“An attack on your family is an attack on our family.”
At the end of the previous episode, Burgess wished her sister Nicole a fun evening as Nicole left for a night out with friends. This hour picks up with the morning after, and Nicole is nowhere to be found. With some help from Ruzek, Burgess finds Nicole at the train station, badly injured from a brutal rape.
Intelligence takes the case (obviously) and begins with Nicole’s friends. The unit is first led to a creepy old guy with stalker-type photos of Nicole in his apartment. That’s a dead end, though—he was hired by Nicole’s soon-to-be ex-husband to find dirt. Thanks to the creep, Halstead and Voight do discover that Nicole’s friend Denise is missing.
The team’s next suspect is a bit more promising—Rex Goldman is a “pick-up guru”, though I prefer the term misogynist pig. Goldman holds seminars for men looking to meet women in which he says things like, “Any man is capable of having any woman, at any time,” “When a woman says no, it does not mean that the game is over. It means that the game has started,” and “My program will teach you how to…bring her to her desired state of consent.” How about making women puke? Because that’s how I feel about good ol’ Rex. Voight plays Rex unbelievably well, considering I’m sure he’d love nothing more than to escort Rex to the silos.
Meanwhile, Jay narrows down Denise’s possible location, which leads to him and Erin finding her frozen body. Denise wasn’t sexually assaulted, but she was drugged and froze to death. She likely escaped her captors and then froze while hiding from them.
Goldman might not have committed the crimes himself, but the suspect’s (or suspects’) tactics reek of Godman’s techniques. The next suspect, who we’ll refer to by his alter ego, Man Slut, followed Goldman’s technique to pursue Nicole and Denise. He’s not the assaulter, but he does lead the team to the winning duo—Keith and Andrew. Because sexual assault when alcohol is involved is so tough to prove, Erin and Burgess go undercover to lure Keith and Andrew into trying their tactics again.
While the case itself is dark and terribly sad, I enjoyed the lighter moments. For example, who knew Platt was once an undercover street walker? Not us, until now! Also, if this whole cop thing doesn’t work out for Atwater, he could definitely be a bouncer. Loved his use of “Frick and Frack”.
But back to the case. Erin and Burgess go back to Keith and Andrew’s apartment and hope they make their move. Burgess takes a shot that she knows is laced, but she has no choice if she wants to put her sister’s assaulters behind bars. The rest of the unit bursts in and after Voight works his magic, Andrew and Kevin are going away. On top of that? Voight pays Rex a visit and aggressively encourages him to take his business to another city.
“Nicole has looked out for me, she’s always had my back no matter what. She’s my big sister and she needs help. I’m all she’s got.”
Much can be said about the Chicago Fire family—firehouse 51 makes it clear on a weekly basis that no group is tighter. But the Intelligence family is close as well, we just don’t see it each week. I loved seeing the unit, especially Voight, surround Burgess and her family throughout the hour. Voight wastes no time in granting Burgess indefinite leave to help Nicole recover from the assault—which works out nicely for Marina Squerciati and her maternity leave. Congrats, Marina! We’ll see you back soon. While she's out, can Rixton come back? Please?
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