All work and no play makes Atwater a very stressed cop on Chicago P.D. But thankfully, the officer found a way to have some fun in this Wednesday’s episode.
After a brief but promising conversation with a woman at a cop bar, Atwater was kicking himself for not asking her out on a date. Work, then, became his primary focus as the witness to a robbery-gone-wrong started to experience memory issues as a result of PTSD. When the Intelligence unit called in a forensic psychologist for help, Atwater came face-to-face with his chance encounter, Val (played by Power Book III: Raising Kanan ‘s Natalee Linez).
Atwater and Val disagreed about how to handle the witness: Val insisted that the woman be sent home to decompress, while Atwater argued that she wouldn’t have been attacked again if they’d kept her at the precinct. While the two weren’t always on the same page, Val did recognize how much Atwater was juggling with his work, his building tenants and his family. When Atwater later apologized to Val for the way he spoke to her, she asked if he had an off switch, then made him a proposition.
“How about for the next hour, you come inside, turn off your brain, turn off your damn phone, and have fun with me. I won’t judge you, you won’t judge me, and we’ll do something just for us… to turn it all off,” Val said.
Atwater contemplated her offer for a second before kissing Val and following her inside her home.
Below, his portrayer LaRoyce Hawkins talks about whether Atwater wants a committed relationship and how Val’s introduction crossed off something on his own wish list that had nothing to do with romance.
TVLINE | Atwater had a couple of romances in the past that didn’t pan out, sometimes because of his work. How is this relationship with Val different? Well, it’s different because I think, since those other relationships, Atwater’s just learned a lot. I think he takes accountability for why they didn’t go in a certain direction, and this time, he finds a woman that actually has the skills. She’s a psychiatrist, so she’s equipped and she has the tools necessary to help a cop navigate his experience, not just in a way that keeps it balanced but harmonious. What I’ve learned is that harmony is, sometimes, more effective than balance when it comes to all the things that we have going on in our lives, and we want all of our gifts to inform the other, not to compete with each other, and so, I think she teaches him a great lesson in collaboration.
You watch them collaborate — or at least do their best to until they clash — and then from there, you grow into an even healthier, more strengthened relationship. We’re just planting the seeds right here. It’s hard to say where exactly we’re going from here. I’m looking forward to the next piece of the arc. But what I can imagine is that we walk away from this episode knowing that Atwater now is giving himself grace to let go of certain things so that he can hold on to other things in a more healthy way.
TVLINE | At the end of the episode, she invites him in for some fun. Is that all that Atwater is looking for? Or does he want a more serious relationship with her? I don’t think he knows yet, and I think that’s OK. Too early to tell. I think, right now, he’s just grateful for the opportunity to let go for a little bit. Those windows of escape are important for right now, and if it turns into something, he’ll be in a position to allow it to turn into something without panicking. I don’t think he’s in a position to force anything, but he would love to be in a position to let go and explore and see what happens, authentically and organically, and if it grows into that, it will be in a healthy way.
TVLINE | You said you’re just planting the seeds with this episode. Do you know how much of the two of them we’re going to be seeing? How much she might be working with Intelligence moving forward? Not exactly. It’s hard to say if she’ll be — I would love for her to be a little bit more team-based than, like, Atwater-specific. We can make her a part of Atwater’s private life a little bit, or she can become like a layer to the team that Atwater trusts, and that can feel good, too. It’s really dealer’s choice at this point. I’m not exactly sure what direction we’re going to go, but I’m prepared for both, and I can wrap my mind around anything.
TVLINE | Were you banging on [showrunner] Gwen Sigan’s door, like, “When is Atwater going to get some loving”? You know what, what I was banging on Gwen’s door for, maybe more than loving, was a release. I’ve been a fake first responder for about 12 seasons now, and I say that humbly, and what I’ve learned from real first responders is that it’s very important to find help if you need it. We’re traumatized so much by the things that we witness, by the things we hold on to, by the help we try to provide, and we’re not often [helping] our own.
So what me and Gwen would have talks about all the time is, like, “Yo, when is Atwater going to go see a therapist? What kind of self-care do we implement into his storyline that allows him to just move in a healthy way?” Because we see in Sarge, we saw in Upton sometimes, we know how heavy the job could get, and if you don’t allow yourself the time to breathe and to let go of certain things, you’ll hold on to things in such an unhealthy way that it can destroy you, and I don’t want to see that happen to Atwater. I, at least, wanted to show the self-awareness that he knew how to find help. I think that’d be a great example to our audience, and so, that’s what I was asking Gwen for, and Gwen’s so creative that she found a way to kill two birds with one [stone]. So we find romance perhaps through a psychiatrist that has the tools to teach Atwater about letting go while also giving him release, no pun intended.
P.D. fans, what did you think of the episode? Do you want to see more of Val?
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