Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 8 Review: Born Screaming

As soon as Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 8, “Born Screaming,” starts, we are ready to scream for Imani to get out and wait for backup. There is no reason she should still be inside the house after calling Voight and hearing him say he is on his way.

However, as the episode goes on and we learn more about what happened to her sister, viewers can understand why she never gives up on Julie. It goes beyond normal officer work. For Imani, Julie’s life, her tragedies, matter the most because of the loss of her sister.

In reality, this loss in her life guides Imani’s actions, making her quite similar to her sergeant. Voight himself says he understands when she shares her sister’s story because he truly does. He knows what it’s like to have your actions controlled by something that changed your life one way or another.

Even though Imani is a new addition to the team, Voight treats her like he would the rest of them. He doesn’t hesitate to protect her when he knows her actions will be judged. He coaches her on what to say about the events of the night in order to keep her safe.

Truthfully, if Imani were supervised by anyone else, she would have already lost her job and faced at least one lawsuit. But because Voight is watching over her, everything she does will stay within the parameters of the law (or the Intelligence Unit’s law).

Her actions are ruled by the anger she carries inside for not having found her sister. As she tells her story, she mentions her parents acted as if nothing was wrong that night, even though she had a feeling her sister wasn’t okay. Now, she carries that with her into every case.

Every girl she saves (maybe even every victim) is her missing sister. She is giving them the help and the safety she wishes she could have given her sister. It’s the representation of the hope she has that maybe one day she will actually find her sister. And that is a storyline that Chicago P.D. should absolutely look into.

Because while it’s entertaining, chaotic, and dramatic to watch Imani take her anger out on terrible men, as she does with Raymond Bell, it would be even greater to see her find her sister and bring down whoever took her in the first place. It would bring the complexity of this character to a higher level, possibly delivering one of the best storylines on the show.

Imani’s background isn’t the only one discussed on Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 8, “Born Screaming.” Viewers finally get the truth behind the photos of young Voight and his father that Devlin had been sending.

Contrary to what Devlin tried to make everyone believe, Hank Voight wasn’t abused by his father. Voight’s father actually tried to protect him from himself. The anger, misbehavior, and attitude we see now were a hundred times worse when he was younger.

But while Devlin believes he has found Voight’s weakness, he only continues to fight against his strengths. His father made him stronger, and Voight won’t let anything ruin his dad’s reputation or the work he did. This means he isn’t going down without a fight, and he will continue to make Devlin look like a weak cop.

The harder Devlin pushes for Voight to retire, the more the sergeant will push back and slip up. He isn’t going to let his father or his team down, which means Devlin’s chances of survival are minimal.

It’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic continues to develop throughout the rest of Chicago P.D. Season 13.

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Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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