Critic’s Rating: 3.6 / 5.0
3.6
And with that, we wrap up another season of Chicago PD.
For a finale, Chicago PD Season 13 Episode 21 just felt like another episode, but we did see a spark of old-school Hank Voight going absolutely feral while murdering a man, and Imani got her sister back, for whatever that’s worth.
Outside of that, the hour was another character-centric one, with most of Intelligence serving as supporting characters in someone else’s story.
Truthfully, I don’t have much to say about this hour. It wasn’t bad, but as a finale, it reflected so much of what was underwhelming about aspects of this season, as well as what’s been interesting.
What has been great about the season is how creative the direction and other things have been.
Torres with the religious imagery and execution of his episodes, the child narration during the Burzek neighborhood episode, Ruzek’s cinematographic farewell to his father, and so forth.
The flashbacks to the Imani sisters’ childhood were beautifully done, and the camerawork for Imani when they got the jump on her in the basement was great.
I love that they’ve really leaned into things like this and taken this indie arthouse approach to executing episodes this season.
The negative shows just how much the character-centric methodology can cripple storytelling.
We technically had the entire cast onscreen, but it didn’t feel like it amounted to anything, as Imani and the guest star, an incredibly engrossing Selin Cuhadaroglu, dominated the hour, with Voight and Torres serving as key players.
It’s when it hits that finales should be a full-team affair, and not just featuring all of the squad as they assist with the case, but they work better when everyone has stakes in the game.
Chicago PD Season 12 Episode 21 got that right in some respects, as it was about the unit’s disbandment and everyone having to come together to get back on track.
But here, Chicago PD is asking us to feel passionate and invest in its newest addition to the team after a full season of watching her crop up and take up a lot of time, mostly because she and Voight felt like a packaged deal for most of the season.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with Imani. And Arienne Mandi is certainly a great performer and breathes life into the character.
But despite Imani being around all season, I still haven’t found myself invested in the character enough for the series to spend its last two episodes devoted exclusively to her and to finding her sister.
They breadcrumbed some things about her sister in the early part of the season, and because of the constant cast rotations, we didn’t even really gain traction with that arc until the second part of the season.
Even then, it was a serviceable storyline worth exploring, but it wasn’t the grand finale piece to close out a season.
Instead, it felt like watching an extended episode of Law & Order: SVU. And while there’s obviously nothing wrong with SVU, it didn’t align with the vibes one would expect from Chicago PD.
More than anything, my struggles with this episode are that it required me to care more about Imani as a character than I do, and they’ve allowed us to do.
Giving a two-hour season closer to the newest character, when the season doesn’t even fully allow us to get to know her or care about her, is risky.
And I don’t think this particular risk paid off.
It was also predictable, and it required a number of trip-ups to carry the story. We long-since passed the point of Imani getting benched on this case.
She shouldn’t have been in the room telling this woman that Shari was her sister long after Shari refused the news. It was triggering, and there had to be better ways to handle someone they were viewing as a trauma survivor.
In fact, calling in a shrink or specialist at any point would’ve been sensible.
Imani running roughshod was so frustrating because it caused more drama and issues than it was worth, and her lone-wolf heroics are irksome.
And for the life of me, I didn’t understand why Imani had to take Shari out of the house and bring her to her bleak apartment just to show her a sealed container of memories and trinkets. Why couldn’t Imani just bring that box to the safehouse?
Because the plot required something else.
It was fairly obvious that Shari was too far gone with Kirby. Imani didn’t want to see it, which made it so frustrating that she was mostly running point on this and not really listening to anyone else.
Throughout Chicago PD Season 13 Episode 20, we heard bits and pieces and subtle signs that Shari has been an accomplice to Kirby in some ways.
So it wasn’t that surprising to learn that she was the one who killed her friend, Lila, not Kirby. He wasn’t even in the vicinity when the murder happened.
And she’s been the one to get in on jumping johns and shaking them down for more money and things.
In many ways, Kirby groomed Shari so well that she became her own feral monster. I’ve joked all season about Imani having that “junkyard dog” quality to her, but Shari is the one who has the rabid, feral angle going for her, thanks to this horrible man.
It reminds me a bit of the wild girls from Chicago PD Season 12 Episode 5.
The sad thing is that Shari’s behavior does align with trauma survivors and their experience. They showcase what a trauma bond really looks like in this case, through Shari and Kirby’s connection.
She’s known this man since she was six years old, and he’s been her world for so long that she doesn’t know what it is and what she even looks like without him.
That’s 22 years of all the grooming, and that’s not something that can be undone overnight. Shari may not be too far gone.
Based on how she was in the hospital, it’s possible that there is something worth salvaging there, and with some extensive therapy for a really long time, she can find healing and become some semblance of a functional person in human society.
But it’s also possible that she won’t. And that’s just a roll of the dice.
The hour plays into the notion that monsters aren’t born, they’re made. And it’s what Shari is supposed to represent. She’s the person she is because of Kirby’s actions.
He took a pure, loving six-year-old girl and messed her up so much that she’s a killer. And that’s a lot for Imani to reconcile with since she spent her entire life searching for her sister.
Ironically, Shari’s entire identity has revolved around what Kirby brainwashed her into, and Imani’s entire identity has revolved around finding her sister.
The Imani sisters both have to figure out who they are after this. And it could be something worth exploring for Imani if she returns next season. You know, once every other five episodes.
And they may or may not revisit Voight, letting the darkness in him come out with Kirby. One of the most surprising moments of the hour was the brutal killing of Kirby. The sequence of Voight slamming Kirby’s head into that door seemed to go on forever.
It does align with how monsters are born, but created, and that very much applies to Voight. He’s worked to keep his demons in line, and he’s reflected on that a bit this season.
Watching his facial expression as he gave into the darkness was jarring and likely had people championing the brief appearance of Old School Voight.
It also seemed like another one of those things wherein he has an attachment to Imani, not unlike he did with Hailey and Erin, too. Hell, maybe Anna, I don’t know.
Hank Voight is a Feral Girl Dad.
And we leave things with Shari’s future uncertain, but most likely leading to prison if not a psych facility. She needs help, but the system doesn’t always work that way, and she has killed people, so there’s that.
Imani found her sister, so her mission is complete, but her future hangs in the balance. And, I guess everyone else is fine, or whatever.
Over to you, Chicago PD Fanatics! Let’s discuss this finale. Did it underwhelm?
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