For the past few episodes of Chicago Fire Season 13, Firehouse 51 Chief Dom Pascal has mostly absent, so it makes sense that when the chief does return for Episode 15, “Too Close,” there would be a devastating turn waiting for him. In the promo, which asks the question — “Who doesn’t make it out alive?” in big, bold letters— viewers see Violet (Hanako Greensmith) shaking her head at Pascal, with tears and her eyes, and Damon (Michael Bradway) seemingly trapped while everything around him burns. But who is the show killing? And how does that affect Pascal?
Who dies in Chicago Fire Season 13?
The trailer for the next episode is cut in a way that feels very misleading, with the obvious answer as to who might die being Damon. It would be a devastating death just as Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) are getting ready to expand their family, particularly because Severide has gotten really close to his brother, and Damon just appeared in the last episode, “Bar Time,” where he managed to save a woman even out of uniform. But if it were really him who was in danger, one would think the camera wouldn’t have focused on Pascal and Violet shaking her head.
Violet’s little head shake is the universal sign of bad news, and considering she’s the PIC, it probably means somebody didn’t make it. But if it were Damon, she would probably be talking to Severide, not Pascal. The promo also sees Stella throw herself in front of a a moving car to push someone out of the way, which means she could possibly be in danger too. But again, if something had happened to Stella, it would be Severide Violet would likely be talking to. And though this could be just a clever cut to make it seem like Violet is talking to Pascal when she’s instead talking to Severide, from what we can see of the frame when the camera switches from Violet to the person she’s talking to, it seems to be Pascal.
That probably rules out the two obvious candidates, and leaves us with just one person who Pascal cares enough about for that face he’s making as he walks into the hospital: his wife, Monica Pascal. She isn’t even seen or mentioned in the trailer, which makes it even more likely it is her who got hurt. We haven’t seen all that much of her outside of her relationship with her husband, but we know she’s the thing Pascal cares about the most. And though Violet would not be as upset about her getting hurt as she would be about Stella or even Damon, she’s a very empathetic person and she might just be reacting to the fact that she has to give Pascal the news.
With Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 14, “Bar Time” focusing on Herrmann as Chief and not just how good he is at the job but how well he fits into Firehouse 51, Pascal becomes expendable. And if something happens to Monica Pascal, well, he might not want to be Chief anymore. He might just want to leave, and go somewhere where he can grieve. It would be a devastating end for Pascal, but it’s also an understandable one. He always felt like a stepping stone towards Herrmann being Chief instead of someone we needed to get attached to, and this way we would get Herrmann in the position Boden (Eamonn Walker) always wanted him to have, just a little later than we expected.
