Chicago PD - Under the Skin - Review

If you are a Burzek fan (as this writer definitely is), this episode did not disappoint with an exciting and complex case requiring the finest minds of Intelligence, along with a sprinkle of caring relationships as the team cares for each other during current and past events that are plaguing their minds at present.

A big treat in this episode was to begin with the appearance of Makayla, who is having a sleepover with a friend. This young actress (Ramona Williams) is always such a treat to see on screen, and it is wonderful to see how well she is doing with Kim and Adam, thriving and living happily in Adam’s childhood home with them. And seeing this happy Burzek family definitely sends shippers over the moon with happiness.

When Kim gets the call to go to see if she can help identify a body as a member of a gang in the area it was found, as her name is in the system attached to the old case, it was also such a treat to see the seamless parenting transition as Kim hands off the sleepover to Adam.

When Kim arrives, the detective tells her there is a ton of blood, and Kim looks at the body and recognizes the area of injury as it is the same area where she was shot. She tells the detective he is not part of the gang, and by the time Voight has arrived on scene, they have identified him as Thomas Quinn, an investment banker. Chief O’Neal arrives, and he orders Voight and his team to take the case, stating that this man was a friend to the police and the FOP. It is clear from their reaction that Hailey and Voight feel he is making them take the case to take the focus off investigating his son, but they have no choice but to take it.

Back at the station however, Voight tells Hailey he put her on 5 days vacation, and how she chooses to use that time is up to her. Clearly this is a cover to keep her focused on the Sean O’Neal investigation, and it is interesting to see Voight’s trust in Hailey to run with the investigation herself, but also nice to see the trust he has in the rest of the team to solve this investigation without her.

The team reviews the details of Thomas Quinn, his life and disappearance and also where they think he may have been abducted. Torres comes in with a lead of a car that was abandoned and towed in the area and he and Kevin go to check it out. This newfound partnership between Atwater and Torres has been such a great development since Halstead left for the army. These characters seem to complement each other and after his years of experience, it only solidifies the expertise that Atwater has gained and that he is a great mentor for Torres. It also can only cause us to question if he might be the next one to promote to detective, especially considering since Halstead departed, Hailey is the only detective in the unit.

They find the car and the trunk is filled with blood, and they identify that it must have been the transport vehicle from the abduction. They check the GPS and find out the person driving was stalking Quinn at this house. Kim and Adam go to a location of the GPS where the car stopped for a prolonged period and find a makeshift grave. They find out witnesses say the man was a tall white man who was walking with purple flowers and they find the flowers and follow the trail into an old maintenance tunnel and find a whole series of bodies, all stabbed in the exact same locations as Quinn.

Voight arrives and Kim lets him know patrol searched a half mile of tunnel and there is no sign of an offender or more bodies. Adam tells him they were able to identify the most recent body as Gary Dunn, who was a computer tech analyst and his wife reported him missing 3 weeks ago. There are stitches on all the bodies and it looks like the offender stitched them up and then stabbed them again and watched them suffer. Voight says it looks like they have a serial killer.

As Kim looks at the wounds she has flashbacks to being shot. Adam calls to her and she says they need to go get Makayla and get changed. Kim is in the shower at home and she is having more flashbacks of being shot and trying to survive. Makayla is knocking on the door and she is blinking in and out of flashbacks for a minute, until she snaps back to reality and answers Makayla. It seems disturbing to Kim to be having these flashbacks, likely because she is such a strong woman and thinks that she has already processed the shooting and put it behind her. This is also such a great representation of how trauma can resurface for survivors, and kudos to the Chicago PD writers for doing their research on these issues.

The team are able to identify the other two victims, one female and one male. It appears the female died about two years ago, the next one year ago, one 3 weeks ago and now their victim Tom Quinn. Kim speaks to a profiler for serial killers at the local FBI office and he gives her the profiles of the typical types of serial killers, and the team tries to narrow down what type this one may be.

They speak to the families of the victims, who all identify that before their family member was taken, there was a break in in their home. In each case it seems like they only took a necklace. At one home, the dog chased the person and he dropped a glove. The local police had not run the DNA, but Kim is able to get the lab to run it. They are able to get an ID of Tyler Jerome Hansen from DNA in the glove, and they go to his home and arrest him.

Voight and Kim question Hansen, and he asks when the murders happened, because he had nothing to do with this and he lived in St. Louis during two of the murders. Hanson did not fit the profile. Trudy comes to tell the team about a burglary that was reported from last night that fits the profile. They speak to her husband and he tells them his wife saw a tall white man in a hoodie a few times outside their home and they ask him to call her. They talk to her and she is in the parking garage going to her car and Kim hears the man attacking her, and Kim tells her to fight. Kevin and Torres arrive on scene and Torres goes to the roof while Kevin pursues the assailant. There is blood in the car but the woman is missing. Kevin gets blocked leaving the garage and loses the suspect.

They put out an alert on the car and the victim, and Kim says at a traffic cam they get a hit on facial recognition and it is Mark Hansen, and he is Tyler’s older brother. They go to his apartment and they clear the apartment but he and Linda (the kidnapped woman) are not there.

Kim looks over the desk area and finds a false bottom drawer with the jewelry and the only personal item he has is a picture of his brother, so Kim goes to question him again. Tyler says his brother is not a serial killer and it can’t be. Tyler says Mark studies history and gets obsessed and Kim says she knows he does not want it to be true but it is. She tells him the same injury happened to her and the only thing that kept her alive was her kid and knowing someone was coming to help her and Linda deserves the same. Tyler says that Mark is his brother and Kim says she knows that, and asks where he would go and where would he take her. Kim starts having flashbacks again to when she was shot and Tyler says he does not know where he is but might know why.

Kim explains to the team that Mark did his college thesis on Lantos, a Greek god whose mission was to be seen and considered worthy. Mark’s parents were killed by a rich CEO from a drunk driving accident. Mark was in the back seat and his mother took a shard of glass to the abdomen and Mark had to watch her bleed out. The CEO however survived and had a good lawyer and got 2 years in a country club prison. In Mark’s mind, money killed his parents and money set the killer free. The CEO died two years after the crash of cancer so Mark could not go after him. Mark became obsessed with his parents’ death and then Lantos, and created a mission to rid the world of one percenters, and started killing. They find out that Lantos killed himself at 34, and Mark turns 34 in two weeks, which explains the recent escalation.

Trudy comes to tell them she has a lead and a credit card linked to Tyler Hansen was used in Cicero regularly, including the two years he lived in St. Louis. The team splits up. Trudy finds that there is a property Mark inherited from his dad now listed under a company called Lantos. As a huge Trudy Platt fan, it is always wonderful to see her still using her detective skills to support the Intelligence Team. She clearly has a great connection to Hank and to the other members of the team, and having her assisting is always a welcome addition to any episode. As Adam and Kim are preparing to go into the home, Kim realizes she forgot her gun back at the station, and Adam tells her to stay at the car and she is not going in naked. This is classic Adam, where he is concerned and does not want Kim to potentially be in danger. Adam goes into the house. He heads down into the basement and Kim hears a gunshot and runs into the house. She again begins to have flashbacks of being shot as she enters the basement and she sees a trail of blood and again flashes back to her shooting.

Kim finds Adam and she helps attend to the wound in Linda’s abdomen and tells her she is not alone. She continues to flashback in and out as she attends to Linda. Adam finds Mark in the living room and Mark asks if they found her in time and Adam tells him to drop the gun. Adam stops Mark from killing himself, and he arrests him and they get paramedics to help Linda.

When they get back to the station Adam asks Kim what is going on and to talk to him. He says that he knows they don’t talk much about what happened when she was shot but this case and how the victims were killed, but she tells him to stop and that she doesn’t know why she forgot her gun but that it won’t happen again and that she dealt with the shooting when it happened. Adam says it is not just about the gun and Adam says if it is coming up again or if it does in the future, that there is no shame in it and that he is there for her and they will figure it out. This was such an endearing scene, as we see the unspoken bond and love that these characters have for one another. Although so much goes unsaid between them, it is clear the love and bond they feel with one another. And her response that she knows they will work through it together if needed is such an important acknowledgement that they are in this, whatever “this” may be, together for the long haul. However Kim says it was just a bad day and she is going to finish the paperwork and will see him at home.

Kim realizes her gun is not in the gun locker like she thought and she finds it in her locker, as her hands begin shaking. She goes in to talk to Hailey and asks her if she has had any luck. She asks Kim what she is doing there and Kim says she doesn’t know. Kim asks her why she thinks Sean does this, and says the way Mark killed his victims was demented but with his past it made sense. She asks Hailey why Sean does what he does because it does not add up. Everyone they interviewed says that he is good to the kids, and Kim wonders would there not have been someone that would have seen or suspected something. Hailey says it seems like he has devoted his life to being sober and better and they are clearly missing something. This was such a great way to head into the close of this episode, as we do not see enough of the Hailey/Kim partnership and they work so well together and are a great compliment to each others skills as they work through theories and deduce the needed next steps. Hopefully we will see more of this pairing in the future.

Kim asks about Sean’s rehab in Wisconsin and Hailey says he used to spend time at a cabin there with his dad, and Kim says that Adam mentioned one of the kids said that Sean took them to a cabin in Wisconsin.

They hypothesize that perhaps the cabin is where it all started and they go together to check it out. It looks abandoned and they go inside the cabin but then Hailey notices an outbuilding by the forest. They open it and look inside and there are mushrooms growing all over the dirt floor in a strange pattern. They dig under the mushrooms and find a skeleton.

This was a real cliff hanger to end on as the team may have now finally found the evidence they need against Sean O’Neal and surely all of our Chi-hards will be on the edge of their seats until the next episode airs.

What did you think of this episode of Chicago PD? Share your thoughts in the comments below.