'Chicago P.D.' LaRoyce Hawkins: Is Atwater Following Voight Into Making Redeemable Mistakes?
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Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) is a by-the-book cop who always tries to do the right thing but on tonight’s “Split Second” episode, he makes a couple of choices that leave him with regret, and he turns to an unlikely source of support to help him restore his confidence.
It all begins with Atwater meeting his father Lew (Erik LaRay Harvey) for breakfast. After, he heads on foot to the jewelry district to get a new battery for his watch when he stumbles into a heist. He’s alone and he must make choices when two of the innocent victims in the store are shot. The thieves get away as Atwater tries to decide who to help, and later, he feels he made the wrong choice.
“You’re going to see Atwater struggle with accountability, you’re going to see Atwater struggle with things around regret and redemption,” Hawkins tells Parade. “You see a relationship of his that started off dark and confusing turning the corner on something that feels a lot lighter and a lot more helpful in a positive way. But then you watch Atwater make some decisions that he doesn’t love, but he can live with. By the end of the episode, you can tell that those decisions are going to live with him for a very long time.”
Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC
One of those decisions is to put pressure on a witness who doesn’t want to cooperate with the police out of fear, but when Voight (Jason Beghe) suggests they find a way to "convince" the witness to share what they know, Atwater agrees to do it because he knows the thieves will keep robbing and killing.
“It doesn’t sit well,” Hawkins admits. “It’s obviously not something that he loves doing, but, ultimately, it’s something that he has to live with. As first responders at this level that’s what it starts to boil down to as far as how we handle ourselves. Is it something that we love doing? Sometimes obviously not. But, if it’s something that we can live with and at the end of the day we can look ourselves in the mirror and still find rest then, yeah, I’ll do it. Especially if it means that I’m able to save more lives.”
It's one of the few times we’ve seen Voight be an example for Atwater, who has been more like Halstead (Jess Lee Sofer), the conscience of the Intelligence Unit, and not as likely as Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) or Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) to follow Voight’s lead in doing things that are more grey than black and white. But the icing on the cake for Atwater is solving the crime and saving lives.
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“This episode taught me something about Atwater,” Hawkins said. “I don’t imagine that I could be a detective and serve and protect at a higher level if there aren’t some components of Voight that I’m willing to consider. We know Voight isn’t perfect, but he teaches us how to explore our imperfections. I think that’s what makes him one of the most compelling characters on TV for 11 seasons strong, is because audiences relate to mistakes. Especially redeemable mistakes. In this episode, I had to tell myself that you can’t be so righteous all the time that you’re not able to right the wrong.”
Also, during our conversation, Hawkins spoke about Atwater’s family – how he and his father are doing, and what’s up with brother Jordan and sister Vinessa.
Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC
This episode also deals with family because it opens with Atwater meeting his father. The last time I remember his dad being on, Atwater thought his father was doing something that was illegal, but then it turned out he wasn’t. Where are they now? How is their relationship working out?
I think it’s working out. I think it’s working out pretty good. I think we’re going towards a positive direction, and we can see them turning a corner from confusion and darkness to compassion and just a lot more light.
As a personal reference, I’ve been able to lock in with my dad. I just had to move back home and I’m living with him as we speak. There are these late-night conversations or sometimes early mornings where I see him getting up and going to work or he’ll catch me getting up and going to work. We have these very positive exchanges. That has definitely grown our relationship. I can tell the more he shares the more he’s able to grow as a father and the more I’m able to receive as a son, it grows me as a man, too.
Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC
I was able to take a page from my personal playbook for this [TV] relationship with Lew and help it feel not just better than it used to be, but like it’s growing towards something more positive and powerful. I think we need to see that. I’m grateful for how the writers allowed us to grow into that space, too. I think formerly when I thought about meeting my father for the first time on screen, I imagined something that felt a lot more polished. I imagined a relationship with father and son on opposite ends of the legal spectrum to feel different. But in a more positive way. That’s not the way I got it. I got it kind of dark and a little messed up.
You don’t want to give away the end before the beginning, and so I’m grateful that we were able to grow into where we are now as opposed to starting there, because we might not have given ourselves the room otherwise.
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His father isn’t his only family. Atwater has a brother Jordan, who he had to send out of town after he testified. And he has a sister. Will we ever see any of that family again?
I certainly hope so. I hope we get to see them. As a storyteller I do my best to imagine where we’ve grown or what’s going on. Jordan, my little brother, and I love the little homie every time I get to work with him, it’s one of those things that we stay in touch and we keep up in a way that we can imagine what’s not on the page just in case it comes up on the page. My little sister, Vinessa, is probably my favorite similar to how I have a little sister that’s my favorite, as well. I often imagine how that relationship is growing and how she’s growing so that by the next time we see her, it doesn’t feel like we’ve missed a beat. You want to feel like the relationship has grown and improved if there was anything to improve on. So, yeah, I hope we get to see them. We make reference to Jordan in this episode, but we don’t get to see him. That helps me believe that he’s somewhere close and that we might see him soon.
The Intelligence Unit is also his family. But there’s so many changes. Jesse Lee Soffer left and Tracy Spiridakos is getting ready to leave. Then Benjamin Levy Aguilar joined the cast. What’s it like with all the changes on the set?
Man, you know, we’re rolling with the punches. As I’ve noticed we do very well. I think there’s a core here and a foundation that’s been established so well that no matter what happens because our foundation is really built on solid land, we’ll be able to weather the storm if it feels like one.
Chicago P.D. airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
