[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago P.D. Season 12 Episode 3 “Off Switch.”]
What Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) needs is an off switch, and it seems like he may have found one by the end of the latest Chicago P.D. episode in the form of some fun with forensic psychologist Val Soto (Natalee Linez).
At first, Val is just a woman that Atwater meets and connects with at a cop bar while juggling messages from his family and tenants. They hit it off then, but they clash over how much to push a victim when it turns out she’s the forensic psychologist working with Intelligence on an armed robbery case. At the end of the episode, he goes to her house and apologizes, and she brings up his long list of to dos and how that “burns people out.”
Atwater is “very aware,” he says, and it isn’t the first time he’s heard that. “Do you have an off switch?” Val asks. That’s something he hasn’t figured out, he admits, and she kisses him. “I have a proposition,” she offers, “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.” He agrees.
Elizabeth Sisson/NBC
But is this going to be a long-term relationship for Atwater? Does he have time for something serious right now? That’s exactly what TV Insider asked Hawkins.
“I’m not sure,” Hawkins said. “I think Atwater’s in a pocket where he’s just letting go, letting go of certain boundaries that he usually has and just seeing what happened, exploring how it feels to just be a little loose in certain areas of his life and it might help him tighten up other areas. As we grow and develop as adults and as leaders in our specific job, whether you’re a parent, whether you’re a brother or what have you, it’s like their rhythms attach to these responsibilities, and sometimes the best way to really handle your responsibility is to allow your rhythm to kind of flow in a way that not just provides balance, but also harmony.”
That’s what Atwater is looking for and needs right now, “how do I harmonize all of these different pockets in my life, even more so than just finding balance? I want one to work for the other to work for the next to work moving forward. And so that’s been fun. That’s fun to now have a character that gives me the grace to be able to let go of certain things so I can hold on to others healthily.”
With Intelligence “so locked in case-by-case”—we saw in the premiere how Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) has them moving, moving, moving—all Hawkins could say about any upcoming scenes for Atwater with Burgess (Marina Squerciati) or Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger), two friendships which have consistently been highlighted over the years, is they’re on the way.
What he can say for certain is coming up is, after the seeds planted in “Off Switch,” a “lighter Atwater, an Atwater that’s able to pull up to work and contribute in a way that feels not just more safe and healthy, but also that just flows,” previews Hawkins. “I’m in the pocket for my team. You’ll see people on my team really struggling and new members of the team being introduced, and so you’re going to just see a very supportive Atwater.”
The star has a very apt description for his character. “I’ve always imagined—well, recently, I’ve done my best to imagine my role as the invisible bridge for the whole unit, the bridge that you don’t know is there, but it’s definitely there. And I’m not in your way, but on the way to whatever you might need.”
What do you think of Val? Do you want her and Atwater to last? Let us know in the comments section below.
Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC
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