Reviewer Rating: 3.6/5.0
3.6
What is the typical motto of the Chicago Police Department?
Tell Voight the truth so he can lie for you.
It’s that simple, but here we are 12 years later in Chicago PD Season 12 Episode 7, and the characters are still unlikable.
In Dante’s defense, he’s relatively new to the equation, and while he’s adjusted pretty well, he’s still tight-lipped about things.
It’s a shame he didn’t keep it in his pants, otherwise we wouldn’t be in the position we are now in wondering about Kiana’s fate, would we?
“Confession” is an apt title because Torres feels deep regret for something the entire time.
We begin with him feeling guilty about sleeping with Gloria, jeopardizing not only his job, but Kim’s as well.
Now we end it all with him feeling deep fear and remorse that his actions may have endangered new Intelligence member Kiana.
This doesn’t look good for our boys!
After a strong start to the season, the quality of this episode couldn’t keep up with the quality of the previous episodes of Chicago PD Season 12.
But it will set us up for the fall finale, which might put us at an advantage.
The problem is that I didn’t like Gloria’s storyline from the beginning.
Torres is not without flaws, like every character in the series, but one of the more annoying ones is that he had a sexual relationship with a confidential informant.
To make matters worse, even as a trauma survivor, Gloria has always been a force to be reckoned with, one who loved the lifestyle of the drug trade too much to give it up entirely.
Gloria always wanted to be queen, and her husband’s death was serendipitous, allowing her to achieve that goal.
This is why Torres would abandon all reason and intuition to believe that whatever story he told himself about Gloria leaving town and starting over as a normal person was never true.
If I remember correctly, didn’t she say in Chicago PD Season 11 Episode 9 that she was incapable of doing such a thing?
She never concealed that even as she said goodbye to Dante, the allure of that lifestyle still attracted her.
A second Zibalta’s name appears in the picture, which is linked to Gloria; it’s clear that she is probably the one in charge.
It doesn’t matter how Dante denies it.
We should have known that the series would try to revisit this storyline based on what they left behind, but frankly, I’d rather they didn’t.
It wasn’t the most interesting arc to begin with, and now it’s a giant mess that requires too much to become a viable storyline.
For one, it’s up to Dante and Jin to keep this secret from everyone, because we know the unit has nothing to gain by keeping such things secret.
We have seen how the unit has been eroded by secrecy.
We also know that Voight’s biggest problem isn’t that his team makes stupid mistakes or even breaks the law; They don’t tell him about it so that he can work his magic or be properly prepared for how to deal with it.
When Kim first found out about it, she kept it a secret and Gloria disappeared, which is fair enough.
But once the case surfaces, there’s no point in King’s redoubled efforts to keep it a secret, and the entire department is now dedicated to taking down Gloria.
It’s not even a matter of selling Dante, it’s just presenting the full story to the rest of the team so everyone can figure out how best to approach the case.
The case may fail because the team is in the dark.
It’s nice to see Kim in detective mode again.
She’s really good at dealing with certain things and people, and her special love and care for Dante and Kiana is her strongest point as a leader.
She’s becoming a mentor to both of them, protective of her children, and this maternal energy almost emanates from her, if you will.
The moment she actually gives Dante the look she probably reserved for Mike is both hilarious and endearing.
But the bad thing is that the hour puts King in this position because even in order to make it work, it forces the viewer to question the obvious: Why was this information withheld from Voight?
This is where this arc relies too much on design.
The same goes for Dante, who is too naive about Gloria and thinks there is a way around this so that she doesn’t expose him.
Equally unbelievable is the fact that he suddenly shows up at Gloria’s place, “randomly” stalking her for old times’ sake, and that she believes it for a while.
She’s a criminal who’s been in the game too long to not think something is going on.
Dante was visiting while they were investigating the case and felt he would immediately inform her of the situation, so Kiana’s sudden appearance in the restaurant would naturally be considered suspicious.
It’s like Torres endangered Kiana with that one move alone, long before that cliffhanger ending.
Kiana going undercover is great because we get to see her do something new.
She’s very good at this and seeing her in this element works really well.
This hour was spent just trying to hide his identity and focus on building trust with Gloria.
It reflects Dante’s approach while working in the garage, fully immersed in the operation, and the montage expresses the process in time.
It’s interesting that many of Kiana’s moments reflect or relate to Dante.
But if Dante’s sudden appearance wasn’t suspicious enough, Kiana’s presence and the ferocious way she disarmed the gunman should have.
Instead, they allow one illogical misstep by Kiana—despite how careful and intuitive she’s been up to this point—to be the tipping point in Gloria’s realization.
When Dante tells Kiana, who recites Gloria’s pattern verbatim, it’s one of the silliest moments we’ve seen in a while because it’s so forced.
Even though Kiana has never been undercover, there’s no reason to treat her as a complete novice.
Although the period was tense and led to Gloria’s distrust, Dante and Kim were more concerned about cutting off the signal before Gloria revealed Dante had slept with her than what was going on in the car. How dangerous.
Of course, Dante jumped out and ran to the location, filled with guilt, hoping to get to Kiana in time, but losing his ear hurt even more.
They couldn’t hear what else Gloria said, or whether she believed what Kiana said, or where she could have taken them.
Knowing how cautious the team had been throughout the season following Martel’s death, this situation was their biggest concern for a number of reasons.
Kiana and Gloria leave; they don’t know where she is, and they’re not sure if she’s revealed her identity.
Fortunately, despite the silly accident, Kiana Cooke was resourceful and quick on her feet. She’d probably be fine and get it done.
But in the meantime, the department will be dealing with the fallout and how it jeopardized this case and its own.
Dante’s desperation is palpable and I admired the feeling of him praying as he ran to the scene.
I also appreciate some of the cheaper fare in this issue.
Red is Kim’s color, she should wear it more often. I love that jacket.
I also loved how she and Ruzek took a chance during the stakeout to go inside and eat tacos while observing the situation and have an impromptu date night.
Considering Ruzek’s reaction, and the fact that he probably hated leaving them there while Gloria ducked before she saw them, these tacos must be legendary.
Is it possible that Bozek earned overtime while turning the surveillance into a date? Target.
It’s also great to have Ruzwater back in action and working together.
They’re OG partners and personal favorites, and we haven’t put them together yet.
Of course, Atwater remains criminally underutilized, which is starting to become a worrying pattern.
At this point, it’s clear that we won’t be seeing another Atwater-centric character for a while, and he’s faded into the background and played a supporting role in the meantime.
Still, it was nice to have the whole team involved in this episode.
Over to you, Chicago PD fanatics.
How did you feel about that cliffhanger?
Are you a fan of Gloria?
Did this episode miss its mark? Let’s take a listen and see.
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