'Chicago P.D.' Season 12 Episode 18 "Demons" Review

This episode of Chicago P.D. titled "Demons" wastes no time throwing us straight into the chaos. Erick up with Voight surveilling Deputy Superintendent Charlie Reid. A blue Toyota’s been jacked in a violent car theft, but this isn’t just another stolen vehicle. Inside, hidden in a trap compartment, is half a million dollars’ worth of heroin. The pressure is already on when Deputy Superintendent Charlie Reid shows up at the district and gives Voight a very clear deadline: 24 hours to find the car. Voight takes on the challenge knowing he needs to take this new cop down because he is dirty. 

Voight pulls the team together, Kevin Atwater, Adam Ruzek, Kim Burgess, Kiana Cook, and Dante Torres. He doesn’t initially tell them the plan, but lays out another plan to find the blue Toyota. But even in that quick briefing, you can tell something’s off with Torres. He’s quiet, late, and looks rough. Voight doesn’t let it slide. He pulls him aside and asks straight up what’s going on. That’s when Torres admits it, he hasn’t been sleeping. “It’s been like that for a couple weeks,” he says. He’s been boxing at night, trying to wear himself out. It’s not working. “I still don’t feel like myself,” he tells Voight. And the thing is, you can see it in his eyes. He’s burnt out but trying to hold it together.

Voight doesn’t come down on him. He just tells him the truth. “This job messes with your head. What helps is getting a win.” And then he gives Torres the chance to get one. A CI just tipped them off that Roland Gibson, a known criminal, has been moving trucks out near Sherman Park. Voight wants Torres and Atwater to go find him.

While they work that lead, Burgess, Ruzek, and Cook dive into the background of Julia, the woman who was shot during the carjacking. She bled out, but what’s strange is that she stayed conscious for eight minutes and never once asked for help. At first, her record checks out. She’s a nutritionist. No red flags. But Voight takes another look and finds she’s linked to Thomas Asat, a documented member of Jesus Otero’s crew. It changes everything. Julia wasn’t some random victim, she may have been driving that Toyota as part of a drug run for Otero. And when she got hit, she panicked and ran instead of speaking up. She knew what was in that car.

The surveillance trail leads Torres to Monica Nelson’s apartment, Roland Gibson’s girlfriend. He sets up across the street and calls it in. Voight tells him not to move. “Stay in the car. I’m on my way.” But Torres, already struggling mentally and needing to feel in control of something, ignores it. He talks to a neighbor, confirms Roland’s inside, and a short time later, the team moves in to arrest him.

Back at the district, Voight interrogates Roland. He’s got evidence linking him to the car, the shooting, and the heroin. At first, Roland plays dumb, until Voight drops a name: Jesus Otero. That shuts him up fast. Voight gives him two options, talk now and go to prison, or stay quiet and end up dead. “They’ll cut your tongue out and hang you from an overpass,” he says. Roland caves and tells them the Toyota is sitting abandoned in a mall parking lot out at Midway Mall. 

Ruzek, Burgess, and Cook head out and find the car right where he said. But it’s empty, no movement, no signs of a pickup. They search the area. Later while keeping watch on the Toyota they see a man get in the car and then get right out. Just as he is leaving the car explodes. Later, a CI tells Ruzek that Otero already secured a replacement shipment. The Toyota didn’t matter anymore. He had help. Someone made sure he stayed one step ahead.

And that’s when Voight sees it clearly. This case wasn’t just about the car or the drugs. It’s bigger, and it’s internal. He goes to ASA Nina Chapman and tells her what he’s pieced together: Deputy Superintendent Charlie Reid is shielding Otero. Reid isn’t just watching from the sidelines, he’s actively protecting one of the most dangerous drug traffickers in the city. He’s helping him eliminate enemies, covering movements, and pulling strings to keep him untouchable.

Voight wants to bring him down. Chapman agrees. But Voight warns the team and finally tells him his plan because it will effect them all, especially Torres and Atwater.

“Reid will burn your career to the ground. Your pension, your badge, your freedom.”

And still, they’re in. They’re not backing off. 

Then, in the final scene, Chapman comes back to Voight. She has been thinking. She read the file on Roland and saw something that didn’t sit right, Roland had a statement ready before he even got booked. “How’d that happen?” she asks. Voight doesn’t deny it that he threatened Roland. That’s when Chapman asks for something heavier. “When we go after Reid and Asat, can we not forget who we are?”

Voight just looks at her, quiet for a second. Then he says, “I don’t know where that line is anymore. That’s the truth.”

And that’s where the episode leaves us, no resolution, no final win. Just a city full of cracks, and a team trying to do the right thing without losing themselves in the process.

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