The Chicago hometown classic drama series Chicago Fire was brought to the silver screen by Dick Wolf Productions during the 54th Chicago International Television Festival hosted by Cinema/Chicago. Even though Chicago Fire recurs each weekly, the festival presented the Chicago Fire-Chicago P.D. “crossover” event on the final day of cinematic events.
The episode was prefaced by a recap, offering a brief overview of past events and relations between Chicago Fire’s Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) and Chicago P.D.’s Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda), following their sprawling plotline that allowed the shows to bleed into one another.
The episode begins as we see the preparations of the squad during the late morning, where Brett is playfully chided by Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) and other members of the firehouse. Within the first ten minutes of the show, the first call is called in, which leads the team to set out and respond.
There’s a darker twist on this week’s episode which feeds into the two-hour crossover event as the team comes across the scene: a car, hoisted onto its side, suspended beneath a row of grocery shopping carts. Trapped inside the vehicle is a married couple, in which the husband argues profusely when freed and offered medical attention. His wife, however, is in a state of trauma, and though conscious, unresponsive. Upon further inspection, suspicious bruising gives way to the history of domestic abuse.
To add light to the grim plot of the episode, we are given a look at Joe Cruz’s upstarting company based around his “Slamigan,” or modified pickaxe, that he and comic-relief companion fighter Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) have decided to market. There’s a touch of humor thrown into the dialogue, comparing the weapon to “The Snuggie” during a sales pitch scene, which pokes fun at the concept.
A small cameo from Chicago Med cuts in for a scene, as the couple seen from the crash earlier are hospitalized for treatment. Again, the husband is hackling, blatantly abhorred that he or his wife have their injuries observed and tended to. Once more, this tackles the point of abuse, which the wife refuses to admit being a victim of.
Fan-favorite firefighter Kelly Casey (Taylor Kinney) seeks out the abused wife by unexpectedly appearing at the couple’s home. The wife, however, wards him off and is too blinded by her own anxieties to accept help and remove herself from her dire conditions. Consequently, the husband storms the firehouse, practically ready to kill Casey as soon as he sees him. It only results in a screaming match as both aggressor and protagonist are restrained.
The second call is traced back to where the couple lives, and when the squad arrives on the scene of the fire, the house is engulfed in flames. The wife is seen seated, trance-like, and fixated on seemingly nothing while grasping a bloodied baseball bat. The husband is found with an open gash on his temple where his spouse had struck him, leading to the conclusion that she had started the fire to cover up her own violent retaliation.
Casey, while facing her, admits that his own mother had been in the same situation, and had witnessed the same downward spiral within his own home. Despite the actions taken, he covers for her when other members of the squad question the curious wound on the husband’s skull, though think nothing of it when a weak excuse is given.
A third concurrent plot is written into the show, as we circle back to Rhett, exhibiting symptoms of pregnancy. She is confronted and consoled by partner Gabby Dawson (Monica Raymund), who just so happens to be Antonio, the suspected father’s sister. The reality is hard for Rhett to swallow. In the first half of the two-hour presentation, it isn’t revealed whether she is pregnant, leaving the episode on a cliffhanger.
Co-writer and creator of Chicago Fire, Derek Haas, had spoken about the inspiration of this week’s highly-anticipated episode, and how he had decided the direction that he wanted to take the current season.
“This episode is a crucial story,” Haas said, “We welded [our writing] to throw big stories at the audience. Some of our ideas come from headlines, while others come from [retired Chicago] Fire Chief Steve Chikarotis.”
Haas and his writers look at one half of the season, break it into sections, and examine what they can work on from there. They utilize the location of the city, as Chicago is not a “location” but a “character,” and the entirety of the area has tried to be written into the script.
The tension within the Chicago Fire heightens and keeps audiences guessing until the last minute of the episode. Unanswered questions are the source of high intensity as Wolf’s praised series doesn’t disappoint viewers as bombshells are dropped and plot twists shock. Could this be the reunion of a popular power couple or the devastating breakup that nobody wants to see?
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