Chicago Fire – Purgatory

By starrymag | February 27, 2017

By: MaryBeth McMahon

 

Anderson (Michael Hanrahan) put Firehouse 51 through the ringer and now everyone, except the officers, have been relocated to new houses. Most of the crew is lucky to enter new houses with a fellow Station 51 friend along side them, with pairings including Herrmann (David Eigenberg) & Mouch (Christian Stolte) and Stella (Miranda Rae Mayo) & Brett (Kara Killmer). However, Otis (Yuri Sardarov) is on his own. Meanwhile, Cruz (Joe Minoso) and Capp (Randy Flagler) were given one of the more unfortunate placements and found new roles in a 9-1-1 call center.

 

Stella informs Brett that their new house, House 51, is the fire station where she began her career as a firefighter. She doesn’t give too much information as to what the station is like, but her expression is very exacerbated and melancholy.  Over at Station 51, Boden (Eamonn Walker) introduces the new crew to the officers in charge: Casey (Jesse Spencer), Dawson (Monica Raymund) and Severide (Taylor Kinney). Before everyone can say hello and become acquainted with their new comrades a call comes in. Severide is shocked to hear Cruz’s voice over the radio announcing a change in address for Squad 3 to attend to.

 

Station 51 arrives at a Marina City parking garage where a man is dangling over the edge. After a couple of rookie mistakes made by the seemingly not-so-serious or qualified firefighters, Severide jumps into action and climbs down to rescue the man, but not without help from Casey on ladder.

 

Brett and Stella try to get used to their new house where the communication is not a strong suit of the staff and the women tend to get berated by the men. Stella describes their leader, Captain Tipton (Frank Pando), as an “a-hole” who is far from being anything like Chief Boden. Just seconds after their exchange, the women witness Tipton criticizing and yelling at a female candidate, Missy Chapman (Maya Boudreau). Stella almost jumps in to help Missy, but holds back.

 

Meanwhile, Otis takes in his new firehouse and is the only person around who is making the best of it. He shares stories from rescues, mostly truthful in telling, but he exaggerates a bit to make himself sound more interesting and likeable to the men. They eat it all up until a skeptical firefighter calls Otis out on one detail. His reign as the cool, new guy ends abruptly and he is back to being on the outs with his team, much like the situation earlier on in Firehouse 51.

 

Gabby deals with her own struggles working alongside Chout (Alex Weisman), a familiar face we’ve seen before. Chout tries to hit on her and makes a joke about Casey that does not entirely please her; however, she keeps good spirits and just laughs it off knowing Chout is harmless and is just trying to work with her. She hops out of the ambulance and almost all of the original Station 51 are able to meet up at the fuel station and catch up with one another.

 

Boden meets with Chief Walker (Steve Chikerotis) in an attempt to get his station back to normal. He urges that “51 saves lives. Plain and simple.” Things go awry when Anderson, high and mighty, barges into the meeting and shuts down any sort of progress Boden may have made with his ally. He gets back to the station and notifies Severide, Casey and Dawson about the “permanent” assignments. Even though the newly assigned firefighters were nearly responsible for someone dying during the rescue early on, Boden commands that they do their job and make sure things like that don’t happen.

 

Casey and Severide’s frustration reaches another high when one of the new firefighters reveals that everyone placed in Station 51 is a floater and this is their first permanent assignment. On top of that, one of the firefighters felt entitled to a soup break to warm himself up while a training exercise was occurring and another dropped a dummy head first off of a ladder. Doing their job with the new crew is easier said than done for Casey and Severide.

 

Tom (Christopher Innvar) pays a visit to Boden and says that everyone he reached out to is unable to help Station 51 in their time of need. He exclaims that Anderson has too much authority for anyone to overcome. He tells Boden to just lay low over the next year and put up with what has been dealt.

 

Stella is unable to sit back any longer and defends Missy, who is unsurprisingly being reprimanded by the not-so-pleasant Tipton. Tipton, un-phased by this admirable moment, forces Stella to take over Missy’s endless cleaning duties. He warns that if any one helps her they will have their own torturous assignments to deal with.

 

The women of Station 51 reunite at Molly’s and discuss the whirlwind first shift they all endured. Brett tried to stay calm during her first day and says she constantly told herself, “It’s all going to be okay.” Gabby sheds light on her new partner in the best possible way describing Chout as, “a unicorn mixed with a rainbow, mixed with a dolphin, drunk on Red Bull and Mountain Dew…Kind of adorable, actually.” Missy joins the crew and receives a warm welcome.

 

Herrmann and Mouch pay an unsuccessful visit to Station 51. Before they meet with Boden in his office, Mouch is taken aback and entirely offended to see the new 51 crew sitting on his prized couch and moving it to a new position; he humorously seems to be the one most hurt by this separation at the moment. The two proceed into Boden’s office and do nothing but complain about their house and yell at him for seemingly doing nothing while he sits back and absorbs the negativity. He yells at them and explains that his hands are tied and he is outranked. Herrmann criticizes Boden for not looking out for them, not doing enough and getting to remain in his comfortable office while they are directly affected by the changes.

 

Down the hall, Gabby tries to hide in Casey’s office from Chout. Her five seconds of peace come to an end when a call comes in for Ambulance 61. They arrive at a restaurant and are instantly greeted by a pretentious manager who wanted them to enter from the back so the lunch-rush guests would not be put off by seeing paramedics in the building. They are surprised to find a profuse amount of blood and a cook missing four fingers from one of his hands. Gabby tends to the cook and his hand while Chout is left with the job of placing each finger inside a bag of ice. The restaurant manager continues to be a restless nuisance and urges the paramedics to use the back door. In true Dawson fashion, Gabby leads Chout and the ailing cook through the front door, making a big show out of it. She metaphorically gives the bird to the restaurant manager when she raises the bag of fingers in the air, showing it off to the restaurant guests while also mocking the manager.

 

Missy tells Brett and Stella that she is considering quitting the job, which clearly disappoints Stella. Stella knows the outcome would be different had Missy been fortunate enough to have a chief like Boden.

 

The original Station 51 crew is all reunited when each of their stations is called to respond to a hotel fire. Boden does what he does best and directs each of the houses to particular areas in the hotel. Otis grows restless when he and Engine 67 are told to stand by on the sidelines. Brett, on the other hand, is gung-ho and tells her partner to jump right in and get to work. Station 51 slowly comes together in the rescue with Otis, Capp, Severide, Casey, Herrmann and many others working to break into a room where fifteen people are trapped. Stella oversees a victory that Missy has with Tipton; a back draft explosion burst through a nearby door, but she pushed Tipton out of the way just in time. The heroic moment and positivity she received from Tipton in response to her actions convinces Missy to stick it out and refrain from quitting.

 

Severide and the boys reach a stalemate with opening the door, prompting Boden to storm the building and provide assistance with a hydraulic door opener. Fed up with being on the sidelines, Otis grabs a hose and follows behind his chief. Boden rescues the last man from the room, but has difficulty when fire overtakes the hallway. Otis arrives just in time to hose a path for Boden and his victim to escape through. It appears Boden has proved Herrmann and his statement wrong and he is fully capable of and willing to take risks in joining everyone in the fire.

 

Boden receives a visit from Mr. Cerrutti (James Leaming), the man he rescued from the fire. He reveals himself to be the Deputy Mayor in the Mayor’s office and explains that Boden and the firefighters rescued a number of public leaders from Chicago in that same call. Boden passes up a medal of commendation for his efforts and takes this opportunity to go above Anderson and get Station 51 back to normal. He explains to Anderson that he did it “by doing my job to the best of my ability. I find that when I do that, good things follow.” Anderson thinks he was just lucky, but Boden implies that luck has nothing to do with it. Instead, it’s his skills and ability to choose the optimal moment to make a move that resulted in Boden’s success.

 

Boden has a meeting with Station 51 and everyone is ecstatic to be back together again. At the same time, the struggle of seeing his house and family torn apart only to be brought back together again helped Severide make a decision about the Springfield job offer. He calls Anna and tells her that “Chicago is my home and as much as I want to be with you, I need to stay here.” It wasn’t an easy decision for Severide, but it was the right one for the time being.