Chicago PD on NBC season 13, episode 5 review

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago PD Season 13, Episode 5.

With “Miami,” Chicago PD Season 13 gets to the Kevin Atwater episode. Every season, there is at least one Atwater-centric installment, and with good reason, because LaRoyce Hawkins has made Atwater a fan-favorite. This episode is different, though, because it seems to notice some of the ways that the show hasn’t always supported Atwater’s character. And then there are other ways in which it makes some of those mistakes again.

The episode takes its title from the fact that Atwater’s police academy classmate, Tasha Fox, is leaving the Chicago Police Department to take a more lucrative position in Miami. Atwater and Tasha are temporarily partnered up on a one-day patrol detail that turns into the search for a serial bomber. The explosions keep the plot moving along, but the real point of the episode is that it contrasts Atwater with Tasha. The script is also very clear about how Atwater lacks direction, from how it opens with his average morning routine to him admitting that he doesn’t know what he wants.

That’s been the issue with Chicago PD‘s handling of Atwater before. As the only Black character in the main cast for most of the show’s run, his episodes tend to be about issues of race or…