BRB, bingeing the Hawkins cut.
Season 11 ofChicago P.D. just started, but there’s still time to catch up on the series! Whether you’re a new fan looking for an overview or a longtime viewer who wants to brush up on the highlights, there’s no one better to put together a list of must-watch episodes than LaRoyce Hawkins, who has played Officer Kevin Atwater since day one.
In partnership with Peacock, Hawkins curated a special collection of fifteen episodes that include “heart-warming stories, unforgettable characters and action-packed sagas,” as his “favorites,” which are collected for your streaming pleasure here. And yes, they’re Atwater-centric in the best way. What are you waiting for? Get watching!
Season 2, Episode 6: “Prison Ball”
Atwater and Officer Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) go undercover as prison inmates, and Atwater ultimately gets a confession out of the man who killed a little girl.
Season 6, Episode 8: “Black and Blue”
While investigating the murder of a low-level drug dealer, Atwater becomes involved with a woman who may or may not be connected to the suspected killer, only to find out that she and her boyfriend killed a convenience store clerk a decade earlier and were never caught — until now.
Season 6, Episode 13: “Night in Chicago”
Atwater goes undercover in a drug ring with political connections, but his investigation is disrupted when racist beat cops shoot and kill one of the men Atwater was working with; yes, a criminal, but unarmed and not dangerous at the time of his death. Atwater continues the investigation but feels angry and conflicted as the legal system protects officers over Black men, and city politicians use their deaths in their campaigns.
Season 7, Episode 2: “Assets”
Once again, Atwater is undercover busting drug dealers, and runs into a female bartender who runs with that crew…who turns out to also be an undercover cop.
Season 7, Episode 14: “Center Mass”
That “bartender” Atwater met is Officer Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez), who is now his partner. They take on the case of Rojas’s friend’s friend after the man, who had been missing, turned up dead. During the investigation, Rojas reveals that she once spent time living on the streets, and the two grow closer as Rojas opens up.
Season 7, Episode 18: “Lines”
Rojas’s loyalties are tested when her ex, who took the rap for stolen cars so she could stay out of prison, gets caught up in the drug deal that she, Atwater and the other CPD officers are investigating.
Season 7, Episode 20: “Silence of the Night”
The Season 7 finale was a big moment for Atwater. He goes undercover as a potential buyer for illegal guns sold by racist dealers…one of whom is a (white) undercover cop named Doyle (Mickey O’Sullivan)…the very one who shot an unarmed man during “Night In Chicago.” The two are able to work together on the gun busting operation, but when Doyle makes another racist assumption during a stop-and-frisk, he starts a shoot-out that ends in the suspect’s death and his own.
Atwater gives his side of the story — that Doyle started the conflict that got him killed — but is warned that there will be repercussions. Still, Atwater tells his truth, and while Intelligence has his back, much of the rest of the police force sees him as a traitor.
Season 8, Episode 2: “White Knuckle”
Atwater is still dealing with the fallout of his decisions in “Silence of the Night,” as other officers sabotage him at work and even assault him physically. He gains the trust of the son of an ex-cop who is the main suspect in a murder investigation, and when Atwater and Ruzek confront the real culprit, local cops won’t help them catch him, in retaliation against Atwater. Ruzek is shot and Atwater angrily confronts the officers leading the campaign of harassment against him, threatening to sue them into oblivion.
Season 8, Episode 8: “Protect and Serve”
Atwater and Ruzek are back together, arresting a white officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black driver. But their plans to take him in are quickly complicated by threats and riots, and they’re forced to go to a safe house, where they discuss multiple perspectives on the epidemic of police brutality.
Season 9, Episode 5: “Burnside”
Atwater spends the night with a woman named Celeste (Amanda Payton), only to find out that she makes anti-police-brutality art…and is a suspect in a drive-by shooting. Atwater still hasn’t told her he’s a police officer, and even after one of her students is killed while in police custody, doesn’t confess.
Season 9, Episode 11: “Lies”
Atwater tries to protect an informant from his own worst impulses, and also comes clean to Celeste about his profession. Celeste is angry, but doesn’t end the relationship.
Season 10, Episode 4: “Dónde Vives”
Atwater mentors new team member Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) through the challenges of being an officer of color as they investigate a crime in Torres’ neighborhood.
Season 10, Episode 6: “Sympathetic Reflex”
Atwater nearly loses his job after the parents of a teen boy who was accidentally killed accuse him of murder. He’s able to clear his name, but just barely, and could have further incriminated himself in the process.
“I think Atwater knows more than anybody that he’s the last one that can go off the books,” Hawkins told NBC Insider of the episode. “What makes him such a dynamic character to pay attention to is how he does find creative ways to stay on book, but still do what needs to be done. I think he’s an example of how it’s not impossible, it’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. In this episode we watch Atwater find ways out of no way. I think empathy wins at the end of the episode, which is a beautiful thing.”
Season 10, Episode 12: “I Can Let You go”
In this Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos)-centric episode, Upton deals with not being able to get in contact with Halstead while becoming too interested in sex trafficker Sean O’Neal, working overtime to get information out of him.
Season 10, Episode 16: “Deadlocked”
Jesse Lee Soffer, who played Jay Halstead on Chicago P.D. until 2022, makes his directorial debut with this episode about Detective Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) investigating jury tampering in a murder trial.
