‘Chicago Fire’ season 5, episode 5 review: High school heartache and book-deal blues
There is a lot of content worthy of discussion via Tuesday night’s new episode of “Chicago Fire,” and yet we do feel like we can write a good thousand words regarding the whole homecoming-dance-proposal-gone-wrong that we saw early on during the episode. We had a young kid, still a sophomore, doing what he could in order to ask a girl he liked out; unfortunately, what we saw instead was him needing to be rescued from the fire department and being hospitalized for his injuries.
The kid eventually recovered, and when the target of his affection visited him, SHE STILL WOULDN’T GO TO THE DANCE WITH HIM. Brutal. This is probably the most relatable story in the history of the entire “Chicago” franchise, mostly because everyone out there’s been on one side or another of this. We felt almost as much for Brett, who let the girl in not realizing that she was going to turn him down and then take a selfie with him due to his story going viral.
Well, let’s just say that Brett more than made it up to him. She went to his dance! Brett ownage! Victory for all! Okay, we’ll calm down for now. This was just a really sweet thing for her to do, and it shows what sort of person she is.
On the flip side for Brett… – In shifting things to more personal matters, Brett’s celebration with Mouch was incredibly short-lived. They just landed a book deal for their romance, but they made a critical error in leaving the manuscript behind. It was found, and they were told that in the event that they published this, they would be subject to losing their jobs for writing it (or at least discussing it) while on firehouse property.
If there is good news, it’s that Brett and Mouch’s stories can live on at a book club with Trudy and others. They just won’t be in stores anytime soon.
The search for the vandal – For whatever reason, we were down for Herrmann getting completely into a manhunt to find a person responsible for vandalizing the firehouse. They did at one point a stakeout, and at another point a chase. They learned in the end that the vandal was just a kid, and all it took was pressing the right buttons and making the kid realize that there were some other ways to impress some of the kids’ friends. Apparently, all they needed to do was give the kid a t-shirt.
More serious matters – While we’re just getting to it now, we suppose that the main story when it comes to drama tonight: A fire that resulted in the death of a woman started a divide in the firehouse between Casey and Severide, who had conflicting views on what happened. After a report from her sister came through, Casey believed that the home may have been ignited by the victim’s husband and that he was guilty of arson; his alibi also didn’t check out. Severide, on the other hand, didn’t feel the same way. He believed the husband that he was grieving what transpired, and you could sense the two had a connection quickly.
The PD decided not to ultimately press charges, but we’re still left with a great sense of ambiguity and the sentiment that this is far from over.
There was a sweet moment near the end of the episode with Boden and James following the latter deciding to surprise him after Boden sent him a friendly text. Who knew we’d be so moved by Boden making a smiley-face?
There were some dramatic moments in this episode, but what we genuinely loved about it more than anything else was that it gave so many different characters interesting things to do. It was heavy when it needed to be, but also light and funny. There were times we thought it was veering into depressing territory, but the writers pulled us back out of it. A really solid “Chicago Fire” episode as a whole. Grade: B+.
Now it’s time to hear from you in the comments box below – tell us what you thought of tonight’s episode. Also, head over here if you want to get a further look at what is going to be coming up next on the show! (Photo: NBC.)