What an episode, my friends. What an episode. Stella Kidd once again proved what a fantastic, kind and brave human being she really is and I could not be any more proud.
Don’t Hang Up was an intense hour in which Stella receives a mysterious phone call during her shift at Firehouse 51 from a young woman in danger.
There were times that I was literally holding my breath as the episode kept me on the edge of my seat. Miranda Rae Mayo was absolutely spectacular in her performance as Stella is desperate to save the girl’s life.
The MVP of Firehouse 51
It all starts as a normal day. Stella is nervous about her Lieutenant’s exam as she tries to cram a final study session in with Severide. He suggests that she should just take the day off and go home, but she insists on staying for her shift.
The phone rings elsewhere, and when Ritter answers it, it’s a female voice asking for Stella. He goes and gets her, but when she gets to the phone, whoever it was had already disconnected the call.
Truck 81 gets called out to assist in a scene before she can really think about it. But when they return to the firehouse, Stella is still intrigued and asks Mouch — who is handling the phones — to transfer the call to Severide’s office if the girl calls again.
It doesn’t take long for the phone to ring again. When Stella finally answers, it’s a young woman’s voice and she’s asking for help. She refuses to give her name but says that she came to Girls on Fire once.
She then tells Stella that a gang is holding her brother and herself hostage, and they locked her in a basement. She’s terrified that they are going to kill her, and she needs help.
The girl hangs up after saying she thinks someone is coming, leaving Stella confused and distraught. Because how is she supposed to help someone through the phone when the girl is trapped in a basement with no way out in an undisclosed location with a blocked number?
The odds do not seem to be in her favor.
Stella asks Severide to go find Kylie. If there’s anyone that can help her figure out who this girl is, it’s her as she has been on Girls on Fire since the very beginning. When the girl calls again, Kylie recognizes her voice, but she can’t remember her name.
Things get steadily worse as the calls continue to come in, and Stella only gets more and more desperate to find this girl and save her life. Kylie tells her she’s going to reach out to the other girls to see if anyone remembers someone who had a brother who was a banger. Meanwhile, Severide tells Stella that it’s time to bring Boden in and brief him on what’s happening.
Kylie finds a possible name, and once Boden is up to speed on the situation, he and Severide go to the address on the girl’s file. When they get there, they find a desperate mother, worried that both her children, Aaliyah and Doug, have been missing. She mentions that there are abandoned houses close by and confirms that her son is involved the Westside 40s gang.
With this information, they start driving around the neighborhood, trying to pinpoint where the girl and her brother might be. While this is happening, Aaliyah calls Stella again, and during the call, a man comes to the basement and attacks the girl. She apparently drops the phone when the man drags her away, but the call doesn’t get disconnected.
Stella, now beyond desperate, calls Severide and tells him to turn the sirens on. And this moment of brilliance is how they identify which house is the correct one. Boden and Severide knock on the door and tells them that there’s a gas leak and the house needs to be evacuated immediately as everything is about to explode. The bangers aren’t happy, but they still evacuate.
When Aaliyah and her very beat up brother show up, Boden and Severide usher them into the car and drive them away. A while later, Kylie brings Aaliyah to Stella’s place, so the girl can thank her in person. Stella was just on her way out to take her Lieutenant’s exam and it’s such a touching scene.
Stella Kidd deserves the world, you guys!
Other highlights of Chicago Fire
- Brettsey is coming. The way Grainger told Casey that Brett is clearly in love with him will hopefully make Matt take his head out of his ass and do something about it.
- I absolutely loved Violet and Joe interacting. They’re both so much fun and the chemistry was fantastic.
- Gallo and Ritter helping Donna with her class was absolutely hilarious and adorable.
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8C on NBC.