‘Chicago P.D.’: Why LaRoyce Hawkins Has Hope for Atwater’s Relationship With His Dad

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago P.D. Season 10 Episode 19, “The Bleed Valve.”]

Officer Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) and his father Lew (Erik LaRay Harvey) take a significant step — but not a big one — forward with the latest Chicago P.D. episode.

Both are working towards one goal — figuring out what led to a shooting in the building Atwater owns and where Lew is living — though in different capacities. But by the end of it, father and son are in a much better place. Lew admits that he’s helping the kids in the neighborhood because they remind him of Atwater and what he missed. And Atwater, after refusing earlier, asks his dad to help him fix a radiator for a tenant.

Hawkins shares his hopes for Kevin’s future with his dad. Plus, will he become a detective soon?

How much does Atwater trust his father at this point? Just because he proved himself here… There’s all that history.

LaRoyce Hawkins: Yeah, I think we gotta start somewhere. What Atwater has learned is that there’s a burden, and there’s weight added to the many responsibilities that he already has when you can’t trust a loved one. In this situation, it’s his father. So I think Atwater desires to improve that relationship and desires to trust his dad, and he uses this moment as an example of why he can, despite the years when he didn’t feel like he could. Because I think what Atwater wants to do is start to lift some of that load off of his shoulders so that he can be a better landlord, a better cop, a better big brother, and a better son.

Is Atwater’s relationship with his father the best it can be by the end of this episode?

I think it can grow into something even better, eventually. Hopefully, they keep putting themselves in [a] position to communicate. I see the trust continuing to be tried, but right now, by the end of the episode, yeah, it is the best they can do, and it feels like a good start. It feels like a much better start than in Episode 11, where it was like, this might be rocky. And I think that’s what you want to do. You want to show a little growth as you go and not give away the whole thing but get there patiently.

Will we see more of them together or hear about their relationship this season?

Probably not. That’s as transparent as I can be, but I think it sets us up for a great arc in the future.

Lori Allen/NBC

Things are going tentatively well with his dad. It seems like he’s a great landlord. How does Atwater feel about his life at this point when he looks at it on and off the job?

Yeah, I think Atwater is embracing his imperfections and embracing the growth. It gets a little uncomfortable when all the worlds collide, but you learn so much, and you grow so much in every area. I think by the end of the episode, he is a better cop, he’s a better son, and he’s a better landlord because of everything that has happened, and I think we can look forward to Atwater continuing to embrace that growth.

When we spoke earlier this season for “Sympathetic Reflex,” I’d asked about a possible promotion, and you said that episode showed that Atwater is strong enough to earn it. So where are we in terms of that for the rest of the season? Is he going to become a detective?

I think Atwater has a few more tricks up his sleeve and a few more things that he can show the unit. We got a healthy amount of season left and some very, very dynamic moments between Atwater and the whole team. So I think we could just look forward to Atwater continuing to show what he can do, show what he’s capable of, and we got another season to grow into that space that we know Atwater wants. He definitely wants to be a detective.

What does his relationship with his father look like in an ideal world?

I think they would really communicate a lot better and work together. I think they need to work on those love skills. Communication would be the first one, and then patience, and if they can communicate and be patient with each other, I think they can do a lot of good. Atwater’s dad obviously has a similar thirst for service and cleaning up the block the same way Atwater does. I think they share those sentiments, but if they can get on the same page, ideally, they can work together. It is hard to say in what capacity, but I can see Lew adding a lot of value to the work that Atwater wants to do in the community.

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We see pretty much almost every part of Atwater’s life in this episode, but his personal life is always a question mark and something he still needs to figure out. How does he feel about that? And is anything coming up there?

Yeah, well, I think it’s safe to say that there is somebody; we don’t know who she is, but Atwater does need a companion and soulful companionship in order to navigate the spaces that he’s in. And so, as an artist, I imagine who she is. I can’t tell you who she is because we haven’t written her yet, but I can tell you that somebody is holding him down.

What does he want when it comes to that, though? Because with everything we see in this episode and everything that is working out, he might also want that to happen in his personal life.

Yeah, and I think right now he wants peace if that makes sense. Like I said, someone who can hold him down and talk to him, listen to him. He’s got a lot going on, and he’s spread thin. And so I think a relationship would add a layer of responsibility that he might not be in the pocket for, but companionship where he knows he can lean in and find peace and maybe even some silence, solitude, you know what I mean? I think that’s all he needs.

Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC