With Van Meter’s life on the line, Severide wasn’t going to back down on the search for who started the fire on Chicago Fire season 14 episode 9. Meanwhile, Firehouse 51 has to deal with the Engine 81 situation.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Chicago Fire season 14 episode 9.
We open with Severide still at the hospital looking over Van Meter, who is still hooked up to machines in an induced coma. Things are serious, but there’s so little that he can do right now.
Meanwhile, Mouch focuses on keeping his job, but runs into another problem. The Employment Office has been furloughed due to budget cuts, so you know that this is going to be a bigger issue.
A routine car accident is anything but routine on Chicago Fire season 14 episode 9
While Violet talks about her struggles with firefighters stepping in, Vasquez shows up at work in a Challenger. It’s not his, though, as he just had to get a rental to tide him over. He’s still not spoken to his dad, which isn’t that surprising.
Meanwhile, Kidd has good news about Isaiah’s mom, which she wants to share with him at the firehouse after school. It leads us into the first emergency, which only Truck and Ambo are called to, which means that Severide and Cruz are available to do their research later on the episode. It’s a car accident, which appears routine until the air bag suddenly deploys and winds Vasquez.
The good news is Vasquez is able to get up, and he seems perfectly fine. He’s more concerned about the victim of the car accident, which is very much like a firefighter, and he’s also confused at what happened. They all cut the power to the car before they got into it since the airbag didn’t deploy, and that should have disconnected the airbag, so what happened?
Back at the firehouse, Vasquez continues with questions. It’s nothing Kidd and Herrmann haven’t seen in the past, but Vasquez is still not sure about it. He knows cars, and something was off, which is sure to be a storyline for the rest of the episode.
That is along with Pascal pulling Kidd in to share the news about Engine being on the list to decommission. It’s time to go bigger with this situation, especially now that he’s heard City Hall is behind the decision. They need to go public with all of this, which means getting as much media attention as possible, and Pascal will put Firehouse 51 before City Hall.
Cruz checks in on Severide on Chicago Fire
While all this goes on, Cruz is at the hospital to check in on Severide on Chicago Fire season 14 episode 9. He was going to pick up a shift elsewhere, suggesting that they are all in rotation for a brownout in the episode, but he wanted to make sure Severide is okay. This leads to Severide showing the photos that he’s looking over, and there are other signs of a problem. Cruz is getting involved as well.
Isaiah does get to the firehouse, where he continues to connect with Herrmann, seeing the tools of the trade, and now it’s time to share the good news about his mom. It’s good to see something positive happen in the episode.
As for Cruz, he has questions about the fire. How did a guy manage to set fire to both stairwells with gasoline and not get injured? That’s because it wasn’t gas. It was oil, which would allow it to burn more slowly, giving him time to light the two stairwells and get out before anyone noticed. For someone to know how to do this means they have done it before.
Kidd and Severide get some disappointing news about Isaiah
Vasquez now has a new project, trying to figure out what happened to the airbag. Maybe he should speak with Severide, who also knows cars! Of course, Severide is on a completely different mission right now, but I’m still surprised nobody has mentioned it! The whole point of the storyline is to get Severide and Violet alone together, it seems, although this is the last thing Violet needs, as Severide would like to go to the tow yard to check out the car.
Violet questions Novak whether she has feelings for Vasquez and if that’s the reason she’s dodging on the trip to the tow yard. I can’t tell if she’s trying to convince Violet or herself.
Elsewhere in the firehouse, Terry shows up to chat with Kidd. Isaiah’s mom has asked for someone else to care for Isaiah until she can. Naturally, Kidd wants to prevent this from happening, but Lydia, who Shauna wants, is willing to move to Cleveland and it could mean that Isaiah is moved into her care. Terry wants to set up a meeting with everyone to ensure this is the best move for Isaiah.
To save Mouch’s job, it’s up to the union to do their job. However, the union has a genuine concern. Does the public care about the layoffs? There’s been so much that they probably don’t care. They only have two days to make enough waves to save his job.
Kidd doesn’t want to give up Isaiah, and turns to Severide with the concerns. While Severide is able to calm her down a little about it, he gets a call from Cruz with files about fires with similar MOs. As they work through all the files, Cruz finds an unsolved arson case from 2005 with the same MO. There even happens to be a lead, with a suspect list they both recognize.
Vasquez and Violet head to the tow yard
Severide goes to see Gerard with evidence that it’s a guy called Kevin, Wyatt's father. He got away with the previous arson case because the girlfriend at the time (whose house burned down) gave Kevin an alibi. Severide and Gerard need to find a way to get the ex-girlfriend to talk.
At the tow yard, Vasquez and Violet do their thing to check on the airbag. Of course, there are some signs of flirtation in there, but Vasquez is set on trying to figure out everything with the airbags. As he cuts open the passenger side airbag, the whole thing is made of the wrong material. It’s a knock-off airbag, which can cause more damage than the crash, and shady mechanics are known for this. Vasquez and Violet go through receipts in the glovebox to figure out who did work on the car to find out who is responsible for this.
At Severide and Kidd’s home, Lydia and Terry come over to meet with Isaiah so he gets a choice on where to go. They haven’t seen each other for some time, but it’s clear that Isaiah recognizes her. There are some cute moments between them, and it’s hard not to admit that he should probably go with Lydia because that means heartache for Kidd and Severide.
Severide and Gerard get to the bottom of the fire
It turns out that Isaiah’s time with Kidd and Severide has come to an end, which is the case with every adoption and foster storyline on Chicago Fire. Severide is initially angry hearing this, and it looks like this could be a crack between the two of them. Hoepfully, they can work on this as they see that it could be a problem.
Mouch is obsessing over whether any media outlets are picking up the story, and while he and Herrmann get annoyed at how people don’t care about their elders, the publications start pushing out their stories. Will it be enough?
Severide and Gerard don’t have a lot of time to figure out the arson investigation if Severide wants to say goodbye to Isaiah. That’s okay, though, because the ex has recanted the alibi she gave to Kevin. Now it means Gerard has a warrant to take his phone. Did we really think that it wasn’t Kevin? When his ex-girlfriend agrees to give a statement about the previous fire, Kevin realizes that he is in trouble. This won’t just turn into the arrest for one fire, but for two, and everyone is going to know what he did.
Vasquez and Mouch get answers (but what about Severide?)
The question to end the episode is whether Severide would make it back, and it’s clear that Isaiah is disappointed. He understands why Severide isn’t there, but that doesn’t stop him from being disappointed. Well, he doesn’t need to be, because Severide does make it just in the nick of time, and you can tell how much it means to Isaiah.
With that, the foster journey has come to an end for now. Will the two be able to go through it again? That’s not clear, but what is clear is that some cracks are starting to show between the two of them. It wouldn’t be a drama without some drama between our favorite couples, though.
Vasquez and Violet manage to find out where the garage is, who shares that he had no idea about the counterfeit airbags. The two don’t want to do too much harm and tell him to recall all the cars that had airbags installed, and they will get in touch with the authorities if it’s not done fast enough. Vasquez also wants the supplier to get the right people on them to prevent the airbags from being sold.
And with that, we see more sparks flying between Vasquez and Violet. Chicago Fire writers need to step off the gas for Violet. Carver has only been gone for nine episodes. This is far too soon!
The big questions to end the episode are whether Mouch’s job is safe and if Van Meter will pull through. In some good news, Mouch’s job is safe, but it means a transfer to Firehouse 40 permanently. Now Firehouse 51 has a serious enemy at City Hall — and I’m sure we can guess who that is.
As for Van Meter, we don’t get to know yet. Severide isn’t at the apartment when Kidd gets back, leaving her to miss Isaiah on her own. As a nurse says “goodnight,” it definitely sounds like “goodbye,” and it leaves me wondering if the show is really going to kill off such an important man in Severide’s life. There’s no way for Severide to think about his marriage while Van Meter’s life hangs in the balance.
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.