The Chicago Code: "Greylord & Gambat"

Season 1, Episode 12

An exciting penultimate episode

“Nobody going to jail. We are going to war.”

-Roland Gibbons

This review will not be about the show’s cancellation. As is often the case when a show is cancelled, there seems to exist san impulse among critics to discuss any remaining episode in the light of a show’s imminent end. But I won’t do that, as I feel it robs the show of what it is/was trying to do in the moment, and that applying a meta topic to an episode that’s not even trying to deal with that is a bit disrespectful of all the creative work that was being done.

So that being said, tonight was probably the best episode The Chicago Code has ever done, and I think the reason for that lies in the fact that every storyline here tonight was connected by one thread – the hunt for Ron Underwood. Ron was introduced two weeks ago in “Bathhouse & Hinky Dink”, the episode that seemed to kick off the show’s conclusion, before it was stopped short by “Black Sox”, and though we didn’t hear his name until tonight (or maybe it wasn’t clearly stated two weeks ago), he still seems like the perfect in for this show to use to wrap up the Gibbons storyline. He is the first step to taking the man down – as Ron gives the cops Killian, and Killian gives the cops Gibbons – and it helps to the show to break down the story into more digestible pieces.

And for now, anyways, that all I can really say about this episode. I know that this makes this a short post, but this was essentially one of those episodes that you either liked all of it or you liked none of it. And me, I liked all of it, but since there was so much “go” in this episode, so many moment of adrenaline or tension, and since all of the stories were really interconnected, it becomes hard to pull it apart. (Also complicating issues is that a lot of how I feel about this episode depends on how it all plays out next week.

Let me run down the highlights:

·         Billy Lush was excellent tonight as Liam finally took full control of his own investigation tonight, and going off the rails created some real pulse-pounding moments on his end. (I could have down without Elizabeth though; there hasn’t been enough screen time between the two to make me sense any chemistry, so Liam going back for her felt a bit stupid. There's your negative comment for the post.)

·         Gibbons begins to lose his mind a bit as the pressure builds, in another great turn from Delroy Lindo. And for those of you who felt that Jason Clarke couldn’t carry this series, I’ll bet your rethinking that opinion after that closing scene huh?

·         Though Colvin didn’t get much to do tonight, she was still as badass as usual, especially in her interrogation with Killian, and I can’t help but feel that she’s going to get some awesome shit to do next week.

·         And hey, thankfully Issaac and Vonda were kept to only one and two scenes, respectively. If this show had continued on, they really should have dropped these two characters.

Quotes, Etc.:

Okay one more criticism: I didn't really care for the "Evers might feel bad about shooting a woman" moment, but at this point I don't really think it matters.

Man, I’m really going to miss that theme song.

Apparently Mexico is off the hook this time of year.

“Oh, the two of you met in high school and fell in love?”