‘Chicago Fire’ season 5, episode 10 review: Dawson and Casey’s heartbreaking decision
At one point, we were hoping to start off this “Chicago Fire” review by handing out some of the good news: Casey and Dawson’s parental struggle was over! After all, Louie’s birth father Andre paid them another visit at the start of the episode, and made it clear that he was being deployed again. Therefore, he was giving up his parental rights … or was he? He made the offer, his intentions were good, and he wanted to ensure that he does the right thing in order to give him a good life. This is where things get emotional.
As a result of all of this, Dawson and Casey actually decided to let him meet Louie, which was attributed to be a very brave move given that it could lead to some heavy consequences. Unfortunately, the meeting turned out to be a bad move when Andre spoke to his commanding officer and tried to get a post closer to home; with that, he wanted to fight for full custody. This put the two parents into a spiral, one where they had to figure out whether or not it was worth fighting for this child when it seemed like his biological family truly wanted him.
With that, the two new parents had to make one of their most heartbreaking decisions possible, and that was to give up Louie and allow him to live with his biological family. They didn’t want to handle a year-long struggle. They watched Louie walk away with his father, and then they were left to face a new future. That sight of Louie looking back at Dawson and Casey when he left may just be when your heart fell to pieces completely.
Severide’s struggles – It’s too bad that the news wasn’t anywhere near as good for Kelly. While he did avoid prison for a crime he did not commit, and Anna managed to recover enough to be a candidate for the bone marrow transplant, the problem was that a work injury made it appear all of a sudden as though he wasn’t going to be able to make the donation happen anymore. He went to Goodwin to plead his case as to why he should still be allowed to undergo the procedure, but that didn’t seem to go over all that well at first. Thanks to Jeff Clarke and more fighting, he did eventually get the okay to go through the surgery — without anesthetic. If you needed more evidence that Severide was a baller unafraid of inflicting pain on himself to help someone in need, this was it.
Kelly admitted to Clarke that he was in crazy pain after surgery, but the good news was that she was going to get to have that operation. She made it out okay! Stella was going to visit him to see how he was doing, but he left when she saw how happy he seemed to be spending time with Anna.
Making a PSA – Otis had a chance to test out some of his filmmaking skills in order to help find prospective firefighters in the city, but in least-surprising news ever, this did not go well. Basically, every little bit of firefighting heroics he missed out on. This was almost vintage Otis, given that he had good intentions for something, only to see it ultimately not work out for him … at least until he decided to record Boden’s speech at the end. What’s more inspiring than that?
Overall – This episode of “Chicago Fire” was powerful, heartbreaking, and it makes us wonder how Gabby and Matt are going to move forward after all of this. They love Louie, and what they did in this episode will ultimately overshadow everything else. Grade: A-.
Next week – If you do want to start to look ahead to what is next on “Chicago Fire,” including a preview for what is coming in the near future, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: NBC.)