Chicago Fire celebrated its landmark 200th episode tonight, with an original cast member possibly exiting the series looming over the entire hour.
Jesse Spencer, who has played Captain Matt Casey for the last ten years, faced a decision that could possibly affect the series as a whole.
Feeling the call to action, Casey wants to take care of his best friends kids until they’re old enough to go to college, but with foster care laws possibly separating the boys, Casey decided he needed to move to Oregon, so the kids can stay together. That’s at least three years until Griffin goes to school, which upset Sylvie when she heard this news. She hasn’t been entirely sure if she wants to do long distance for several years.
After a heroic traffic rescue, Casey commended Gallo for his dedication to the field, and to continue growing. Casey continued to do a goodbye tour around the Firehouse throughout the rest of the episode.
The biggest question mark lied with Sylvie and Casey. A relationship long in the making came to a possible breaking point tonight. Even though he wanted her to come with him, Sylvie decided not to go with Casey to Oregon, but to stay together through it.
Firehouse 51 gave one final goodbye and group hug to Casey and he was sent on his way.
While at a fire scene at a church, Casey saved Severide’s life from a falling wooden plank, making a good goodbye moment for these two roommates. Looking at the scene made Severide a little suspicious, which could lead to a future arson investigation down the line for Severide.
Cruz, being the overprotective dork he can be, is about to be a father, and has been incredibly caring for his wife, even believing that Firehouse 51 is cursed when it comes to babies, because of experiences that Boden’s wife had in the past.
Cruz’s wife, Chloe, gave birth to their son, Brian, who they said they are going to call him Otis, after Cruz’s late best friend.
Mouch joined Sylvie on her ParaMedicine program in its trial runs, where they are using an old ambulance to different high-end calls to lessen time for ambulances to arrive.
Gallo, Ritter, and Violet continued to grow their mini-brewery business. However Kara, the assistant to their primary investor, has been hitting on Gallo, causing some jealousy in Violet.
Kylie, Boden’s assistant did a whole lot of digging into the Chicago Fire Department archives, and made a discovery that because of some firehouse closings, Boden can technically be situated in Firehouse 51, meaning he doesn’t have to move out of his office.
Assistant Deputy Commissioner in charge of discipline Adam Perry personally traveled to Firehouse 51 to talk to Herrmann. At first, Herrmann thought it had to do with his misconduct on the ambulance call a few weeks ago, but the Commissioner wanted to simply ask to rent out Molly’s for his son’s birthday party. When Herrmann found out the son is underage, he recruited Trudy (Mouch’s wife) to pretend like there was going to be a bunch of narc cops in the bar, which scared off the group.
It makes sense that Casey’s departure happened on the series 200th episode. His departure does open up the realm of possibility that he could return for cameos, or if the series goes until season 13 and he can come back.
I have always been a huge fan of Jesse Spencer, all the way back to when he was in House, and it’s been great watching him in this show over the last ten seasons. I’m sure we may see Captain Casey again at some point, but for now, it’s goodbye to a great character.
That said, the show looks like it’s going to gear up for new things with the departure of its captain. Boden is back at 51, Sylvie is continuing her new program, and we’re definitely going to get (yet) another arson study from Severide. Plus the growth of the mini-brewery, and Cruz adapting to fatherhood.
What did you think of tonight’s landmark episode? Are you going to miss Casey as much as as I will? Leave a comment below.