‘Chicago P.D.’ 10×17 Review: “Out of the Depths”

Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths” is a step out of those depths Kim Burgess has been living in for at least a year. It’s also a step forward for Burzek, a much-needed and welcome one for a couple that has earned this new chance at a life together. But above all, Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths” is a reminder that there is no straightforward path to healing, and that sometimes, becoming the person we want to be, the person we hope we can be, is about putting in the work and letting the people that love us hold us up when we need it.

It’s also an episode that reminds us that one of the reasons Kim Burgess is here is that she’s been lied to. The lack of closure can and should be put squarely on Voight, the same man who has the nerve to tell Kim that he’s got her back if she needs it. Except he doesn’t — not in the day-day-to-day. He might if she killed someone, but he doesn’t actually care about Kim as a person. He’s proven that again and again.

Kim Burgess, however, doesn’t really need Voight. She never has. And though she deserves better than to be lied to, always has, she has never been defined by someone else. Not even Adam, the man she loves. No, Kim Burgess defines who Kim Burgess is — and though she had momentarily lost sight of that, Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths” gives her back her agency, and in doing so, gifts us with the first true non-Makayla-related smile we’ve seen on her face for a while.

KIM BURGESS

This was a very good Burzek episode, but before that, it was a very good Kim Burgess episode — which is exactly what it needed to be. Adam was already where he had to be, he’d been there for a while, and as the conversation in therapy proved, he was willing to stay there for as long as Kim needed him to. It was Kim who had to decide that she was willing to risk taking that next step. Or, perhaps, it’s better to say that it was Kim who need to get to a place where she could even consider that risk.

Kim Burgess has had a pretty extensive collection of trauma that has never fully been explored or resolved. This is true of basically every character on this show, especially the women, but the most egregious thing about the way the show has handled Kim’s PTSD is that it actually hasn’t. Not until recently.

Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths” allows her a chance to face her trauma head-on, and it’s not the first episode this season to do so. Thanks to that, her storyline in this hour feels like the obvious next step instead of just something contrived to move the plot together. Kim is getting better. She deserves to get better. And she especially deserves to have the show focus on her as she finds her own path of healing.

That doesn’t end with this episode. It doesn’t end with a kiss. That’s not what healing is. You do not graduate from therapy. But you do get better, and that’s what we hope to see from Kim going forward. This is just the first step. There are many more to take.

KIM HAS ADAM

If Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths” made anything clear is that Kim has Adam. She always has, in a way, but she especially does now. And she doesn’t just have him in the ready to take a bullet for you way, she has him in the ready to put in the work to build a life with you way. The second feels infinitely more important, especially for two people in their profession.

The hour attempts to parallel Ruby’s bad partner and Adam, but it has never needed to be so heavy-handed. We’ve known what Adam Ruzek is for a while, and in many ways, so has Kim. It was just so scary to accept it and take the risk. What if she lost everything? What if she wasn’t good enough? What if …? Fears don’t even need to make sense, especially fears that come as a response to trauma. It’s just how you feel.

But Adam Ruzek has been there, putting in the work just as Kim was doing the same in therapy. Except that what he was proving is that he wasn’t going to leave. He was going to stay and he was going to adjust, no matter what that meant. Because Kim, Makayla, and the family they have built together, that is Adam’s priority, just as it has always been Kim’s. And when they take that step together at the end of Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths,” that’s not a cure. That’s not the end of their story. It’s just one more step they’re taking together.

Here’s to many more.

Things I think I think:

• It’s great to see the show listing what Kim is doing and taking you through how she’s working to get better because it’s not a straight line. There’s no switch you flick. It’s a process.
• BRINGING YOUR PARTNER.
• “It might help to have someone you love with you.”
• I feel the whole “maybe my whole life doesn’t have to be colored by something that happened to me” thing to my core.
• Look, I’m just saying we all — and especially cops — would benefit from therapy.
• Worried Adam gives me feelings. But Adam with the positive reinforcement, Adam thinking about how Kim is handling things …that Adam makes my heart grow three sizes.
• “Isn’t this a violation of victims’ rights?” When cops are asking other cops that, there’s a problem.
• Glad Hailey spoke up against Voight.
• “We’re not moral authorities” AIN’T THAT THE TRUTH.
• Not that Voight has ever tried.
• This episode reinforces that Kim’s got Adam and vice-versa. Meanwhile, Hailey has …eh …Voight? That’s really the best they could come up with.
• It’s infuriating, to say the least. They ruined Upstead for shits and giggles, and it makes it so hard to believe they won’t do the same to Burzek, or Hailey, Kim, Kevin and Adam as individuals. Trust? What’s that?
• This show does not take advantage of Kim and Hailey, I swear.
• Funny when Voight pretends he cares about his unit and that he’s got their back. Hilarious.
• HE’S LYING TO YOU ABOUT ROY, HE DOES NOT HAVE YOUR BACK.
• Adam, however, does.
• AND KIM KNOWS IT.
• This scene with the therapist is gold …but especially so for a Marina Squerciati that says everything even when Kim cannot find the words.
• It had to be her decision. It had to.
• Her smile at the end.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago P.D. 10×17 “Out of the Depths”? Share with us in the comments below!

Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.