened. Did it reaffirm the great guy he is? Sure. Did it show Voight’s faith in him? Yes and no. But alas, it all in some way came back to Erin and we closed the hour sans backstory.
He wasn’t prominent this episode, but I love that Rixton is still around. Can we just make it official and up him to a regular?
What did you think of the episode? How did you like how Jay’s story unfolded? Should Rixton stick around? Share your thoughts below!
