The Chicago Code - "O'Leary's Cow" Review

“Tape it up. Learn to play with pain. This isn’t Evanston, kid.” -Wysocki

When watching The Chicago Code I have to constantly remind myself it isn’t The Shield, nor does it want to be. Where The Shield was unique in that it took a villain and made us care about him. In The Chicago Code we largely have heroes. As far as we know, Jarek Wysocki, Caleb Evers, Liam, and Teresa Colvin are good police. There is definitely a market for watching good police catch bad guys, but that show has been done to death. What makes The Chicago Code specifically interesting is when good police and good people are put into a situation where their morals and ideals are compromised. Seeing them wrestle with both sides of things is where unique drama is created.

Up until this point, I had largely thought that the storyline involving Liam the undercover cop was a bit light. I knew what it was trying to do, but I didn’t really see any benefit to keep showing him week in and week out. Just as I was thinking that, he’s confronted with an actual chance to commit a crime. This is where all undercover cop stories need to go. It’s the catch 22 within the situation. The undercover agent needs to work their way up to get more information, but in order to work their way up, they need to earn their keep. We’ll see just how far Liam goes. I have a hunch he travels further into the crime world, especially after a dead body was discovered. Any misgivings I had about the Liam story line have been put off. I’m curious how far he’ll go now to make the people who made him a killer pay for what they did. Jarek’s reaction when Liam tells him is also very interesting. He doesn’t so much care about what Liam did. As far as he’s concerned, it came with the territory. It’s just collateral damage. This leads me to believe that in the future Jarek will not be afraid to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Superintendent Colvin was also put between a rock and a hard place when her sister and brother-in-law asked for her assistance on an issue where it was later revealed that the brother-in-law had sold access to the CPD. Teresa’s sister placed an unfair ultimatum on her. She said she could help the family by just sweeping this under the rug and looking the other way. We learn that Teresa’s family views Teresa as someone who cares more about her job than her family. So when Teresa has to stand up to her family and tell them that she is on the side of the law and not theirs, something tells me those tears let us know that Colvin knows she’s sacrificed a lot for her job and may not be completely comfortable with it. I’m glad that Colvin didn’t bite at the first chance to turn her back on the law. We need her integrity in tact so that when the time comes, her turning her back means something very significant.

The biggest problem concerning me are the relationships that surround Jarek Wysocki. The superintendent seems to let him get away with a lot. He shoots his mouth off, speaks out of turn, and doesn’t follow direct orders all the time. I think this is a bit implausible, so it was no wonder when the other cops took offense to it. The Vonda and Issac relationship does nothing to help this. I still think their would be lingering tension there, but it just seems like they’re both desperately trying to gain his approval. I would like it more if Isaac and Vonda stayed with Moose’s team and we saw a bit of the conflicting ways to get business done, but maybe that’s a little too “Strike Team-ish.” Finally, the Caleb Evers relationship is one I like but it’s only skin deep. I enjoy their banter, but I think they need to find more instances where they can be equals as opposed to the constant teacher/student relationship we have going. As slight as it was, I liked when Evers stuck up for himself after he asked Natalie the cute nurse out. I had a thought Natalie could be Wysocki’s 27 year old fiance, but I don’t think that the case. Still waiting on her to show up. But the biggest road block in the Wysocki/Evers relationship is that we don’t know much about Evers. We need to know what makes him tick or at least see some sort of dirt. Right now Wysocki is depicted as some sort of super cop where everyone is playing up to him. I wonder what will happen when someone legitimately challenges him. Perhaps that’s where the Alderman Gibbons story takes us. I suspect he knows what happen to Wysocki’s brother.

I do like that we saw a chink in Gibbons’ armor today. We learn Alderman Gibbon’s biggest weakness is voters. The way Colvin gets to him is by attacking those that put him in power. He has power as long as he’s in power. You threaten his position, you threaten everything he’s worked to attain. Gibbons took a bit of a back seat this week, but I’m ok with that. He’s the main guy Colvin is chasing and something tells me he’s going to be around a while. The question is if he’s around for just a season or longer (assuming there is a longer.)