After-Take: CHICAGO PD “She’s Got Us”
Name of the Episode: “She’s Got Us”
Beware – spoilers!
Lindsay and Halstead are working overtime on the beat. They’re helping take over the shifts from Roman and Burgess. They get a call about shots fired in a home; once on the scene, they stumble onto a massacre. They search the house for the shooter but they come up empty. Lindsay hears a noise that leads them back to the living room. A little girl pushes off the body from herself and stands up. Lindsay and Halstead try asking her a few questions; she doesn’t answer and passes out from the stress of the situation. Lindsay wants to be with the girl when she wakes up. She asks Halstead to stay back and help work the case. The teams work together to figure out the bloody scene.
The little girl crawled out from under her older sister, she played dead to stay alive. Two members of the neighborhood watch give a few details. They say while on their patrol they heard about 2 dozen shots ring out, but didn’t hear anyone flee the scene. Roman is enduring physical therapy and Platt goes to visit him during a session. She wants him to get back to work quickly; Kim also comes to pay him a visit to lift his spirits. Platt says once Roman gets his medical clearance he can start light duty as soon as next week.
At the station, the team sees the victims: the Carlson family includes two parents and four children. Polly is the only survivor, she has lost her two sisters in the shooting. Jeni, the mother, was working to open a fast food company. Voight begins to think the family was sucked into a pyramid fraud. Jay stops by the hospital and brings Lindsay some fresh clothes. The autopsy of the Carlson family shows no signs of domestic abuse. Except for Darren, the father, he had bruising on his chest that was a couple months old. There was no record of Darren seeking medical treatment despite what seemed like a brutal beating.
Al and Antonio go visit the Horizons center. Randall, the leader of the center, says Darren was doing very well with the program and had put his darkness in the past. Darren received $50,000 and be a “emerald level” member. He bought himself a new level and in return, he would have to send new members. At Med, Polly got a hold of a surgical knife and attacked a doctor. Erin is called to the hallway and sees Polly holding a bloody knife. Erin tries talking with her before Polly can be taken into restraints. Polly realizes she is in the hospital, but knows she isn’t hurt. She puts down the knife and the nurses rush in. Polly is sedated and Lindsay is furious.Dr. Charles reassures her that he’s doing his job and will call when Polly is ready to talk. If he let’s Polly talk sooner, it will not make sense because she is so severely traumatized.
Platt accompanies Burgess to speak with the Captain about assignment of partners. Roman and Burgess will each be assigned new partners once he is cleared for duty. Ruzek and Atwater find information about the members Darren signed up for Horizons. Mr. Sloane was a member Darren tried to sign up and he was robbed in the early morning hours. He says the only thing taken was a tablet. He denies anything to do with the Carlson’s murders. Dr. Charles takes Lindsay to speak with Polly. Polly says she saw the man who killed her family, but can’t see his face. She keeps saying she needs to go to the house on the lake. Dr. Charles thinks she could be grasping for something positive.
At Roman’s medical meeting he is told his surgical procedure will not be approved. There is a bullet still lodged in his back and even with surgery, it’s possible it won’t improve the function in his arm. He cannot appeal the notions and is reassured he will be given a job that falls within his current capabilities. Roman is angry and wants to be out on the streets doing his job.
The team catches a break and has a car called in blocking a handicapped spot near Mr. Sloane’s home. The car belongs to a security consultant of Horizon. Francis Kruger his car was blocking a handicapped parking spot. Francis Kruger could have been sent to steal the tablet because it was used to film a Horizon seminar. Voight and Al have Francis ready in the cage for intimidation tactics. He says Jeni had a loan go sour, against someone named Doherty. They loaned him $800 and eventually it went to civil court.
Their suspect is Gerald, one of the neighborhood watch members who gave a statement at the murder scene. Halstead helps Lindsay find the home Polly was talking about. The house is located in Hyde Park, right next to the lake. Polly identifies it is the right house. She helped her dad work on the floors on the weekends. Meanwhile, Antonio and Al go to see Gerald’s father, Jerome. The gun was missing from the safe, but found in Gerald’s room.
Polly has good memories while she is in the lake house with Lindsay and Halstead. She continues to walk around and then stops over one spot. She says the man who killed her family was there and beings to cry. Back at the house, Jerome is waiting at the table with the team nearby. Gerald walks in the door, and his father yells for his son to run. The team runs after Gerald and corners him in the alley. Once in the interrogation room, Gerald insists he did nothing wrong. He had photos on his laptop of him and Katie, Polly’s sister. She was 16 years old and he was sleeping with her; he can already be charged with statutory rape. So, he cooperates with what he could account for. He could not pay back the loan from Katie’s mother, so they went to court. He says he would never hurt Katie, he loved her. He borrowed the gun to go on patrol, it was not fired.
At the lake house, Polly says she can see the attackers face. She remembers a few details, but she doesn’t know his name. There was a fight between her dad and the shooter. The shooter wanted money and the police was called. Halstead calls Mouse to figure out who was involved with the call. No report was filed, the fight broke up before police could get to the scene. Lindsay shows Polly a few photos of young men, but Polly says the man was older, but she recognizes Gerald’s photo. Lindsay asks for more details and Polly says he had a beard; he was around 50 and he drove a red truck that he could take the top off.
Based on those details the team pulls up the file for Lewis Barrow. He was associated with Darren from the past, before Darren turned his life around. The team goes with the lead and walk up to Lewis’ home. Before they can make a plan, Lewis begins to fire on the team from the second story window. Antonio is nearly hit and the team tries a different approach. Lewis says he is ready to die, but the team goes in and uses smoke enablers to get Lewis out. The plan works. Antonio shoots Lewis a few times, but Lewis is wearing a bulletproof vest. In the ambulance, Lewis discloses details to Al. Lewis and Darren were a part of a bank robbery, a few years back. Darren was the driver but Lewis was caught in the act. Darren said he had no part of the robbery and Lewis did three years of jail time. Lewis had gone to Darren for money, and Darren gave him a pamphlet for Horizon. Lewis just wanted what was rightfully his; a horrid outcome for the Carlson family.
Polly will be relocated to St. Louis to be with her aunt and uncle. She tells Lindsay she understood her family moved around a lot. They didn’t have a place to live, but her dad kept things positive, saying they were on an adventure. Despite everything, Polly can hold onto the good memories she had with her family.
At the end of the episode, Burgess goes to Molly’s and sees Roman. Roman pulls Burgess aside and asks her to move to San Diego with him. He has a cousin who will let him stay in his guesthouse. He cannot allow himself to be stuck to a desk for the rest of his career. Kim says she will have to think about it.
Next week Chicago PD sees its season 3 finale. Voight has terror come to his doorstep when Justin is attacked and put in the hospital. Voight is out for revenge and will not stop working on the case. He is willing to disobey his superiors to fight for the justice Justin deserves. Stay tuned for the last after take of the season to find out how our beloved characters end up.