Is Hailey Crossing Too Many Lines in ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 7? (RECAP)

Meredith Jacobs March 25, 2020, 11:00 pm

Chicago PD Season 7 Episode 18 Hailey Crosses Lines Recap — Matt Dinerstein/NBC

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 7, Episode 18 of Chicago P.D., “Lines.”]

As One Chicago fans have known since Chicago Fire (and before the universe even existed), Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) crosses lines.

But in Chicago P.D. Season 7, it’s Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) who is making some questionable decisions. In “Lines,” Intelligence tries — but fails — to build a case against the head of a drug trafficking organization, Gael Rodriguez. He’s dirty. Everyone knows he’s dirty. Everyone knows he’s responsible for killing his girlfriend by dissolving her in acid. But he knows how to keep his hands clean.

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It’s a tough case for Vanessa Rojas (Lisseth Chavez), who reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, Luis, who also went to prison for her. At first, she tries to hide his possible involvement, going so far as to delete video of him. (He insists he’s not really part of it, and she wants to believe him.) She confides in Hailey, who promises to help her take care of it.

But eventually Luis gets caught up in it — and caught, and Hailey talks him into agreeing to make a deal for a reduced sentence. Unfortunately, the sting doesn’t go down as planned, and that deal’s off the table since they still haven’t managed to get any evidence against Gael.

Chicago PD Season 7 Episode 18 Hailey Rojas

(Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Hailey, frustrated that Gael has now started dropping bodies to protect himself, has Luis tell him where he put traps in the drug ring leader’s cars. He never drives with anything illegal, Luis protests. “That doesn’t matter,” Hailey says. And she watches as cops pull Gael over and find drugs in his trunk. Gael’s arrested, and Luis gets his deal.

“This is something we’re doing now?” Voight asks after calling her into his office. “Planting dope? Creating evidence?” “If product was found in his car, it was his own product,” she says. “Gael got off easy. Luis deserved the deal.”

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Just because he understands why she did it doesn’t mean it was the right move. “Do you understand you crossed a line?” Voight asks her. “The problem with crossing lines, you cross enough of them, you forget where they are. You don’t see them anymore.” She insists she’s “seeing just fine,” and that’s exactly why he signs her up to work with New York’s FBI task force for a few weeks. “They do things different there,” he explains. “The lines, they are real clear.”

Off her argument that she did exactly what he would’ve (echoing a comment she made earlier in the episode), he snaps. “I don’t want you to be me!” Voight yells at her. “That’s my job. Your job is to be you. I’m starting to wonder if you can do it.”

Chicago PD Season 7 Episode 10 Upstead Jay Hailey

(Matt Dinerstein/NBC)

Inarguably, Hailey’s shadiest decision this season came back in Episode 12, “The Devil You Know,” when she made it clear on the streets that Darius Walker (Michael Beach) — the dealer had her CI killed for seeing him working with the cops — was a snitch. He was then found dead, a rat hanging over his body. The message was clear. At the time, Voight was worried that she’d become more like him.

“The idea of what happened with Hailey and Darius will linger throughout the rest of the season,” showrunner Rick Eid told TV Insider. “In a way, it’s a battle between Jay and Voight for Hailey’s soul, so to speak. There’s the two different versions of being a cop, and Hailey admires and respects Voight and Halstead very much. They do things differently, and she’s, in some way, trying to figure out exactly who she is and how she polices.”