Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 15, “Too Close” spends the entire episode teasing a possible death, first putting Damon (Michael Bradway) in danger and then getting him out of it thanks to his brother, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), who comes to his rescue. Later, the episode places Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) in the line of fire, as she jumps in front of a car to save someone. But in the end, neither of them is the big death of the episode. Instead, the death happens to be someone really close to Chief Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), and someone who could change the dynamics of Firehouse 51 for good.
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Monica Pascal, Chief Dom Pascal’s wife, dies in a car accident as she is on her way to meet him for their anniversary dinner, marking the end of recurring cast member KaDee Strickland’s time on the show after one season. Even more devastating is the fact that it’s Firehouse 51 who gets called to the accident, and they pretty quickly realize the woman in the car is the Chief’s wife, with Mouch McHolland (Christian Stolte) making the call to Pascal and letting him know to come to Chicago Med immediately. Once there, all he has to do is look at Violet’s devastated face. As if that scene weren’t devastating enough, we get Dean Archer (Stephen Webber) to deliver the news: Monica is gone.
What comes next for Pascal cannot be anything but a pretty dark downward spiral. Grief is a very hard thing to deal with, and Pascal had already been a guy with a very volatile temper even before all of this. If he seemed to have turned over a new leaf, it was because of his wife. Now, without his influence – and worse – with an ax to grind after her accident on their 15th anniversary, it looks like Pascal’s worst impulses are going to come out.
The promo for the next episode, which doesn’t air for a couple of weeks, sees Christopher Herrman (David Eigenberg) and Severide wondering what they can do, but the thing is, Pascal’s problems will end up affecting the entire Firehouse. He is, after all, the Chief. But Herrman is Captain, and Severide, Mouch, and Stella are Lieutenants, and they will have to step up now, particularly if they feel like Pascal is a danger. This might also end up being the thing that forces Herrman’s hand. For a while, it has felt like Herrmann didn’t really want to be Chief like he was going along with the motions. But if he feels like Firehouse 51 has no choice, what will Herrman do and how could it affect Pascal’s role at Firehouse 51 is Herrmann was to replace him?
Maybe this all ties into the reason why former Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) will return to the show. We know he’s going to have something else going on, but considering his high position in the CFD now, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that the people in his former Firehouse would reach out to him for advice. After all, he did say 51 would always be a family when he left.
Whatever happens, one thing seems certain, Pascal’s gonna crash out hard. And the consequences are not going to be good, for anyone.
