Chicago Fire Shakes Up Its Truck and Engine Roster — Are You Happy With the New Lineup?
Chicago Fire on Wednesday — or more, specifically, Herrmann — came up with a creative solution for its Truck 81 problem.
In need of a replacement for Damon, Stella reaches out to her first choice, Kylie, who surprises her by turning down the position. She explains that she’ll never get out from under Stella’s shadow if she joins Truck. Chief Pascal is unhappy to learn that Stella has requested yet another floater for the next shift and demands that she pick someone, putting an end to the revolving door.
Herrmann witnesses the tense exchange and comes up with an idea, which he presents to Stella at Molly’s: Ritter is going to move to Truck, where he’s wanted to be since he temporarily filled in for Mouch. As for Engine, Herrmann is OK with losing Ritter because he’s got the perfect person in mind to fill in: Kylie! And this time, she’s on board!
Elsewhere in the episode, Violet performed a C-section on a patient in the field, which is way beyond a paramedic’s scope. As a result, her medical license is suspended and she’s put on desk duty at 51. She spares Novak’s career, insisting that she acted alone. Chief Pascal suggests that she find someone in the medical field to act as an advocate on her behalf with the medical board, so Violet visits Goodwin at Med. Unfortunately, Goodwin points out that the board is made up of doctors who are not going to side with a paramedic who performed a doctor’s duties. She doesn’t think she would be of any help to Violet and instead suggests that she find someone with real political power.
After Violet relays this dismaying information to Pascal, he goes to see Lieutenant Vale and apologizes to him. Vale recognizes that Pascal just wants something from him, but whatever he says must be good because Vale shows up with his alderman pal to Violet’s hearing. More surprising, however, is maybe the fact that Paramedic Field Chief Robinson is actually on Violet’s side, telling her that, ethically and morally, she did the right thing to save the baby’s life.
With the alderman threatening to tell voters the name of every doc on the board and the baby’s family at the hearing, it’s enough to get Violet’s license reinstated. In response, Novak tells Pascal that he’s awesome and that by saving Violet’s job, he saved a lot of lives. Meanwhile, a relieved Violet apologizes to Carver for her earlier outburst at Tori when she asked what’s the worst thing they’ve seen on the job. They shake hands and agree to be friends, and Violet tells Carver that he deserves to be happy.
Another surprising thing of note: Severide and Damon’s tiff ends in amends, not payback on Damon’s part. Severide puts in a good word for Damon at his new firehouse, leaving Damon to wonder why he would do that after everything that happened. Severide takes Damon to see Benny’s medal of valor plaque and says that Benny was a great firefighter at the expense of everything else in his life. Severide used to be like that, too, but he’s not going anywhere.
