The Chicago Code – “Hog Butcher”

For better or worse, the second episode of The Chicago Code had a lot of balls in the air. When it worked, it felt a lot tenser than the average network cop show, but when it didn’t it felt a little disorganized and busy. But, if nothing else, “Hog Butcher” made for an effective transition from the pilot while deepening the characters and their relationships.

Most of the stuff I liked came in the first half of the episode, as the cops struggled to deal with last week’s shooting of Antonio, Teresa’s young driver. Teresa and Jarek both thought the shooting was an attempt on her life by Alderman Gibbons, a tip which seems to be confirmed when Liam puts his cover at risk to tell Jarek about a higher-up in the Irish mob who was bragging about something he did last night. Jarek and Caleb go to the bar but don’t have enough to press the mobster without blowing Liam’s cover so they cut him loose, over the objections of Isaac. Jarek and Caleb eventually find the car (thanks to an industrious use of Twitter) and draw out the driver’s girlfriend by giving the press a bogus description of the car. She leads them to the (soon-to-be) dead driver, who they eventually connect to the cop from last week that Teresa pulled off the streets last week (and who could be seen on every Chicago Code promo asking if she thought she could change the way things are done IN CHICAGO).

This stretch of the episode was definitely my favorite. Jarek’s by far the most compelling character so far and his scenes with Teresa especially click. Their argument over his decision to go the press (in violation of her orders) was good, and their work in the interrogation scene was even better. Their argument over using shortcuts felt like what could end up being a mission statement for the series as a whole. How do you hunt smart and dangerous criminals while playing by the rules? Can you take them down without becoming the thing you are trying to fight? It is a well-worn theme, to be sure, but an effective one and it represents how this show is going to be different from The Shield. Vic Mackey and the Strike Team took it as an obvious given that shortcuts were necessary to catch the bad guys, but it will be interesting to see how a group of cops whose moral compasses are in tune deal with the compromises they may have to make.

But at that point, the episode may have gotten a little too messy. The resolution of the shooting itself is a little unsatisfying, as it turns out that the cop from last week incited another wanna-be cop to do the shooting. He beats Jarek and Caleb to the shooter and kills him, at a veterans-only bar that Jarek has a key to (which seemed to be about narrowing the line between Jarek and the disgraced cop; an interesting idea but one that didn’t quite hit as hard as it could). Meanwhile, Isaac and Vonda follow the mobster and end up busting him with a lot of drugs, and catching the attention of the head of the Organized Crime division (played by Brad William Henke, who was also on Justified last week playing the dumbest Bennett brother). And Gibbons arranges to take away Antonio’s family’s benefits through a rule that Teresa passed, so that Teresa owes him a favor and attracts all the anger from Antonio’s mother.

It was perhaps a little too much to swallow, but looking at it, I can certainly understand how it was necessary table setting for the rest of the season. Isaac and Vonda are now in a position to be involved in bigger cases (and probably intersect with the Irish mob) while the Gibbons plotline largely sits still to give everyone a chance to catch up from last week. Besides, a direct shot at Teresa seems like it would have been a little too direct and risky for a man as smart and ruthless as Gibbons. Teresa may not be working out like he had hoped she would, but she certainly hasn’t pushed him that far yet, so, if nothing else, this week made him an even more formidable foe.

The show also rallied with the last scene, which found Jarek in church, promising to find and kill the person who murdered his brother. That scene, and the interrogation one, show that, while the cases and narrative are still developing, the show is at its best when it focuses on and stays true to the characters.

Jonah’s Score: 64

TUiW Grade: B-

Other notes:

-A lot of really great dialogue again in this one. I particularly enjoyed the line about Caleb opening the doors between his ears.

-There was also more voiceover. I wrongfully assumed that the narration would be a pilot-only thing, since I’m not the biggest fan of that particular device. It worked for me last week and I still liked it this week, but I can see it reaching a point where it feels a little unnecessary.

-That was Chicago’s own Billy Corgan singing the theme song.

-In honor of Michael (our resident Cubs fan), here’s this week’s Cubs trash talk, courtesy of Jarek: “Is he a fan of the great game of baseball or is he a Cubbies fan?”