Chicago PD season 12 episode 21 recap: Reid takes revenge against the IU

Chicago PD has rolled out some compelling cases of the week over the last month, but "Open Casket," the penultimate episode of season 12, gets down to business. The IU need to take down Deputy Chief Charlie Reid (Shawn Hatosy), so it makes sense the episode opened with Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) and ADA Nina Chapman (Sara Bues) conferring on what the best attack plan is.

SPOILERS ahead!

Voight and Chapman have been keeping tabs on Reid's increasingly risky operations behind the scenes. The Deputy Chief has slowly but surely been seizing control of gangster Jesus Otero (Juan Javier Cardenas) and his drug dealing operation, and ordering the IU to arrest any competition. The team hadn't really been keeping up their end of the bargain, however.

Reid threatened Voight during the opening scenes of "Open Casket," and told him to increase the overall productivity of the IU or there would be trouble. Voight played nice, and assured Deputy Chief Reid that he had a promising lead on a dealer. The dealer, of course, turned out to be Otero. The IU set up a camera at a funeral home where they knew Otero dealt, but plans to catch him took a surprising turn when the dealer's son, Rennie, stole a quarter key.

Voight attempted to set a trap for Reid

It turned out Rennie was skimming off the top of his dad's business and selling it in other Windy City areas. He wanted to make a name for himself in the drug game, but knew that Otero would be furious if he found out. Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) bought off Rennie and subsequently arrested him. After Rennie gave chase and eventually injured his leg, that is.

Voight didn't care about Otero or Rennie, though. He broke into the elder drug dealer's house and made him a proposition. If Otero agreed to help him take Deputy Chief Reid down, he would let his son walk on a potential 30 year prison bid. Otero agreed to the terms, and IU promptly staged a fake robbery of the dealer's operations.

It's been a long time since we've seen Voight and the IU operate under such shady pretenses. They did all these things with the noble goal of taking down a crooked cop, but making deals and ripping off drug dealers is the closest we've come to old school Voight in multiple seasons. The team stole $750K from Otero, and predicted that Reid would make a rash decision. He didn't.

Reid disbanded the IU ahead of the finale

The Deputy Chief got tipped off about the plan from one of Otero's men, and he kidnapped Otero in response. Voight tried to track down the dealer who represented his best hope at catching Reid, but he was not quick enough.

Otero's body turned up, and Reid, knowing what went down, started tearing the IU apart. It was an absolute bloodbath. Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) was fired for misconduct and Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) was arrested on similar charges.

The episode ended with the IU effectively being disbanded. The team would be reviewed at a later date to determine whether it would go on, and naturally, Deputy Chief Reid will be in charge of said review. Things are dire for the IU heading into the season 12 finale.

If they don't win this one, they will cease to exist.