We open with a clear memorial or at least there was one fur Martel at the bar everyone hangs out at. The festivities must be over because only Atwater is there checking text messages. Across from the bar is a young lady that asks Atwater if he looks up from his phone. This catches him off guard. She asks him to keep her company while she finishes her beer because her date didn't show. She also lets him know if his date shows up they will be like strangers. Atwater comes back and says aren’t we. They talk a little about dating apps and natural chemistry between strangers when Atwater’s phone chimes again and he just takes leave.They introduce themselves to each other.
In the car Atwater scolds himself for not asking Val for her number. Just then a call comes over the radio for a shot fired and a possible robbery. Atwater responds to the call. On the scene a gentleman comes out next door. Atwater tells him to stay low and he will check it out. Inside Atwater identifies himself as Chicago PD. He assesses the scene. All the way in the back there are multiple people shot. Atwater calls in multiple gunshot wounds and at least four DOA. He hears movement and identifies himself again. Atwater shoots the movement and says show me your hands.
There is a woman under the table. He gets low and tries to calm her and let her know she is safe. Atwater is able to take her out of the store where an ambulance is waiting. When he walks away she yells her name. She says I am Diane the manager. He asks do you know who did this. She says there were three men in masks that started shouting. She jumps up to go back in the store. Atwater informs her, there is nothing you can do now. Diane looks up and says they are all dead.
Outside the scene Voight is going over what happened with Atwater. Burgess approaches and Voight says back, she says she got in that morning. Burgess says they were able to identify all four victims. The oldest was twenty two and two were minors at only seventeen. She says they seem like a tight group. Ruzek comes up and says there was a garbage bag off to the side and it looks like someone followed an employee in. Atwater says there was no alarmed tripped and no forced entry. Cruz comes up and says that a store a little further down saw a gray Toyota Camry speeding from the scene just before Atwater made it there. Just then someone approaches the police tapped scene and says they are not answering their text. They all look at each other. Voight says to Atwater he will take care of it while he goes to approach the woman.
Atwater is now back at the station house with Diane and asking her what happened. Diane recounts her story. It was her day off, but she decided to go in and get some accounting done. She saw three men in skull mask come in. Atwater asks to describe them. Diane says two were average and one was really skinny. Diane begins to chastise herself by saying why did she hide and she should have done more. Atwater assures her that she didn’t do anything wrong. He then asks if she had any problems with customers lately. Diane thinks and says a couple months ago a young guy came in and one of the girls caught him shoplifting. They called the cops on him. The same guy came back a week later and threatened them. Duane says the called the cops again. Diane describes him as white with hazel eyes. Atwater commends Diane on recalling the incident.
Atwater has done his research and goes to Voight with the name of Ignacio Fuentes. They were able to put him at the scene for the shoplifting and confirm what Diane said, but this offender is over three hundred pounds. Voight says he could have cased the place and set up the job. Ruzek comes in and says the place was clean. No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing on the skull mask that are mass produced. Atwater asks about the Camry. Ruzek says there was nothing about a gray stolen Camry recently. Burgess comes in and says officer Jacobs is the one who arrested Ignacio and says that Ignacio is on an ankle monitor and was in Fairmont City last night and has an airtight alibi. Cruz comes in and says that Diane is downstairs asking for Atwater because she remembers that Ignacio Fuentes has a scar on his face. Burgess is perplexed and says a scar where is the scar in his face? Cruz says the middle of the right cheek.
Cruz asks why and Burgess says Diane is describing officer Jacobs. They all look at each other and Burgess again says that is what officer Jacobs looks like. Atwater is back in with Diane. They are going over her description again. She confirms the scar on the right cheek. Diane describes Ignacio as a skinny man. Atwater says we are going to go over this again. Diane's story is seemingly changing as she is speaking. We see the progression of the interrogation, but Diane's story keeps changing from how much cash there was, how much the deposit was, how many men robbed the store. Atwater just looks on.
Atwater admits that Diane is all over the place. Voight asks do you think she is lying? Atwater says it doesn’t feel like that, but it feels like she isn’t in control. Just then Atwater's phone gets several texts. Voight asks if he is good, he says yes. Voight said to get her a forensic psych for an evaluation. Voight says right now she is our only lead and they need to determine if she is waiting for their time or if she is good. Coming downstairs Atwater is told his psychologist will be right in. Cruz comes up to the desk and tells Atwater the Camry was found torched to the rims and no evidence was recovered. Just then they are introduced to Dr. Valeria Soto. They all shake hands. Atwater is a little hesitant when the doctor says to call her Val. Atwater and Val do not let on that they have met before.
Diane is now in interrogation with Val. Several questions are asked and we get to the description of officer Jacobs. When she describes him it’s tall and heavy. Cal pulls out a picture and asks Diane to say the name on the uniform of the officer in the photo. Diane is taken aback and says she doesn’t know what’s going on with her brain. Val lets her know it’s okay and to take some time while she steps out. Atwater and Val discuss Diane’s problems and she says she has a theory about Diane’s issue that she wants to tell his Sargent. The team is together and Val informs them that she thinks Diane suffers from declarative memory dysfunction brought on by PTSD. She is having intrusive memories and avoidance. Diane is getting some details correct, but attaching others that didn’t happen or are very different from what happened. The avoidance aspect is that at times she can’t recall critical events. These are defense mechanisms that her brain is using to help her cope. Voight is okay with the diagnosis, but wants to know how to get past this because she is their only witness. There is some discussion and Atwater suggests taking her back to the scene to try and jog her memory. Val says that may not work.
Atwater and Voight both say it could work. Val does not think this is a good idea. Voight suggests that they ask Diane and go with whatever she chooses. We are back in the store Val and Atwater are with Diane. As she recalls the things that happen and she moves through the store things seem okay. Diane opens the door to the back and is assaulted by the memory and begins to have a breakdown. Atwater and Val try to calm her. Atwater consoles her by saying that finding out what happened will help you in the long run. Atwater convinces her to continue.
Diane pauses and then says bird. She continues on to say one of the masked men kept saying we have to go bird. Back at the precinct Ruzek runs a check on the alias Bird. There aren’t many. They come across two men and one fits Diane’s description and has a record of armed robbery. The team is staking out the suspects home. Just before they go in, Burgess tells everyone to stand down and she has eyes. They observe the suspect com8n* out and getting into a sedan.
Atwater runs the plates and it was stolen this morning. Atwater wants to pop him. Voight says no. Just tail him Brit could lead back to the rest of his crew. The team follows, but splits up keeping him boxed in just in case. Suspect is just sitting, not doing anything. Voight tells the team to vest up. We are just waiting and Ruzek wonders why out loud. All of a sudden there is movement. Two men emerge with skull masks on. Burgess confirms it’s them and gets out of the car. They begin to follow. A person in the street yells he has a gun. One of them masked me. Open fire in broad daylight. One masked man turns and shoots the other masked man. Ruzek and Burgess chase the shooter. Atwater stays with the masked suspect that was shot. Everyone is pursuing the suspect. Voight calls for an ambulance. Atwater is holding the wound saying to stay with him.
The shooter got away, but Burgess and Ruzek put out an alert to watch mass transit. Voight asks about the additional suspect. Ruzek says they think he ditched the mask and hit away. Voight says To put out a bolo for him. The suspect that was shot is now dead. They retrieve the suspect's phone and it was unlocked with one number called multiple times to a Bird. Last call was forty two minutes ago. The phone number is to Zeke Roth. Roth has and extensive rap sheet. Voight says to get Zeke’s picture everywhere and asks Atwater to get a lead. Atwater goes back to Diane and begins to question her and ask her to look at photos. Val is present and feels that Atwater is pushing too hard. Val is calling for Diane to be released and to go home and rest. Atwater lets her know that’s not how they do things. He says they are right there. Val points out he is not listening and she was brought in to evaluate Diane. Val says her recommendation is for Diane to go home and rest. Val says she can’t be legally held and if he doesn’t let her go home she will suggest it to her. Atwater lets Diane go and tells her if she remembers anything to let him know.
Atwater gets a phone call and as soon as he is back in the station a tenet of his is there yelling at him about a broken water heater. At the same time a victim's parent comes up to Atwater saying she needs answers. Atwater is being pulled in several directions. Val is observing everything that is happening. Atwater smoothly delegates each situation and handles the fires going on in his life masterfully. Al is intrigued by the way Atwater just handled the land mind he was in.
Atwater is back with the team asking for any new updates. They may know who the masked guy who ditched the mask was. Possibly Jackson Moore, a child friend of Zeke’s. Jackson has a sheet, but nothing violent. Ruzek sounds the alarm and says Jackson has a connection to Diane. Ruzek says he went through his social media and there are pictures of him and Diane. Looks like they are cousins and he says she is always someone that is there for him. Atwater says I just let Diane leave. The team is now surrounding Diane’s home. They breach the premises and see blood. As they look closer Diane is found beaten and bloody. Atwater talks to her and tries to get her to hold on. An ambulance is called.
Diane says to Atwater when she is being loaded into the ambulance that when you showed me Zeke she realized that Jackson was at the shop too. He asked did Jackson do this to her. She said no it was Zeke and Jackson stopped him. Atwater asked if she knew where they went she said no. Diane begged Atwater not to hurt Jackson because he was her family. Val arrives on the scene and asks Atwater was that Diane? Atwater asks why she is there. She explains Diane called her. Atwater is rude abd says there is nothing you can do now and walks away. Val begs to find out what happened. Atwater says he listened to her and that they sent her home when they shouldn’t have. Atwater is very upset and Val says she made the best call for Diane. Atwater starts to protest and Cruz pulls him away from the argument.
Back at the precinct Burgess says there was a carjacking four hours ago around the time they found Diane fitting Jackson and Zeke’s description. They try to follow the car on traffic cams but nothing g as of an hour ago. No credit card activity. Cruz says there is an old cell mate of Zeke named Neil Stanton that recently got out. Cruz says that Neil works at a truck stop off of the highway. Voight says for everyone to fall out. At the truck stop the team is surveilling. The civic is spotted and Voight wants it boxed in.
Atwater and Cruz find them. Voight requests them to spread out. Atwater says there are a lot of savilians inside the truck stop. Atwater runs into Jackson trying to flee the scene with a large bag and pursues him. A bystander asks Cruz if they are cops. Zeke opens fires on the truck stop. Shots fired is called on the radio. Atwater is chasing the suspect and a truck separates them. He is now a dark knight looking for suspects in a field of big rigs. Voight happens upon another suspect and is able to apprehend him. Atwater is still pursuing Jackson. Atwater tries to talk to Jackson to get him to give up. Jackson doesn't listen and tries to still get away. Jackson is now cornered by Atwater and Burgess.
Atwater pleads with him to put the gun down. Atwater appeals to Jackson and tells him that he knows Diane. Atwater lets him know that after knowing her one day he knows how important that he is to Diane. He doesn’t want to have to tell her he shot you dead, so put the gun down. It’s clear when Atwater mentions Diane that it breaks Jackson down. Atwater tells him again to put the gun down and Jackson complies. As Atwater is arresting Jackson he says he didn’t kill the kids it was all Zeke and he is really sorry. Atwater knocks on Val’s door. He informs her they have all suspects in cuss d that Diane will pull through. Val says he could have called, he didn’t have to stop by.
Atwater admits that he wanted to apologize about how he spoke to her earlier. Val says you put me on your list of to do’s. Val lets him know he does so much for others and he lets the stress build. This can’t be healthy and he doesn’t need to add her to his list of do’s. Atwater goes to walk away, she asks him if he knows he can burn out that way. Atwater admits he has been told that in the past. She asks him if he has an off switch. As he begins to respond Val kisses him. Val suggests that they turn off his brain and his phone for one hour and have fun with her, no judgment. There is no response from Atwater, just them kissing and Atwater entering Val’s home.
This was an intense episode that showed many sides of Kevin Atwater. Hopefully this will not be the last time that we see Val, maybe she can get Kev to relax some.
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