“I’m the only one who can stop you from getting to your rooftop.”
The hour kicks off with a bang, or rather, a crash. Antonio races to a construction site where a large beam ruined a building and crushed a car—with a man inside. Detective Lindsay is also on scene, and she struggles to keep a frantic woman contained who keeps yelling, “He wasn’t supposed to be here!” She happens to be the daughter of Frank Linden, the biggest real estate tycoon of Chicago.
The initial suspect isn’t looking too good for the accident—he only had two drinks the night before and doesn’t strike me as the irresponsible type. Sure enough, it’s not long before the State’s Attorney’s crew learns, thanks to Chief Boden, that the accident wasn’t actually an accident. Meanwhile, the case gets a bit messy because Mark is a longtime friend of Frank Linden. Look, we haven’t known Frank all that long, but I disliked him immediately. I expect Mark to have a better judge of character.
Thanks to night security, Laura finds a mysterious car on site during the suspected hours of tampering with the boom pin. But let’s get back to Frank—his one scene with Anna destroyed any chance at redemption I would give him. He’s a narcissistic, misogynistic cheapskate who cheats people out of their payments and then destroys them. And Mark is friends with this guy?! Yuck. Also, Evan (the man in the car) didn’t survive. The accident just became murder.
Peter and co. are denied a warrant to Frank’s private server, but Laura dances around the law to gain access. What does every shady, wildly successful businessman need? Mob ties, of course! Antonio and Laura uncover some dirty little secrets with access to the server—Frank and Sarah, his daughter, met with a mob boss not long before the accident. Just after, Anna discovers a discrepancy in Sarah’s story—the newscast she claims to have seen (that prompted her to race to the incident) didn’t air until after Sarah arrived on scene. She’s clearly involved in the “accident”, and agrees to testify despite her fear of her father.
So, case closed, right? Frank intentionally staged an accident to collect insurance money, he can go to prison, and I can go to bed 33 minutes earlier than expected. Not so fast though (unfortunately)…
Frank certainly won’t go down without a fight. He pulls the friendship card with Mark, who makes a deal with Frank’s company that amounts to nothing more than pocket change for Frank. Peter’s understandably furious, and because the settlement was with Frank’s company, uses the loophole to go around Mark and go after Frank directly. Despite initial protests, Mark eventually comes over to Peter’s side, so buckle up, Frank.
Thanks to Sarah’s testimony, we learn the project was ten months and already seven million in debt. But, the company is insured against accidents that halt production for the projected market value of the building—a whopping 570 million dollars. Well, hello there, motive! My goodness. Sarah’s usefulness stops there, as she takes the fifth for all further questions. It puts a damper on Peter’s case strategy, but thanks to a sneaky move by Mark, he adjusts accordingly.
The old saying, “Pride goeth before the fall” gets the best of Frank. Peter party crashes a swanky event of Frank’s and taunts him publicly. When court resumes, Frank can’t help himself—he asks his lawyer to be put on the stand so he can one-up Peter, which plays right into Peter’s hands. Frank unravels under Peter’s questioning and the jury finds him guilty. Not only that, but Frank’s kids get their just desserts along with their father.
Chicago Justice has yet to be renewed and doesn’t have a place on NBC’s fall schedule. Will we see more Chicago Justice? What did you think of the episode? Did you enjoy the first season (potentially only season) of Chicago Justice? If we get another season, what do you hope to see? If, for some reason, Chicago Justice isn’t renewed, I hope Antonio finds his way back to Chicago PD.
