Chicago Fire season 6, episode 11 recap: Law of the Jungle

Did Chicago Fire wrap up the second part of season 6 with a bang (or an explosion)? Here’s what happened in Chicago Fire season 6, episode 11.

This week’s Chicago Fire aimed to go out with a big bang, but did it? There was a lot riding on this episode, which meant a lot for Firehouse 51 (and the show) to juggle.

Season 6, Episode 11 is called “Law of the Jungle” and picks up as Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) are having another one of their random moments. She says Zach “understood” that he blew off their date for Severide’s fundraiser, but did he really?

Meanwhile, it’s “take your daughter to work day” for Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg), as he’s got his kid at Firehouse 51 and she doesn’t seem like she exactly wants to be there. Her dad can’t argue the point with her as the team is called to a traffic accident with a sheriff’s van.

Severide and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) disagree on how to treat the injured driver, while also having to deal with the inmate in the back, who thinks that this is his opportunity to either break free or kill the guy. Much like another episode, Casey is having none of this.

But the inmate escapes, and Severide is forced to chase him through traffic, eventually tackling him onto the hood of a car before the cops show up to take over. Neither man looks happy with the outcome.

"Herrmann (to Casey): For what’s it’s worth, you made the right call back there."

Unconvinced, Casey asks Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) if he did indeed make the right call to pull off the rescue his way and not Severide’s. She, too, reminds him that he did his job.

Just after Truck rolls back into the house, Zach (recurring guest star Daniel Di Tomasso) rolls up in search of Stella. We find out that lied and told him she had a migraine, and she half-heartedly tells him they’ll go on a make-up date the next day. For someone she was falling over two episodes ago she seems half checked out now.

And not long after Zach leaves here comes Chief Grissom (returning guest star Gary Cole). Grissom knows what happened already, and says he’s been getting “a lot of questions” about the call. He’s there to get “all points of view,” allegedly, but he certainly sounds like he wants to blame Casey. It’s time for Severide to remind him that’s not how things work here.

"Severide: It was a fair call. We operate as a team."

Grissom takes his concerns to Casey in Chief Boden’s (Eamonn Walker) office and asks him to tell his side of the story. Again, he puts emphasis on how “you made the determination” on what to do with the driver, and asks him specifically if Severide had another idea. Casey isn’t dumb and he can tell what’s going on here. But it looks bad for him when Boden tells them both that the driver died.

Casey breaks the news to Severide, including what Grissom said and implied. He thinks that Kelly sold him out, and Severide bristles at the accusation while Boden does his best to defend Casey to Grissom.

Grissom gets to be the person to use the episode’s title in a sentence, saying there was the “law of the jungle” when he was on Squad, but he’ll do a favor for Boden by protecting Casey. Well, isn’t it just so kind of him.

We need a pick-me-up now, and Chicago Fire gives us one when Trudy Platt (Amy Morton) shows up to speak to her husband. Finally, someone Herrmann’s daughter seems interested in! Plus, her telling Herrmann to “use your words” is another laugh-out-loud one-liner.

With Casey wanting to go to the deputy’s vigil, Dawson hands off her spa weekend to Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer). Brett doesn’t have a plus-one, and Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) invites himself. That will be awkward, but maybe not as much as Stella and Severide being confronted by angry buddies of the fallen deputy. Thank heaven for Boden:

"Boden: Get in the car and leave before you say something you’re gonna regret."

Everyone knows better than to cross Boden, but not before the angry man warns Severide and the rest of the crew not to count on them when they need help next time. Despite the incident, Casey and Dawson still attend the vigil, but they run into the exact same dude. He’s sober now and much more polite, offering to introduce them to some of the late deputy’s friends.

We’d rather stay there when Chicago Fire cuts to Brett at the spa, trying to do everything to make sure that people know Cruz is not her boyfriend and he doesn’t think so either. Her concerns turn out to be unfounded, because warned by Otis (Yuri Sardarov) about potentially screwing things up, Cruz decided to send Mouch (Christian Stolte) instead.

While Brett’s jaw drops, no one’s surprised when Stella keeps talking about Severide on her date with Zach. As if on cue the show shifts to Severide at Molly’s, being told a commendation is his for tackling the convict. He guesses that Grissom made that happen, and Grissom doesn’t deny it, as he goes into another spiel about how Severide needs to advance his career.

"Severide: Find someone else for whatever you’re trying to do here. I’m not your guy."

But the best part of Chicago Fire is yet to come. Platt has decked Herrmann’s daughter out in a full CPD uniform, now that she’s a Junior Police Explorer, and brought her to Firehouse 51 to serve her dad with a warning. It’s absolutely amazing, and there could be a whole episode of those two and we’d watch it.

While we’re still giggling over that Stella tells Severide that she’s decided it’s time for her to move out, and Severide gets hauled into Boden’s office to officially be told about the commendation that he doesn’t want. He tells Boden about Grissom pressuring him and Boden tells him to “take credit where credit’s due.”

Hold on, though, because we’re into the final 15 minutes so it’s everybody on hand for a building fire—including Zach. He tells Boden that somebody needs to get in there and find the source of a gas leak, and guess who that’ll be? Severide and Zach find the valve they need,  but Zach is thrown backwards when he tries to shut it off.

“Law of the Jungle” closes out with a feeling not unlike the season 5 finale “My Miracle.” There are several characters—Casey, Severide, Cruz, Stella and Zach—all in the building while Boden wants them all out. At least, unlike that episode, Chicago Fire gives us a bit of resolution in this one. It’s a close call as Severide goes to be the hero, and Casey chases after him.

The two reunite to manually hold the valve closed so that everybody else can evacuate. This also gives them a chance to bury their own hatchet, especially when Casey tells Kelly that it was him, not Grissom, who put in for Severide’s commendation. And the episode concludes on a massive fireball as the two make sure everyone’s safe, let go of the valve, and then literally jump to their freedom.

We’ll see what happens on the other side next month, but for now it’s another cliffhanger, one that’s already part spoiled if you watched the promo over the end credits.

Since “Law of the Jungle” is the last Chicago Fire episode before the Winter Olympics start on NBC, you can also look at it as the end of the second part of the season. We had the first episodes from before Thursday Night Football, then we had this second serving between that and the Olympics.

Much like “Down Is Better” it’s a decent episode but it doesn’t feel much like it actually is that end of the chapter. Gary Cole’s great at pulling off the slightly smarmy Grissom, but his character turns out to be just another CFD supervisor who wants to screw things up in or around Firehouse 51.

And whether you’re a Stellaride shipper or not, the whole Zach storyline has just turned out to be a misfire. In one episode Stella’s desperate to get him to notice her, and then two episodes later she seems like she couldn’t care less if he’s there or not. There’s no arc, no belief that this guy could be a genuine threat to Stella getting together with Kelly.

In fact, you feel bad for Zach when it comes out that Stella lied to him about why she cancelled their previous date. So when she’s so concerned about him at the end of the episode, it feels so hollow. So does the episode ending on another cliffhanger. Have we not had enough cliffhangers this season?

(And with the reputation One Chicago has with those cliffhangers, now there’s a fair skepticism about whether or not it even matters.)

There are some strengths here, notably Amy Morton being a scene-stealer here just as she is on Chicago PD. We’d watch a whole episode of Platt taking Herrmann’s daughter on a ride-along and letting her boss people around.

And finding out that Casey’s the one who tried to commend Severide is a nice touch. It’s always good when Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney get to play off each other, and they don’t need all the drama like the Grissom thing to make it work. We should just let them work together more often and trust in their dynamic.

Like we should trust Chicago Fire a bit more, and not have to keep bringing in the cliffhangers and dramatic twists, and just let the characters tell the story.

Next: Chicago Fire schedule for February

What did you think of this week’s Chicago Fire episode? Let us know your reaction to “Law of the Jungle” in the comments.

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