Chicago Fire 2.04: A nuisance call

First off, I loved this week’s episode.  There was so much going on – intense rescues, lots of character stuff and a few interesting surprises.  To avoid a recap as long as War and Peace, I’m just going to summarise the main developments.

Chez Shayveride:

Otis is as happy as a kid in a candy shop about moving in with Shay and Severide, bless him.

He has a Battlestar Gallactica poster!  I LOLed at the look Shay gave Severide when he said that he loved the poster.  I have to admit though, I’m not sure how I feel about Otis moving in.  I love Otis and want to see his character continue to be developed but I’m kind of partial to Chez Shayveride with well, Shay and Severide living in it.  Their ‘at home’ scenes from last season were highlights for me.

Later, when Shay is trying to deal with a highly distressing incident from the previous shift, we see her at home getting tanked with Otis.  Just for a moment, I thought she was going to kiss him!  Poor Otis is way out of his comfort zone here; he’s not used to this kind of interaction with Shay.  Because he’s not Severide! Shay asks him not to tell Severide that she’s not keeping it together right now.

The episode ends with Shay at a bar looking decidedly under the weather, a bit agitated and possibly about to pick someone up whom she probably shouldn’t pick up.  What happened to the realtor?  She seemed nice.  Poor Shay, she’s had a lot to deal with – the failed insemination attempt and Severide’s almost-baby and a tough day at the office that left her giving Dawson the frosty treatment (and rightly so, I reckon).  But well done, Lauren German – this was YOUR episode, baby!

Dawson and Shay:

Ambulance 61 is called to attend to Darryl, a diabetic and frequent ‘nuisance caller’.  Shay’s good with this guy – she’s concerned about his health and happy to play along with the banter.  Dawson’s in ‘heavy’ mode but Shay’s takes a gentler approach with him as the poor guy has a thing for her and is clearly just a bit lonely.  Then suddenly Darryl pulls out a gun, claiming that he can’t live without Shay.  Again, Dawson’s playing it heavy whereas Shay just moves towards him to coax him to give up the gun.

But then he shoots himself through the chin and the women are covered in his blood.  Wow, that was shocking.

Back at the House, everyone offers support but Shay keeps saying she’s OK.  Clearly she is not.  She talks to Dawson about ‘mechanical’ things to do with the ambulance as a coping mechanism and then is shocked to find what I think is brain matter caught in her belt. Yikes. She’s trying really hard to keep it together and I am really impressed with Lauren German’s performance in this scene.

Later, Dawson is in supervisor mode and she has a go Shay for not allowing her to handle the Darryl situation.  She starts off not blaming Shay for what happened but later she tells her that Darryl would still be alive if Shay had let her deal with things. Poor Shay, she’s got enough to cope with without all that and now things are decidedly frosty between her and Dawson.  I get that Dawson is the paramedic in charge but her reaction seemed a little harsh; mind you, I reckon Shay’s right on the money when she claims that Dawson’s making Shay the fall girl to cover for her own difficulty in dealing with what happened.

Severide and Hadley:

Severide still thinks that Hadley is the arsonist so he and Capp follow him home and put a phone in his vehicle to track his movements.  Clever!

They follow him to a building on the dangerous buildings list. It turns out there is a fire there and the arsonist has rigged up yet another explosive device.  The firefighters search the building and then evacuate but Severide spots a guy who bops him on the head, forcing him to take off his breathing apparatus.  And then we see that it really is Hadley!  I must admit I wasn’t sure up until this point.  Severide tries to talk him down off the ledge but Hadley ends up engulfed in flames (because Hadley was standing on a pile of flammable material holding a container of accelerant which spills everywhere when Severide rushes forward after Hadley threatens to blow the place up).

The firefighters can hardly believe that it’s come to this.

Later, Severide is having a quiet beer with his Dad, who implores him to make sure he’s never the prey.  Because, you know, there are predators out there.  I have to say that Treat Williams is incredible in this role and he’s perfectly cast as Severide’s Dad but I can’t quite make up my mind about him.  Is he a bit dodgy, or what?

Dawson and Jay:

Jay turns up at Molly’s but Herrmann’s gate keeping and he sends him packing.  (Aside: Herrmann asks Zoya what ‘vodka’ is in Russian and she says ‘vodka’.  Hehe.) I love that Herrmann – not the biggest bloke in town – goes in to bat for his friends and family.  He’s awesome when he’s being fierce.

Later Herrmann fills Antonio in on the Jay situation and Antonio agrees to look into things.  He tells Gabby that there’s something she needs to know about Jay. I love this brother and sister, they are wonderful together and any episode with Antonio in it is fine with me.  (I can’t wait for Chicago PD to start!)

So then Dawson goes to Jay’s house and bangs on his door until he answers.  “You’re a cop?” she asks.  Yes, I was right!

Dawson and Casey:

Dawson and Casey are still doing the friends-zone thing.  Casey’s on hand to support Dawson who’s struggling with Jay’s betrayal in this episode and also later when she is left reeling after the Darryl incident.

Jay calls Dawson but she doesn’t want to hear what he has to say.  She’s minding the Darden boys and while she’s on the phone, Griffin falls off the monkey bars and hurts himself.

Casey understands that it was just an accident and doesn’t blame Gabby.  Because they’re mates, you know. Later he’s totes adorable with Griffin when he asks Casey to sit with him until he falls asleep.  Awww.

Mouch and Isabella:

Isabella is shadowing Mouch for his campaign, to take some ‘day in the life’ pictures.  Mouch thinks he possesses ‘an everyman’ quality.

Isabella has organised a ‘meet and greet’ at the local recreation centre and it’s going well until Hadley shows up to spoil the party.  He’s not happy that he didn’t have Union support when he was transferred out of House 51.

Boden and Gail McLeod:

Boden’s not happy that Gail is interfering with the Hadley investigation and questioning his leadership.  He gives the Chief Fire Marshal a full-dose of Chief Awesomeness.

But later Gail calls him on this and there’s more of these two butting heads.

Benny Severide, what are you up to?  He goes to visit Gail to ostensibly lends his support to the House but later eludes to it being a ‘problem Chief’ not a ‘problem House’. This reminds me of what Steph said in a comment on an earlier recap about how the problems Gail listed with the House on her first visit were all down to Severide – HIS SON!!! *snorts*.

Mills and Clarke:

OK, first up I’m liking Mills more this season than I did the last one.  He seems to sense that Clarke is a stand up guy so he asks him to a game of pool.  As one does. Clarke says he WAS asked by Gail to dob on House 51 but he refused.  He was a Marine and Marines don’t dob on their mates, right? Interesting.  Who’s the dobber then?

Later Mills finds the other firefighter who has been transferred to the House making a dodgy phone call.  I can’t even remember his name, he’s been so under the radar.  I think it’s Spellman but that makes no never mind because I’m guessing he’ll be given the heave-ho shortly.

So this is the face of a dibber dobber?

The House:

Mills and Shay are ‘volunteered’ as reps for the new Wellness Program. They are so funny when they have to explain to the team what the program is all about and how they all need to be more health conscious.  Vouchers for Salad King if you pass the fitness test! Herrmann being Herrmann wants the vouchers and when Mills looks in his binder for the push up requirement for a ‘man of your age range’, Herrmann jumps on a desk and starts actually doing push ups.  Hilarious!

What happens when you’re really keen on a certain parking spot:

The incident with the car teetering on the roof of a parking structure after crashing through a barrier is incredibly well done.  There are two women trapped by falling debris in their car down at street level directly under where the other car is teetering.  I understand that Taylor Kinney actually performed this stunt and I’m way impressed.

Whew, that was a full-on episode but the best of season 2 so far in my view.  What did you think?

Tags: #chicagofire