Chicago P.D. Episode 2.21 There's My Girl

The tragic death of Nadia weighs heavy on the minds of everyone in Intelligence, but none more so than Lindsay, the person who supported Nadia through her addiction, witnessed her rise through sobriety and helped her obtain a civilian job with the team. A new case presents a welcomed distraction, despite its grisly details: an IED bomb explosion at a neighborhood café resulted in a pair of fatalities and scores of injuries. Intelligence questions everyone in the vicinity and Halstead develops a hunch about an eyewitness, a young girl named Isabella, but her concerned mother squashes his follow-up attempt for an interview at their apartment. Of all the additional inquiries, only one lands a useable tip. Turns out the café owner, Brahmer, paid a known criminal named K-Trick for neighborhood protection.

Ruzek and Lindsay track down K-Trick in a playground and he puts up a front - until Lindsay, not in the mood for games, tosses some choice threats at the suspect and convinces him to go to District 21 for a proper line of questioning. During the interrogation, K-Trick denies any association with the bombing, but confesses to serious class tensions in the gentrifying neighborhood. A corresponding interview with the wealthy building owner (and resident slumlord), Norcross, leaves Intelligence with the same result: nothing. So who set off the bomb?

Meanwhile, a fired-up Platt blasts the P.D. bureaucrats that rejected her call for Nadia's stone engraving on the front of the district building. With a huge assist from Roman's stonecutter cousin, Platt manages to work around the red tape... until she discovers the real problem: Commander Baumgartner rejected the headstone not due to insufficient funds but because Nadia wasn't a cop. Platt confronts him in his office, but Baumgartner remains steadfast even in the face of Platt's emotional speech. Dejected, Platt complains to Voight, who in turn unearths some dirt on Baumgartner that forces the grumpy commander to approve Nadia's engraving against his will.

Back with the case, Halstead's persistence leads Isabella's mom to finally cave, and the resulting interview of the young witness sends Intelligence to a recent parolee named Carden with ties to the bombing - and a big bag of cash at his apartment. Carden gets the jump on Intelligence outside his apartment and hijacks a car, spawning a destructive, cross-city chase. After Carden crashes through a bus station, Halstead ends up tackling him on foot for the arrest. But Carden remains apathetic during interrogation, resigned to a prison sentence and disinterested in reentering as a snitch. Atwater gives him a breather to think about confessing the name of who ordered the bomb - a decision that proves deadly when Voight returns to the interrogation room to find Carden dead, his throat slit with Atwater's discarded soda can, a major oversight on Atwater's part.

As the team sanitizes the room, a little digging reveals a recent jump in property value at the bombed-out cafe. Did Norcross hire Carden to blow up the place? Antonio and Olinsky ask Norcross as much at the district - until Mouse reveals that Brahmer, the café owner, changed his name and has a history of cashing in on life insurance policies... a red flag considering his wife just died in the explosion. Voight tosses Brahmer into the cage and, using his patented technique of extreme interrogation, squeezes out a confession.

With the case settled, Voight turns to a necessary housekeeping matter and pulls in Atwater with some bad news. To avoid scrutiny following Carden's suicide, Atwater will fall back to patrol and Burgess will assume his position in Intelligence until further notice. Shocked by her sudden promotion, Burgess reaches out to Atwater in private - and he pushes through the personal disappointment to congratulate her.

Later, the whole team collects outside District 21 to honor Nadia's memorial. Lindsay reads Nadia's acceptance letter as a recruit to the Chicago Police Department, a bittersweet note that proves Nadia's transformation from heroin junkie to legit police. After the squad members share a moment of silence for their fallen friend, Intelligence heads to Molly's to celebrate Nadia's life. Lindsay, however, skips the event... and instead walks into the dive bar where her mom, Bunny, mans the counter. Tearful and regretful, Lindsay confesses to her mom that she feels full responsibility for Nadia's death. Bunny consoles her with a shot - and Lindsay gulps it down in between tears.