Chicago Fire season 6, episode 12 recap: The F Is For

Did Chicago Fire save Kelly Severide and was that just the start of a bad day at Firehouse 51? Here’s what happened in Chicago Fire season 6, episode 12.

Finally Chicago Fire returned to our TV screens Thursday and told us what happened to Casey and Severide, but that was only part of what happened in this week’s episode.

Season 6, Episode 12 is called “The F Is For,” and naturally kicks off finishing the cliffhanger from the previous episode literally a month ago.

Everyone swings into action to pull the dynamic duo out of the river. Casey (Jesse Spencer) is fine, but Severide (Taylor Kinney) is floating unconscious. Who gets to rescue him? Why, it’s Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), of course!

Once both men are on dry land Severide eventually comes to, and once he’s assured that Casey is also good, we get a big Stellaride hug to cap off the moment.

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Oh yeah, Zach (recurring guest star Daniel Di Tomasso) is still here, too. And here’s an annoying as heck photographer who’s somehow gotten onto the scene and will not get out of the way.

While Casey cuddles up with Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund), we find out that Severide paid a visit to Dr. Will Halstead at Chicago Med to see if he had a concussion. Sadly, we don’t get to see Nick Gehlfuss, but Kelly insists that he’s fine.

That’s when the firehouse discovers that they’re front page news, thanks to the aforementioned pain in the butt photographer.

He’s about to become a bigger pain, because the overzealous CFD brass have agreed to let him shadow Firehouse 51 immediately, without consulting Casey, Severide or Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) first. This is everyone’s unimpressed face.

And speaking of unimpressed, Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) mentions that she got an email from her now ex-friend Hope Jacquinot, who wants to “mend fences.” She deleted it. Good for you, Brett. Or maybe not, because since Brett won’t forgive, Hope is now on a Facebook rant about her. What is she, fifteen?

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Photographer Nate tries to ingratiate himself with Casey and Severide by joining them as they’re smoking their latest cigars. But then Casey finds him hanging around outside Dawson’s shower and introduces him to the nearest wall. He kicks him out of Firehouse 51 immediately, when what he deserved was a hard punch in the face.

Needless to say, the CFD chief who authorized the photo shoot is speechless when he arrives to the angry faces of Casey, Dawson, Severide and Boden. Boden says they’re calling the police and will report Nate’s behavior, which seems to silence the chief for the time being.

While Stella’s date with Zach at Whirlyball (pretty much the best sport ever) gets crashed by Otis (Yuri Sardarov) and Lily (returning guest star Ariane Rinehart), back at Molly’s we find Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) giving out advice to bar patrons. One of them suggests he should become a life coach and make some money off it. How drunk is this guy?

Sadly, Chicago Fire does not give us any actual Whirlyball. It just cuts to Stella coming home and Severide getting an angsty face at the thought of her not being there.

Chicago Fire then cuts to the ambulance, where Brett realizes that one of their frequent patients, a man named Gerald, has turned up at the house for the second time this episode. She and Dawson are naturally suspicious, so they take a ride to the homeless encampment where Gerald normally resides.

They find an angry homeless woman who’s moved into Gerald’s tent and threatens them with a knife. Brett is not taking any of this crap, and she tells this woman exactly where to stuff it. The woman can do nothing but grouse and storm off, and a grateful Gerald gets his home back plus a promise that the paramedics will return if he’s in any more trouble.

Back at Firehouse 51, Otis, Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) and Mouch (Christian Stolte) are trying to figure out Herrmann’s new life coaching strategy. He’s attempting to use the word “fire” as an acronym for his secrets to life success, and it’s not working.

Lily comes by with cookies, but only makes it worse because she volunteers to be Herrmann’s first client…and their conversation makes her start thinking about moving to Hawaii. Hey, if she moves, she could hang out with Jeff Clarke.

Elsewhere in the firehouse, Stella overexplains her decision to move out to Severide and prompts him to finally admit he thinks she should stay.

"Severide: You want to hear my opinion?Stella: Yeah.Severide: I don’t want you to leave."

And while Casey tells Dawson that he spoke with both local papers and they cut ties with Nate as a result of his behavior at Firehouse 51, Nate decides to get his revenge by showing up at the next call and antagonizing everyone. Casey thinks about slugging him again, but doesn’t need to since he gets hit by a car. Can we call that karma?

Regardless, Casey dives into traffic to get the idiot out of the road, because that’s what firefighters do. Afterward he’s second-guessing his decision but Boden reminds him not to start valuing a life any more or less than any other. Dawson tells her husband that the photographer’s stable at the hospital, and thanks him for being a good guy.

In the not so good category? Herrmann finds out that his advice to one of the bar patrons went south, and immediately reverses his decision on coaching anybody. Otis tells him that at least he gave Lily “some excellent things to think about,” but he does so while holding his tongue a bit. And then he runs out to see his girlfriend.

And in the we have no freakin’ idea category? Chicago Fire ends with Stella agreeing to meet Zach’s sister when she comes to town, while Casey’s night gets interrupted by Severide, who just wants to hang out. Except Dawson knows he’s full of it, and Casey can sense it, too. Kelly does not want to be alone, but who does?

“The F Is For” is an interesting episode. Chicago Fire wanted the tension to be about whether or not Severide will make it, but the nature of TV meant that anyone who watched the promo or saw the photos could get the answer to that well in advance. So there needed to be some other hook after that, and there was.

Getting thunked in the head at least gets Severide and Stella to say a few things that they need to (in an albeit very convoluted way). But one wonders, would it really have been so bad if he really had a serious concussion? This is our third cliffhanger resolution in Chicago Fire season 6 alone where the worst thing that’s happened is Ramon Dawson had a hospital stay. It almost feels like the show is taking it too easy on its characters, where it could’ve taken this episode to shake up Severide a bit.

The whole photographer storyline is a bit reminiscent of another NBC drama, Homicide: Life on the Street. There was a character named J.H. Brodie, played by Max Perlich, who was a videographer in seasons four and five. Brodie was also invasive and kind of annoying, though he had a real purpose because he was hired to document crime scenes.

With the Nate character only around for one show, there’s no time for him to have much purpose other than to be invasive and annoying. Revealing that he’s a pervert only adds to wanting him off the screen as quickly as possible. There are characters you love to hate, and then there are ones you just hate, and he falls into the latter category. He does illustrate Good Guy Casey at his finest, but he’s insufferable, all the same.

The Herrmann as life coach storyline blows up just as one expects it would, and Brett has some great scenes as well, when she toughens up. It’s always great to see the spine of Sylvie Brett that hides under all those smiles. So there are meaty scenes here for several of our favorites, even if the drama comes from places we didn’t expect. Now what’s next?

Next: Chicago Fire's Miranda Rae Mayo talks Stellaride

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

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

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