Tonight’s brand new episode brought an electric rescue, a radio contest, and a visit from home.
A call of a crashed car into an electric pole brought Firehouse 37 joining 51 to the rescue. With a lot of live electrical wires covering the ground, the two teams had to work together to make sure no one got electrocuted while they rescued the driver inside. This didn’t bode well for one member of Firehouse 37, McBride, who, after trying to restrain one of the wires, was hit in the chest by the wire, knocking her out. This was followed by the transformer on the electric pole exploding as well. This made Severide suspicious that the transformer may be faulty.
Severide and Pelham investigated the scene after the fact, and took the transformer to see what happened to it, and Pelham even realized that from where he was standing, there was no sight line between him and McBride.
The transformer was faulty and the investigating captain commended Severide on his work, and reference Lieutenant Seager wanting to work with him again, which Stella overheard.
McBride was diagnosed with a concussion, and claims that Pelham gave her an order to secure the live wire without the proper equipment, which Pelham denied. This lead to an investigation within 51 as to what happened and to contradict McBride’s statement. Stella knows McBride through Girls on Fire, and she felt that she would not lie about this. After bringing it up with Severide, he coldly brushed her aside.
Stella visited McBride at physical therapy, who was incredibly defensive on her stance against Pelham. Boden even talked to the chief at firehouse 37, who also did not take a full stance on the subject. Boden then went to Chief Kilborn, who has a vendetta against Pelham, and accused him of making up the accusations against Pelham. The episode concluded with Boden telling Pelham that the department has recommended that he be fired for this case.
Severide and Stella had yet another fight about her absence, leading Stella wondering if she is the perfect one for him.
After reviving that newborn in the last episode, Violet received an honorary award for resuscitation. While honored, she was a little nervous about it, considering she has a feeling Hawkins has feelings for her. Violet received the note from Hawkins, causing a little bit of jealousy from Gallo. Violet went to Hawkins’ office to thank him, and the meeting ended with them deciding that they should probably not see each other as much especially at work.
Tonight, Sylvie was visited by her stepdad, Scott, and her two year old sister Amelia, who were in town. The visit made Sylvie miss Casey, and it truly made me wonder how long they are going to keep up this constant reference to him, before the relationship ends up getting broken off.
Several members in the Firehouse worked together throughout the episode to win a radio contest, where the host gave clues to a “Chicago fugitive,” and who ever found them won $10,000. The clues were vague, and Herrmann lead the way to try and find them. When the team was called to help another firehouse clean up a scene, a civilian found the “fugitive,” hurting any chances of 51 winning the money.
The show’s next big plot is going to be Boden working hard to clear Pelham’s name, and keep him at 51, and fighting anyone who gets in his way. I think this will be interesting to see progress, as well as a great study of Boden’s determination to fight for his crew.
When it comes to the big relationships of the season (Stella/Severide, Sylvie/Casey, and the love triangle of Gallo/Violet/Hawkins), I feel like this show needs to pump the breaks with all three. I feel like the show needs to focus on one at a time here, because it gets a little convoluted. As much as the fandom has been wanting Sylvie and Casey to be together for years, I think it’s time to cut the ties, especially because Jesse Spencer is not returning to the series for the foreseeable future. I think maybe he can cameo where the relationship ends, and Sylvie can move on and build her Paramedicine program. Remember that? That was this season!
I do think that Stella and Severide will find a way to reconcile, as they really are the two big leads of the series, so I don’t have as much thoughts on that. However the Gallo/Violet/Hawkins love triangle should find a resolution soon. Part of me feels like Violet will end up with Gallo, because she is way more compatible with him, and she might feel like she would get special treatment if she was also dating Hawkins, which she would not want.
The show is headed in several different ways. I appreciate the balance of storylines, but I do think that so many of them could be trimmed down. I personally did not even care about the radio contest plotline, since it lead to a random civilian winning. It made sense, knowing Herrmann’s luck, but we’ve seen this kind of thing so many times with this show, that it felt a little stale, and I was looking at my phone during those scenes as the team assembled to decipher the clues. I’d much prefer if the show had its regular firefighting business, and then sprinkle in the romance since, you, drama, but sometimes I think we can cool it with the C plots of random stories that aren’t fully necessary.
What did you think of tonight’s electrifying episode? Leave a comment below!