One Chicago moment of the week: Otis’s struggle, Chicago Fire
Our One Chicago Moment of the Week for the week of March 27 is Chicago Fire showing us Otis facing a difficult road back to Truck 81 after his injury.
It’s time for us to choose our favorite moment from this One Chicago week, and this week it comes to us from Chicago Fire, where our hearts broke for Otis as he started his long road to recovery.
First of all, it’s just good to see that Chicago Fire is finally writing in some longer-term effects this season. One of our major criticisms of Chicago Fire season 6 has been the three cliffhangers that all turned out largely all right in the end.
But for Otis (Yuri Sardarov), things were not all right. And they won’t be all right for at least a few months.
And understandably, he was not okay with that.
More from One Chicago Center
- Chicago Med star on 2024 cast changes: ‘Nice to have new faces’
- Here’s the perfect Chicago Fire episode to watch on Thanksgiving
- Ranking the 8 NCIS Thanksgiving episodes from worst to best
- Mark Harmon does NOT have plans to reprise Gibbs on NCIS
- One Chicago stars tease new seasons on IG: ‘Here we come’
Otis’s subplot in “The One That Matters Most” stands out for two reasons. Firstly, we tend to think of the character almost entirely as Chicago Fire‘s source of comic relief.
Most of his storylines have at least some kind of funny or light-hearted element to them, including all of his best moments.
Those are all great things, but they also mean that we don’t get to see much of Yuri Sardarov as a more dramatic actor. Putting Otis in a situation that wasn’t in any way funny allowed us to see a much larger range of Yuri Sardarov’s talents.
And he was fantastic, showing us Otis’s sadness, fear, and even a bit of misplaced anger as the story unfolded.
Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!
Otis not only has to fear that he may be paralyzed (which thankfully he isn’t!) but learns that Jake Cordova (guest star Damon Dayoub) is filling in for him on Truck 81.
Despite everyone from girlfriend Lily (guest star Ariane Rineheart) to roomies Sylvie Brett and Joe Cruz (Kara Killmer and Joe Minoso) trying to cheer him up, Otis convinces himself that he’s going to lose everything—his spot at Firehouse 51 and his relationship.
He fears the worst, and even starts to push Lily away in misplaced anger. But it’s easy to know where he’s coming from, because in his eyes his whole life could be over. Even when he learns he’s not paralyzed, he still doesn’t know if he’ll ever be in the same shape again. And even if he is, will he be able to get his spot back from Cordova?
Otis is completely on the rocks in this episode, and Yuri Sardarov plays all these different fears and feelings. It’s heartbreaking but also refreshing to see these aspects of him that we don’t normally see, and it means something that Chicago Fire doesn’t have him bounce right back. We need more stories like this, and we hope we get to see more of Otis’s journey next week.
Next: When could Otis come back on Chicago Fire?
Which One Chicago scene was your most memorable this week? Let us know in the comments.
Chicago Fire airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.