With the introduction of Vasquez and the knowledge that he has constantly changed career paths and firehouses, Chicago Fire season 14, episode 2 delves a little more into it. It’s clear that Vasquez has a lot that he’s hiding, and hopefully, it won’t take too long to find out what that is.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Chicago Fire season 14, episode 2.
We open the episode at the shooting range, where Vasquez is getting some training in. Its clear that he would have preferred to get a job in the police academy, so what made that impossible? When people he was at the academy with asks about his family, this is a sore spot and is sure to come up.
Kidd and Severide need to make a choice in Chicago Fire season 14, episode 2
Kidd and Severide have decided that they will foster the teenage boy in the group home, and it should be a fostering situation. The boy’s mom had medical issues, which led to her son Isaiah having nobody to care for him. It’s a tough spot to be in, and the two attempt to connect with him.
Back at the firehouse, the two discuss what their options are with this boy. Are they the right people to take him in, as he may need more than they can offer. But what if somewhere to stay and having two people who care about him to watch out for him is all that he needs? This is a risky part of fostering, and I love that Severide is up for this. I don’t think there was any debate on Kidd wanting that.
As Vasquez gets to the firehouse, he gets a collect call from a penitentiary, but he doesn’t take it as Novak and Cruz walk in. We get the update that Dwayne is out of the ICU. This is surely the way that the show is going to write Ritter out.
Elsewhere at the firehouse, Herrmann talks with Mouch about Molly’s. With the price of everything going up, Molly’s is struggling, and he’s stressed about it. The conversation can’t go anywhere, though, as the entire firehouse is called out to a fire at a junkyard, which includes a school bus. As they walk through the junkyard to find people who could be trapped, a gas canister squeals.
Kidd needs to handle her newbie
Vasquez jumps into the call as we see him in the trailer, but it’s not quite as dramatic as it looked. When is it ever? The call is a success, with the one man they did find in the junkyard getting to Med. However, back at the firehouse, Kidd still isn’t that impressed with how fast Vasquez is to jump. She can’t cut him loose yet, but she does need to rethink her way of training him so he doesn’t ruin anything for her at work.
Herrmann is worried about money, and yet he has bought new pint glasses for Molly’s. It turns out that he has found a way around the financial problems. He’s bought glasses that are slightly smaller than pint glasses, as a way to trick people into paying the same for less. That’s sure to go well!
Kidd decides the best option is to treat him a bit like a child at school. She gets Vasquez to write up a report about his actions. He’s not impressed with having to write up an incident report, but he decides not to argue it. Severide does want to know the same as Vasquez, and whether it’s a punishment or not. It’s more of a teaching moment.
Just as Violet and Novak leave Med, they get another call (while finding out that Dwayne can go home and Ritter is staying with him for a while). At the house they’re called to, they find a woman on the floor with a stab wound to the stomach and a knife on the floor. Fortunately, she’s still alive, and she can answer questions, she explains that she did this to herself.
Vasquez continues to annoy people at Firehouse 51
It does turn out that it was an accident, and I think many of us have been dumb enough to do these things. She says she was cutting some frozen chicken when the knife slipped and she stabbed herself. Violet does see some frozen chicken on the counter, but it’s still in the packaging. Is she lying?
Back at the firehouse, Cruz is worried that Firehouse 51 is closing down and Squad 3 is going. Severide isn’t worried too much about that, but this is a great chance for Severide to ask Cruz for some advice about fostering. Yes, Cruz is the perfect man to ask advice about this, and the advice of a couch and a gaming console is great for some 14-year-olds, but possibly not this one.
Vasquez starts annoying others in the firehouse, mainly Severide now. He’s taken a chair from the Squad table. Don’t do that!
At Med, Violet isn’t convinced that the woman stabbed herself, but there’s no proof that she was lying. They need to move onto the next call anyway, which is a man who has been cut on his arm. It’s a deep wound, and you can tell Violet and Novak immediately link it back to the woman. They notice that it’s inflamed, and he says that it’s burning. Sure enough, it’s likely linked to the woman before, who was cutting with peppers and suffering the same burns.
Kidd decides to continue her teaching moment with Vasquez, running through all of the things they didn’t know and did know about those tanks. Vasquez realizes what she is getting at, and makes it clear that he was aware of the risks and took them. This is a man who is willing to die to save the many.
Ritter holds onto too much guilt
Violet and Novak go through how the two were involved in the slashing and stabbing from the previous calls. That’s when Ritter walks in, explaining more of what happened in the hospital. All of Dwayne’s family turned up, leading to an awkward moment with them. Ritter believes that he’s the reason Dwayne was shot in the first place, because had they moved in like he wanted, he wouldn’t have ended up in New York. Violet thinks that there’s a chance for Ritter and Dwayne to make things work, and he needs to go after the man. She makes it clear the whole reason she and Carver didn’t work was because she pushed him away, and she doesn’t want Ritter to do the same thing.
At Molly’s, Herrmann’s plan backfires. As expected, everyone can tell that he has cheated them out of drink.
Meanwhile, Kidd and Severide welcome Isaiah into their home. There’s a small smile on his face as he walks into his room. It’s certainly awkward between them, but this poor boy is just struggling. They definitely need to give him time, while figuring out a little more of who he is.
At Vasquez’s house, he’s woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call. It’s another from a prison system, and when he accepts this call, we learn that it’s his dad.
Violet and Novak go on a hunt for answers in Chicago Fire
It turns out that Ritter took Violet’s advice and called Dwayne, and they spoke for two hours. With everything that happened, Ritter asked Dwayne if he wanted to get back together. Of course, he does, and Ritter is heading out to New York. He’s taking an extended furlough, which Violet isn’t happy about, as she already feels like the firehouse is losing too many people.
Violet and Novak did decide to call CPD about the knife incidents, but all they have is circumstantial evidence at this point. The two decide to go on a mission to get some sort of evidence, and that means going to the woman, Laura, to tell her that they treated the man, Carl, to see how she reacts.
Mouch decides to look over the accounts at Molly’s, and he sees that they’re still making money. He also says that he’s still getting monthly checks. Cruz does show his smarts about money, but none of that is any use right now. What is clear is that it’s not Molly’s that’s having the problems, and it’s probably Herrmann as a whole.
Where is Herrmann? He’s outside with the rest of Truck running drills. Vasquez continues to show how he can’t follow orders, but his actions do work. This time, though, she has a bit of a proud smile on her face, as she can’t really argue with his points that his method worked.
Back with Violet and Novak, they get to Laura, who is back at home. It’s clear that something happened with Carl, but she doesn’t want to speak to them. There’s a look of fear, and the two paramedics are still left without answers. The only thing that they now question is who called 911. After all, the front door was closed with no one answers, and someone called right away, but Laura faints at the first sight of blood. Carl had to be there.
There's more to Vasquez and we need the backstory now
Mouch decides he needs to speak with Herrmann about Molly’s, but he doesn’t want to share what he knows. Instead, he decides he wants to give Hermmann his share of Molly’s in return for free beer for the rest of his life. There’s even a lawyer coming to draw up the contract, and Herrmann is left just thinking that Mouch is bad at business. However, I think deep down, he knows the truth.
Back at Laura’s house, Novak and Violet continue to try to get through to Laura. It turns out that Carl is her brother, who has always struggled with mental health problems, with doctors jumping from one diagnosis to another. Their parents have died, and Laura tries hard to look after him, and it’s time for the whole truth to come out.
With his mental health history, there’s no way the police would listen to anything she had to say, so she couldn’t say anything. Novak connects with her, knowing that while Laura loves Carl, he could have killed her. Laura needs to stop taking all of this on. It’s not easy to pass those we love onto strangers, but it is sometimes the right thing to do.
As Novak explains to Violet that she connects to people by figuring out the best way to help them, Violet realizes that she’s been doing the opposite with Ritter.
Kidd and Mouch do a last chat, with Mouch sharing that he learned a lot more from Ritter than Ritter likely learned from him. This could be a sign that Vasquez could teach Kidd a lot, and she decides that she wants to learn the hitch he did.
Before Chicago Fire season 14, episode 3 ends, we see Ritter heading out to the airport. Novak and Violet decide they’re taking him to the airport, and they will visit him plenty.
Back at Kidd and Severide’s place, Severide checks in on Isaiah to see if he wants to play an X-box game with him. Severide claims that he needs help getting past the next level of a game, and it’s just what Isaiah needed to get out of his skin and sit on the couch. There is hope for this trio.
Back at the firehouse, Vasquez is working on the fire truck when the guy from the shooting range, Girardi, turns up. He tries to apologize for what he said about Vasquez’s family, bringing up his dad, and now this just confirms that there is far more to this story to uncover.
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.