“The way I see it, a whorehouse is a whorehouse whether it serves Crystal or Old Style.” -Wysocki
Although a good episode independently, The Chicago Code’s problems reared their head tonight. In order for it to be a successful network drama, it needs to have a touch of episodic elements while trying to maintain a serialized story. Tonight we got very much needed information on Caleb Evers and he and Wysocki’s relationship, but it came at the expense of the Alderman Gibbons arc. The show is not as strong when we get less Delroy Lindo. This in turn effects the undercover agent story line. It’s almost like this episode was aired out of order. I’m ok with episodic cop drama, though I prefer serialized. Up until this point, The Chicago Code was able to straddle both effectively. I’m not a fan of the half in half out episodes. Imagine if a train were to crash. It would be the worst case scenario if it crashed and partially remained on the track as no working train can pass through. If it fell all the way off, at least working trains could still use the track. If The Chicago Code is most effective as an episodic drama that focuses on relationships, so be it. But I think they can maintain their serialized arc once they get all their exposition out of the way.
As for the episode itself, we finally learn a little more about Caleb Evers. Up until this point he was just a ride along detective that was trying to learn some things from Wysocki as he trys to get better at his job. Tonight we learn that he’s a Northwestern grad with aspirations to become an FBI agent. If watching cop dramas has taught me anything, it’s that local police and the suits of the FBI don’t always get along. The only instance I can think of where it worked well was the friend McNulty had on the FBI in The Wire that got him surveillance equipment. Put this against Caleb being from the North Side and we see that there will be tension between Evers and Wysocki just based on upbringing alone.
Now what was nice is that The Chicago Code didn’t let the conflict just die at that. Wysocki and Superintendent Colvin cooked up some scheme to get the department some radios. The problem is that Wysocki left Evers in the dark about it. It was a type of test that led to a 2 week suspension and a black mark in his file. Evers was understandably upset at this and called Wysocki out on the affair that he’s having with his ex-wife. Two things worked really well about this scene. The first was seeing Wysocki almost proud that Evers figured it out. He had a type of sneer that said, “I’m not even mad, I’m impressed.” The second was when Caleb yelled, “You can lie to your fiance but not your partner!” This has to hit home as Wysocki has taught his niece, Vonda, that the most important thing in police work is to trust your partner. Evers grew up right before Wysocki’s eyes. The problem being now is that Evers can’t trust Wysocki as opposed to the other way around.
I did think that The Chicago Code took the easy way out in the case that Wysocki and Colvin cooked up. One problem with the show is that the hand picking of cases for Wysocki is largely unrealistic and the amount of time he gets with the Superintendent is unreasonable. So it was interesting at the beginning when I thought Colvin was going to try and use Wysocki for her own personal gain to keep him in line. However, with them being both in on it and the willingness of both to play with fire like that, Wysocki is just being made more into a super cop that can do no wrong. I think we need to see Wysocki in some real hot water in order for the show to raise its stakes.
I’m still not so sold on the Isaac and Vonda story line. I get that it helps us see Wysocki be protective of his family. The search for his brother’s killer is still looming over our head, but I’m not sure we need full story lines from them. How does it elevate the show? I know that it exoands the universe, and that’s important, but it just seemed very detached from the rest of the narrative. Perhaps Moose was too busy filming season 2 of Justified, where he plays Coover Bennett, for them to keep him in each episode. I can’t envision a scenario where the task force and Wysocki’s cases would come into conflict. I think that angle of the show needs to be fleshed out a bit before I’m ready to see a lot more of it.
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