‘Chicago Fire’ season 5, episode 13 review: Boden’s face-off; Severide visits Anna; Herrmann’s good deed

If there is one thing that we know about Chief Boden about Firehouse 51, it is that he is fiercely loyal to the cause, and to helping to save lives. That is his priority on almost every episode of “Chicago Fire.”

However, one thing that was not his strong suit was kissing up to his superiors. Boden ran into trouble when it appeared as though his actions in the field overruled those of his superior Anderson, even if this was not his intention. Basically, Anderson wanted him in turn to grovel and admit that he was wrong, but that’s just not the Boden we know. What we saw from this episode instead could be best defined as a chest-puffing contest. Anderson refused to accept someone underneath him on the food chain standing up for him, and he chose to make his life a living hell. He showed up at the Firehouse, and looked for anyway to disrupt business and ruin everything that was going on.

Everything culminated at the scene of an accident, one where Boden was adamant that his team be allowed to save a life the right way; unfortunately, you have to know that this is going to have consequences since Anderson wasn’t going to take this sort of conflict in the field lying down. As a matter of fact, it looks like Anderson is ready to split the firehouse up.

Herrmann the helper – As a whole, this was quite possibly the best Herrmann episode of the entire season, as we saw everything from him as a father to him as a bar owner. He gave money to someone who may or may not have deserved it, and he went out of his to ensure that he had a chance to visit his son’s class with some fellow firefighters. It’s too bad that Anderson decided to use the classroom visit against him since there wasn’t the proper paperwork filed in advance.

This whole story for him was heartwarming in the end, though, mostly because the guy he helped financially actually DID come back in the closing minutes to pay Herrmann back. We wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but it was still heartwarming to see.

Severide goes on a tour – If you recall last week, Kelly received a prominent job offer in Springfield, one that would give him a better position and an opportunity to be near Anna. He saw where he’d be working and paid her a visit, but it’s still not clear if he is actually going to accept the position or not. This is something that may take a little bit more time in order to sort out.

Brett learns German – This was a random, but funny little sideplot (at first) all about her trying to get over her recent heartbreak. Let’s just say that in between her learning a new language and partying that some of her friends needed to cart her off before she got married to some random dude who wanted a green card.

Overall – This was a good episode, but one that we’re not altogether happy about given that the ending meant that many of our firefighters were going to be split apart. Grade: B.

Next week – Want to see what’s coming up next on the show, especially when it comes to Severide? Then be sure to head over to the link here! (Photo: NBC.)