In what was easily one of the most entertaining episodes of the season so far, last night’s Chicago Fire had tensions running high between Firehouses 51 and 20.
Remember how last week, Firehouse 20 started showing up to their calls due to overlapping routes? Well, their attention hogging Captain turned into Captain Jerk in this week’s “Where We End Up.”
When 51 was suddenly infested with bed bugs, our favorite firefighters and paramedics had to pack up their things and leave their house for 48 hours while the place was fumigated.
And of course — of course — Headquarters assigned them to bunk with Firehouse 20 in the meantime.
Firehouse 51 vs Firehouse 20
Look, that guy is a bully. Ever since he first showed up at Molly’s last week, proudly showing off that the press had gotten his right angle for a front-page shot, I wanted to punch him in the face.
But this week, he just crossed all the lines. He questioned Casey’s command at a scene that 51 had arrived at first and endangered victims trapped inside a burning car.
He also made our guys park their rigs across the street, so they could leave the firehouse first and, thus, have command of whatever call they had. It was just beyond childish, and Casey, Severide, and everyone else had every right to be pissed off.
That being said, it doesn’t mean that every second they spent in Firehouse 20 wasn’t super entertaining. Kidd and Foster remained convinced that Captain Leone was out to get them.
Remember her, from the failed women’s lounge a few episodes back? Our girls had to shut down their lounge because of her?
Yeah. Leone was out for revenge. But she wasn’t making it obvious. On the contrary, she treated Brett, Kidd, and Foster like they were super special guests, but she always had this creepy little smile on her face that scared the hell out of me.
I was genuinely afraid for their lives.
In the end, she hadn’t done anything, but she managed to terrorize our favorite trio, psychologically. They ended up not sleeping and not eating for an entire shift, so I guess Leone’s revenge was successful.
Even though tensions were running very high during this shift, when they were called to a fire scene, things changed. Since Captain Jerk had made 51 park their rigs across the street, Firehouse 20 was the first one on the scene, which meant Captain Jerk was the commanding officer of that call.
But they were up against a blazing fire in a dry cleaning business, that had tons of flammable chemicals that could cause the place to go kaboom at any moment. So both houses put aside their differences and worked together to save the people inside before the place exploded.
Casey, Gallo, and Captain Jerk, along with a couple of other firefighters from 20, ended up stuck inside the building. They had a very, very close brush with death, but in the end, Casey and Gallo were the ones who saved Captain Jerk’s life.
So you know, after that, its water under the bridge and all that jazz.
Firefighter Cancer Support Network
There was such a nice touch to this episode. When Chief Boden was called in for what seemed to be a random seminar in the middle of the bed bug chaos, he had no idea what was in store for his afternoon.
When he got there, he ran into a firefighter who used to be his trainee years ago, but he had no idea that this guy, Michael Buckley, was the speaker for that seminar.
To our absolute shock, he is talking about a cancer epidemic among firefighters, due to the toxins and high temperatures they are exposed to daily while doing their jobs.
So while firefighters are out there saving people’s lives, there are no standard safety measures to protect them from the hazards. Unfortunately, it’s already too late for Buckley.
He reveals he has terminal cancer and only has six months to live. It felt like a punch to the gut, and I’m sure Boden felt the same way.
He leaves the seminar determined to make changes to the protocol. But the most touching moment was Gallo — who had spent the entire episode training for a half marathon — running in full firefighter gear to raise awareness for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.
And in case you were wondering, that initiative does exist, and you can find more information here.
Other highlights:
- You guys are well aware of how much I love Gallo, and I just loved the dynamic between him and Violet. While she didn’t seem too keen on starting anything serious with our boy, it seems that sharing a firehouse for a shift and then watching him nearly die in a fire made her have a change of heart. Plus, their cat and mouse chase, the sneaking around, the flirty banter? This is what I live for!
- Brettsey, I see you, and I love you. Again, I never thought I’d fully support a relationship between Casey and Brett, but I’m enjoying their chemistry and how they’re dancing around each other. That entire scene served one purpose, and that was to tell us that the show is on board the Brettsey ship. It’s getting real, and it’s going to happen. By the season finale, maybe? Place your bets.
- The fact it was Herrmann who brought the bed bugs to the firehouse was hilarious. And I also loved that Mouch blamed our precious Tuesday and then had to officially apologize to her when it turned out she didn’t have any fleas and wasn’t to blame for anything.
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8C on NBC.