“This feels very personal.”
Upton joins (temporarily) the Intelligence Unit complete with Greek donuts. I’ve never had Greek donuts, but the brief glimpse we saw now has them on my must-try list. The team doesn’t have much time to enjoy the donuts, as Ruzek gathers everyone around his computer to watch a man be burned alive, livestreamed for the world to see. When they arrive on scene, they find a charred body and “Pedophile” painted in blood on the wall. And so, the case begins…
Olinsky and Jay learn about the first victim, Elijah. He was a registered sex offender due to a rape charge, but the “rape” was a consensual relationship with his underage white girlfriend. Meanwhile, Erin and Upton head to Indiana to talk with the arresting officer, who disagreed with Elijah’s charge as well. Well, whoever torched Elijah didn’t seem to care about anything but the “pedophile” label. So, moving on…
Atwater finds a video channel called Perv Hunters which essentially serves as a serving platter for whoever is killing sex offenders. When the Perv Hunters release another video, this time targeting an Alan Metcalf, Jay and Olinsky fish for information. Alan leads them to the man behind Perv Hunters, but later finds himself burned alive. Craig Gorman might not do the actual torching, but he is responsible for the Perv Hunters videos. The team uses him to lure out the actual killer by having Olinsky go undercover as a sex offender on a Perv Hunters video.
Like a moth to a flame, the unit ensnares the culprit—Jeremy Pettigrew. Jeremy seems an unlikely suspect, but he turns out to be a registered sex offender as well. So, a sex offender killing other sex offenders? Interesting. As Erin’s psychologist explains, he’s a self-loathing pedophile. He turns his shame on people like him, as he’s unable to kill himself. Not only that, but she believes he’s recently begun the killings to atone for a crime he recently committed, meaning there’s a missing kid out there.
While most of the unit investigates who the missing kid is and where he could be, Erin channels her inner Voight and gets a bit physical with Jeremy. Seriously, she learned the chin-grabbing from Voight, right? But Erin, if you’re going to stick your gun in the guy’s mouth, at least take him down to the cage where there aren’t any cameras. Meanwhile, the rest of the unit finds the boy, Derek, in the trunk of an abandoned car. And sadly, they’re too late. On top of that, Erin faces a review hearing where she could potentially lose her job. I’d be more afraid for her if this show didn’t revolve around her. So, nice attempt writers, but you’re not fooling me.
“I don’t need you tell me what to do.”
Bunny ambushes Erin at the start of the hour to…give her a pearl bracelet. Erin immediately asks, “What angle are you working right now?” and I’m right there with her. Bunny doesn’t do anything without strings. You know who else knows that? Jay. Erin brings up the encounter with him and he warns her against getting involved. Upon seeing the exchange, Voight permanently, that’s right, permanently, reassigns Jay as Olinsky’s partner and Upton as Erin’s. How dare he! Voight clearly sides with Erin in all this mess—when Jay asks how long he’s in the “penalty box” for, Voight responds with a threat to bounce him from the unit if he ever asks again. Am I taking crazy pills?! What on earth is going on?
Honestly, none of this makes sense. For starters, it’s not like Jay and Erin were having an argument. They were quietly discussing her crazy mother, someone Voight is very familiar with. So why does that warrant a permanent partner switch? Ridiculous. Now let’s get into the mess of discontinuity that is Erin and Jay. These two are apparently broken up? When did that happen? The “break-up” was Jay telling Erin he needed some time to work on himself, and he finished that scene with an “I love you.” But now they’re broken up? On top of that, Olinsky insists Jay let his relationship with Erin interfere with the job, and I’m calling bologna. These two were professional on the job, to the point that we went months without any personal relationship scenes between the two. But Jay doesn’t care that Olinsky says he could lose his position in the unit—all he cares about is Erin, “I blew it with Erin.” No, you didn’t! I’m furious with this mess.
Meanwhile, Bunny might be leaving Chicago, and not of her own free will. She’s met yet another great guy, and the two seem to have gotten themselves into enough trouble that fleeing Chicago is the only option. Good lord.
What did you think of the episode? What mess did Bunny get herself into now? How will Erin’s actions pan out? Share your thoughts below!
