“Walk a mile, men. Walk a mile.”
The fall finale of Chicago Fire didn’t disappoint! The only disappointment is that we have to wait until 2015 for a new episode.
On the first call of the night a man jumps out of a window, nearly kills Severide, and leaves his wife in the bathroom. Oh yeah, it’s on fire. Husband of the Year goes to…
Severide and Cap almost miss the wife entirely, they barely hear her cries from under a bed. Herrmann and Mouch watch by the truck, and Herrmann brings up the man from last year who laid across his family to save them. I like that they casually weave in past elements into this show. Kudos to you, writers.
The cowardly husband shows up at the house (after bragging on TV how heroic he was) and explains to the guys that he was in a fire when he was younger. He panicked, and that’s why he jumped out of the window, leaving his wife behind.
Severide and Squad 3 later go back to the structure to confirm condemning it, and Severide notices that something is off. When he figures out where the fires were started, he realizes that Husband of the Year not only started the fire, but locked his wife in the bathroom in hopes of having her know the pain he once felt.
There were plenty of subplots during the episode. I could argue that there really wasn’t one main plot, just a jumble of subplots.
Here are the notable few:
Dawson and Casey have yet another heart to heart and things just aren’t getting any better. If we are taking sides, I’m on Team Casey. Dawson is reckless, insubordinate, and indecisive. Can you tell that I’m angry with her?
“I’m trying to be lieutenant and your fiancé, and you can’t respect either one!” Preach it, Casey. Preach.
We finally got some Severide/Casey time. It wasn’t much, but I’ll take it! Casey gets plastered and wakes up on some girl’s couch. Whoops! Casey doesn’t strike me as a person who would cheat (sober or drunk), but I have to admit, I was a little nervous. And of course, he could have handled the situation better.
We also got some Sylvie/Dawson time! I’ve been waiting for these two to have a nice bonding moment, as they are the only women in the house. I hope we get to see this friendship grow. The Dawson/Shay scenes were always highlights and while this isn’t quite there, it’s a start. Speaking of Shay, she would kick Dawson’s butt for her behavior. We miss you Shay, the voice of reason.
Molly’s is ready for its food truck debut at the Holiday Festival. Herrmann sees a local news anchor and suggests they talk about Molly’s on air. While he’s normally very friendly and outgoing, Herrmann gets unbelievably nervous on camera and I just love it. It’s so perfect! But of course, someone bumped the parking break during preparation, and the truck rolls down the street and right into the Nativity. Classic.
With a headline in the paper that reads “Manger Danger”, Herrmann rants, “That reads like Molly’s is responsible for the death of Jesus, again!”
Herrmann decides to scrap the Molly’s food truck. Instead, they give it to Chaplain Orvlosky to use as a meals-on-wheels sort of thing. I’m a little surprised they went this way with the food truck story line. It’s been such a big part of the season and I don’t know that I like how it ended.
On a similar note, I don’t see any romantic chemistry whatsoever between Cruz and Sylvie. These two look like great friends and nothing more. I’m really hoping they don’t push this for very long, it’s clearly a dead end.
Donna is days away from having Baby Boden. Well, Baby Robbins-Boden if Donna has her way. Donna asks how Boden would feel about hyphenating their baby’s last name, and he shoots it down immediately, “Tradition still means something to me.” Now yes, he could have handled that better than he did. But, I agree with him completely. If the name means so much to Donna, make it his middle name!
The way Boden equates the hyphenated name debacle to Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. I always enjoy Boden’s rants, and this was no exception. And again, I’m completely on his side. Long live turkey and brown gravy! You all can keep your nasty sundried tomatoes.
Donna returns to the firehouse to argue more and goes into labor! Of course she goes into labor. Let me share with you all a thought of mine regarding TV births: I hate them. Just once, could we be a little more realistic and a whole lot less cheesy? Love that we have Baby Boden (no awful hyphenated name!), didn’t care at all for how we were introduced to him. Of course, Baby Boden has a health scare. I’ll be honest, I’m not worried about Baby Boden. I can’t be. I don’t think my heart could take having to watch Boden lose his baby son. So, I’ve just decided that it’s not even an option.
Our mafia friend Anthony from the previous episode shows up at the firehouse to apologize to Mills for threatening him. They have a nice chat and he tells Mills that he knows he tried to save his son. Now, raise your hand if you thought he meant all this. If your hand is raised, give yourself a nice slap across the face. Of course he didn’t mean it!Later while on a call, Mills and Sylvie find themselves trapped in alley by – you guessed it – Anthony the mafia man! We don’t see Mills or Sylvie for quite some time. When Truck 81 begins to wonder where they are, they take a ride to the ambo’s location and find the man on the stretcher, but no Mills or Sylvie.
I have to say, I’m not worried for either of these two either. It’s too soon to lose another major character (yes, Sylvie is now a major character), unless these writers go all LOST on us. But, the show needs some sort of cliffhanger to wrap up the fall season, so fine. I’ll pretend I’m worried.
I think this may be the strongest half-season run this show has ever had. It didn’t quite go the way I thought it would, which I guess is a good thing! I am disappointed with the lack of Severide/Casey scenes, but I think I’d have to give the fall 2014 season an A.
What did you think of the episode? What are your thoughts on Dawson and Casey? What do you hope to see in 2015?
