Chicago Fire season 6, episode 10 recap: Slamigan

Chicago Fire gave us a Kelly Severide story this week, but was it the one we wanted? Here’s what happened in Chicago Fire season 6, episode 10.

After Chicago Fire resolved the Hope storyline, there hadn’t been much of a focus on Kelly Severide. That changed this week, so how did the Severide story play out?

Season 6, Episode 10 is called “Slamigan” and opens with Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) making their trip to the morgue to see if the dead girl is Bria; she’s not, so where the heck is Bria?

And why did the dead girl have Bria’s purse? So many questions.

Naturally, Dawson goes to her best resource—her brother Antonio (Jon Seda). He gives her an address, while also asking how Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) is doing, because. At that moment, Brett is finding out that Stella (Miranda Rae Mayo) is “cautiously optimistic” about her date. Wait, was Severide (Taylor Kinney) supposed to hear that?

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But on a lighter note, Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) is trying to mate a sledgehammer and a halligan, to everyone else’s skepticism. And his portmanteau is where we get the title of this Chicago Fire episode.

Plus, speaking of business ventures, have some more Walmart product placement.

Dawson goes to the address that Antonio gave her, where she and Brett question the young man as to whether or not he knows Bria. He’s in shock as it is, having known the dead young woman, and the best he can offer is that there’s a shelter for teens called Safe Harbor where they can look.

Of course, given the storylines about shelters on Chicago PD, maybe that’s a bad sign.

But before Dawson and Brett can follow up, they’re called to a woman who got her arm stuck in a garbage disposal. Clearly she did not see Final Destination. What’s worse, she’s more worried that her engagement ring has been scratched. Dawson explodes for all of us:

"Dawson: Less than half a mile from here is a shelter for kids who have nowhere to go…Now that’s unfair."

She finally does get to the shelter, but the woman at the front desk could not be any less helpful. She refuses to say whether or not Bria is at Safe Harbor. All Dawson can do is leave a message.

Back at Firehouse 51 we meet Chief Grissom, who’s played by Gary Cole. In a fun bit of trivia, Gary Cole played Jesse Lee Soffer‘s father in The Brady Bunch Movie. Grissom refers to Severide as his “protege” and wants him and other members of the house to show up at a charity event. He also invites Kelly out for a drink later.

And then, just as Cruz is proudly showing off Slamigan 2.0, Bria turns up at the house.

Dawson has the idea to become Bria’s temporary foster parent. Casey gives her a bit of a look at that, but it’s a no-brainer because they don’t want Bria disappearing again. At least there’s Kelly Severide there for another pep talk:

"Severide: Your father, he’s different. Trust me. More than anything, he wants to do right by you.Bria: Maybe that’s what your dad wants too."

We have a Connie sighting! Connie (DuShon Brown) tells Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) about the “personal project” Cruz is working on, so Boden asks Severide what the 411 is. They also teach us more about Grissom, like how he’s been looking out for Kelly for years, and is the reason our hero became a firefighter. There’s an awful lot of backstory here, and you know it’s all got to add up to something.

Severide and Grissom meet at Molly’s for those drinks. And yes, there’s something else going on: Grissom is not impressed with how Severide talks about life at Firehouse 51, and insults him by saying he “had so much promise” as a firefighter.

While Dawson brings Bria home, Stella goes on her date with Zach (returning guest star Daniel Di Tomasso). She thinks she needs to quiz him before they even order food, which is not a great first impression. But something goes right, because Zach is in Severide’s apartment when he arrives home. Severide finds an immediate excuse to turn around and leave, as anyone would.

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Chicago Fire brings us to the next day, where Dawson and Casey are meeting with Tina from DCFS, who tells them they have to go through a whole second application process if they want to hold on to Bria. Everything they did with Louie doesn’t matter. Time for a Good Guy Casey moment:

"Casey: The only place Bria is guaranteed to be safe is with us. Because that’s where she wants to be."

Tina calls a short time later and says that DCFS has changed their tune and approved Dawsey as Bria’s new foster parents. But there’s no time to celebrate, because if you didn’t notice, we haven’t had a fire yet this episode. So it’s time to burn a building down!

What appears to be a regular structure fire is complicated by chemicals burning inside. It’s totally not a surprise when Zach responds to the call and tells Severide that this is Very Bad Indeed. Can these two work together to keep there from being a big, nasty, block-leveling explosion? Yes, they do, though there’s an awkward moment between them afterward.

And does the Slamigan come to the rescue? Yes, yes it does, therefore providing Cruz with a proof of concept while Otis (Yuri Sardarov), out of the blue, tells us that Cruz has a crush on Brett. Such a bad idea because, you know, Brettonio.

The final few minutes of the episode involve the aforementioned charity event. Severide convinces Stella to postpone her date with Zach and come with him, therefore teasing all the Stellaride fans, before Grissom apologizes to Kelly for his earlier remarks. He says he “wants to introduce you to some people,” which is always a loaded sentence.

Dawson and Casey lean on Joe’s friend from the previous episode to give Bria a chance to see her father at the rehab facility, which allows Dawsey to have another heart-to-heart:

"Casey: I just want you to know that wherever you’re going, I’m right there with you."

“Slamigan” is about halfway through the Chicago Fire season (it’s episode 10 of what will probably be anywhere from 22 to 24), and that’s exactly what it feels like. One of those midseason episodes that simply exists, with no real feeling about it one way or the other.

Despite all the promotion being about Severide, there’s really not a huge development for him until the end of the episode. We get all kinds of backstory relayed in conversations between him and Grissom, and him and Boden, but this episode doesn’t actually change anything for Kelly.

The biggest news is that we finally figure out where Bria is, and once it’s confirmed that she’s still alive, it’s very easy to connect the dots and see Dawson campaigning to foster her. Anyone who’s watched the show over the last two seasons can see how Bria fills that void left behind by Louie.

There are other bits that feel convenient in that “this is TV” way, too, like Severide’s call of the week needing Hazmat so that Zach shows up—the day after Severide has seen him in his own apartment with Stella.

The subplot that gives the episode its title feels more like something Otis would’ve come up with than Cruz, but hey. At least it works, and that happy moment makes up for the “WTF” moment as we deal with the whole Cruz-Brett thing.

This isn’t a particularly exciting episode, nor is it a particularly memorable one. It feels like Chicago Fire filling space in the season. Maybe later on some of what starts here will have a greater impact but on its own, it’s a slow Thursday night.

Next: What happened this week in Chicago Fire history?

What did you think of this week’s Chicago Fire episode? Leave us your reaction to “Slamigan” in the comments.

Chicago Fire airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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