I really don’t know how I feel about this episode of Chicago Fire. Honestly, there were a few things I loved, but there were also a few moments that I was really disappointed about.
Starting with the parts that I enjoyed, it was really awesome to see Novak and Violet work together as a team again. Last season, they were a little bit tense with each other, and it was so nice to see them back to their old selves and not worrying about boy troubles.
I think the main plotline is one that is incredibly important to address on a tv show like this, and they did it in such a good way. Having it be mainly centred around trying to find Anita help rather than just succumbing to the idea that she was having a mental health crisis was perfect.
Then to bring Dr Charles in to give a proper perspective was absolutely needed. The whole time up to that, I was hoping that they would talk to him.
The way that they resolved it was so fun to watch, especially knowing that they had worked out that the other cop was not as aggressive as his partner. If anyone knows how best to help their patients to get proper treatment and help, it’s going to be Violet and Lizzie.
I found the dynamic between Burke and Vasquez so funny in this episode. Essentially, whether they know it or not, they are fighting about Lizzie, and she isn’t focused on either of them, which is great. I did, however, like the sting that Vasquez gave to Burke about being cocky and inexperienced and that it gets people killed. You could tell based on Burke’s reaction that he knew that Vasquez was right.
Even if he is pretending like he wasn’t exactly who Burke was a year ago when he first joined 51.
I honestly really did not like the Stellaride moments in this episode. The last scene was cute, but everything that led up to that was kind of annoying to me. Stella and Kelly working together has always been a topic at HQ, but for some reason, that now makes Kelly have a go at Stella even though she did the correct thing. Last episode, there also seemed like quite a bit of tension between the pair too, and when we started the episode the way we did, I was hoping that we might get some happier scenes with them.
I do completely get that 51 means everything to Kelly, and he wants to be able to lead them, especially after turning down not being a fire investigator, but I wish that he and Stella were going through it together rather than what appears to be against each other. I am hopeful that after their last conversation, we get them being a bit more cohesive with each other whilst at work.
Mouch and Herrmann’s storyline this episode was great. I really enjoyed that the book being published came back and that Mouch was so good at reading it to the crowd.
The biggest issue that I had with this episode is that it was like everyone forgot that Cruz is at home with a broken back and can’t walk. Other than a small mention from Severide, we literally got nothing.
We left the last episode with Herrmann and Cruz sat together in silence after he was so upset about never being able to be a firefighter, yet in this episode, Cruz isn’t mentioned once by Herrmann, nor is his guilt about the fact that he feels it should have been him.
It just really bumped me that we didn’t even see Cruz once, not even a small clip of him in a PT session or anyone going to visit him. It just felt like a shame not to continue on from last episode, and to be honest, if you hadn’t seen the premiere, you wouldn’t really know that Cruz couldn’t walk.
Overall, I do think this was a good episode, but for me, it just wasn’t the right time for this episode. I would have been happy with this being the third or fourth episode of the season after focussing on Cruz for a bit.