Chicago Fire - An Even Bigger Surprise - Review

After last week's lackluster episode, I was pleasantly surprised by "An Even Bigger Surprise." It's my favorite episode this season so far even though it started out a bit rough.

Boden is out for the first part of the shift so Chief Mullins fills in. He gets off to a rocky start by assigning the firehouse chores like cleaning and waxing the rigs. Casey objects but that only makes things worse. While the guys are cleaning, Dawson and Brett are called to check on a little girl who was hit by a car when riding her bike. While they're tending to the girl, the man that hit her has a heart attack. Dawson calls for backup, but the ambulance is too far away. Dawson and Brett decide to take them both to the hospital in the same ambulance. Chief Mullins is angry about their decision so he takes Brett and Dawson out of service so they can fill out a detailed incident report. The paramedics, especially Dawson, are not happy.

Firehouse 51 gets called to rescue Dan who is standing on top a building getting ready to jump. He's pretty serious, and I really thought he was going to jump. He would have if the guys hadn't thrown him back with the rope. I thought the whole thing was scary, but I give props to the show for touching on suicide and depression. I liked that the sister came to the firehouse to thank Matt. Thanks to him the family is looking at treatment options instead of planning a funeral.

It looked like Casey was in trouble when Mullins requested his incident reports and personnel files, but it was the opposite! Mullins was impressed with Casey and wants to promote him to Captain. I'm proud of Matt- he deserves this. I just hope he gets to stay at 51. And since Casey will be captain does Herrmann get to be the lieutenant now?

The other story I really enjoyed this week was the return of Leon. At the beginning of the episode, Mouch says that he flew Leon in for Cruz's birthday. The plan is to throw Cruz a surprise party at Molly's after shirt, but the plan goes awry when another fireman tells Cruz he saw Leon in Chicago. Cruz gets worried and calls his brother, and then Leon shows up at the firehouse because Cruz keeps leaving his messages. Side note: did anyone else love the Leon and Stella interaction? I thought it was great.

Leon wants to tell Cruz that he's in town, but Mouch insists they keep this a secret until the surprise party. Cruz tries to ruin the plans once again when he wants to visit the Insane Kings and asks Otis to go with him. Even though he's freaked out, Otis convinces Cruz to go to Molly's first.

After what seems like forever and after many complications, the guys finally get Cruz to Molly's. He acts so surprised about the party, but it turns out he wasn't. When they announce Leon, he doesn't walk out through the back door as plans. Turns out Cruz knew Leon was back ever since he showed up at the firehouse. And he didn't want to visit the Insane Kings; he just wanted to get Otis back for helping Mouch. You can't mess with the Cruz brothers! But Cruz is grateful to Mouch for bringing Leon back, and they celebrate. I really like Leon and his relationship with Cruz so I hope he sticks around.

And then there's Hope. We start out seeing her at Kelly's apartment, and you can tell Stella has issues with it, but she plays it off like she's fine. Then Hope gets a job at the firehouse as part of the support staff. Brett is a little confused about why Hope didn't tell her about applying for the job. Hope gives her a story about wanting to get the job on her own merit, but somethings seems a bit off. Hope goes and tells Severide they should break things off and claims she just wants to make a good impression at her new job.

I thought this whole thing was strange, and it turns out Hope isn't as innocent as she seems. Connie tells Brett that Hope stole $10,000 from her former boss in Fallerton. Well, that would explain why she didn't want to go back home! Did she think that people wouldn't find out about it? At this point I want everyone to find out, and then Hope can leave. Hopefully the next episode will be her last.

What did you think about this episode? Are you happy Casey was promoted? Do you want Leon to stay? Why do you think Hope stole money from her boss? Do you even care? Let me know in the comments!