With Chicago Fire season 6 having come to an end, we’re counting down the best Chicago Fire episodes of the season. Did your favorite episode make the cut?
This season of Chicago Fire had some of the most dramatic and breathtaking moments in the show’s history. Every episode seemed to have something, but which episode is the best of them all?
Chicago Fire season 6 showed the pinnacle of danger that first responders often find themselves in. From the start, the latest season thrust our favorite firefighters and paramedics at Firehouse 51 into chaos and never slowed down as it progressed. Be it the stabbing of a loved one, a shooting in a fire, or money going missing from a drug den, this season’s episodes of Chicago Fire raised the stakes for people who already put their lives on the line every day.
But which were the best Chicago Fire episodes from season 6? Was it the season premiere, where every viewer held their breath waiting to see which members of Firehouse 51 survived last season’s cliffhanger fire? Or the episode where we had to watch Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) treat her own father after a stabbing? Or perhaps Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) struggling with the aftermath of a difficult call-out?
Click through the below slideshow to see our picks for the five best episodes from Chicago Fire season 6 and let us know which episodes were your favorite in the comments.
5. The Grand Gesture
Chicago Fire is known for its explosive ends to most seasons, but the season 6 finale “The Grand Gesture” left us feeling more emotional than anything else. It ended with the shocking revelation that Dawson was looking to move to Puerto Rico to help with the damage left behind by Hurricane Maria. This decision came after Dawson and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) had possibly the biggest fight they’d ever had.
This last episode of the season might not have been too kind to the original Chicago Fire couple, but it was better for another pairing. Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) survived the intrusion by Severide’s ex-girlfriend Renee Royce (Sarah Shahi). Even though it seemed like Renee still harbored feelings for Severide, he helped her with her legal case and then told her they didn’t need to see each other again, paving the way for Stellaride’s future.
Relationships, however, weren’t the only things that moved us in the season finale. Brett was stunned to discover a woman had been stabbed by her neighbor during an ambulance call. With her radio not working and Dawson collecting more supplies from the ambulance, Brett struggled to deal with the call on her own.
She ultimately watched the woman pass away with nothing she could do, and it broke her. This also semi-resolved the subplot of Brett and Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) as he put his romantic gesture aside to support his ex as a shoulder she literally cried on.
“The Grand Gesture” left us wondering what was going to happen in Chicago Fire‘s two biggest relationships and delivered an emotional moment to wallop us on the way out. How will the show pick up the pieces when Chicago Fire season 7 starts?
4. A Breaking Point
The drama of Chicago Fire season 6 was well and truly set in motion by the season’s fourth episode “A Breaking Point.” It just wasn’t in the way we expected.
With Casey’s promotion ceremony ahead, Dawson made a trip to get a congratulatory gift for her husband—only to land herself in a trouble when the parking garage ceiling collapsed, leaving her and others trapped inside. With no cell phone service and the rest of Firehouse 51 having no idea where she is, Dawson had to deal with injured civilians and the threat of further collapse totally on her own.
Our Paramedic in Charge swung into action, taking charge and trying to do what needed to be done until help could arrive. But almost immediately, Dawson butted heads with Will Tucker (guest star Dan Feuerriegel), who attempted to pull military rank and get control of the situation for himself. A large part of this Chicago Fire episode was the two of them unable to agree, with the other survivors trying to decide who to trust before something worse happened.
And because this is Chicago Fire, of course something worse happened. They had to deal with a support pillar threatening to crumble and carbon monoxide leaking out from a car engine. Dawson and Brandon (guest star Kai A. Ealy) managed to reinforce the pillar. They then pinned down the location of the carbon monoxide leak and Tucker decided to take one for the team; he went off to seal it, despite the danger of exposure.
The action came to a head when one of the civilians repaired the garage’s elevator phone, allowing Dawson to reach a now informed and very worried Casey. Together they came up with an escape route, and we ended up with a heart-stopping moment where Dawson didn’t seem to have made it out. It was just a brief scare, though; she had gone back for Tucker, and she and Casey were able to rescue him before the garage came crashing the rest of the way down.
“A Breaking Point” showed us the resourcefulness and determination of Gabby Dawson. She fought to save lives and then put herself in harm’s way to save the man who had been fighting against her. It was Chicago Fire‘s showcase for Dawson and Monica Raymund, and kept us on the edge of our seats.
3. It Wasn’t Enough
Chicago Fire season 6 started by answering the huge questions we had after the explosive season 5 finale. While we’ve experienced the writers of Chicago Fire teasing us with the aftermath of the previous season before, this season’s premiere threw us right back into the action.
Opening exactly where last season left off, “It Wasn’t Enough” had us watch as Boden (Eamonn Walker) made the dangerous decision to use water cannons to rescue his men from the burning building. With Mouch (Christian Stolte) still immobile after going into cardiac arrest, Herrmann (David Eigenberg) used his body to cover his friend and ended up getting burned from the steam created by the cannons. But somehow, some way, that’s pretty much the worst that came out of that massive fire.
Returning to work a few months later—after being technically dead for a few minutes—Mouch was surprised by Cruz’s sudden obsession with making sure he was okay. That was because Cruz felt guilty for the way things had been between them before that fire, and Mouch took advantage of it more than a little. But he also had his own issues, admitting near the end that his experience had opened his eyes.
It wasn’t just the aftermath of the warehouse fire that had us hooked on the Chicago Fire season premiere. The firefighters tackled a fire at the school that Boden’s wife Donna (guest star Melissa Ponzio) worked at.
While Donna was fine, one of her fellow teachers was severely injured, and we were floored when Donna went to her husband with the suspicion that the fire could have been set on purpose. That set Boden on an understandable warpath in the next episode and had us wondering who could be an arsonist and potential murderer. It was like going from one cliffhanger into another.
2. A Man’s Legacy
After resolving one cliffhanger at the beginning of the season, Chicago Fire gave us another one at the end of its midseason finale “Down Is Better” when Dawson’s father Ramon (guest star Daniel Zacapa) was found stabbed on a train platform.
We had to wait two months until “A Man’s Legacy” aired to find out whether Ramon had survived and what led to him being attacked. With her father’s life hanging in the balance, Dawson found it difficult to focus. Despite that, she and Brett pushed through and got Ramon to Chicago Med, and he survived.
Not only that, but he became a minor celebrity—much to his daughter’s surprise, especially when she (and we) discovered the reason why he’d been attacked. It seemed like Ramon Dawson had turned over a new leaf after all.
“A Man’s Legacy” also makes our list of the best Chicago Fire episodes from season 6 for the start of the rekindling of Brettonio. Ramon’s stabbing brought Brett and Dawson’s brother Antonio (Jon Seda) back together, and this episode involved them hooking up for a one-night stand that would not be a one-time thing.
But that’s not the only part of the episode that mattered. Another reason for its title was Boden’s subplot, where he realized a fire victim was a legendary jazz musician who was also his father’s favorite. When the man passed away from his injuries, Boden both had his own grief and tried to be there for the man’s daughter. This was an episode that had us both tearing up and thinking about the future well after it ended.
1. The Chance To Forgive
The best Chicago Fire season 6 episode might be one of the most surprising Chicago Fire episodes ever. Every season we have watched characters put themselves in harm’s way, and generally they come out unscathed—including two previous cliffhangers earlier in season 6! But “The Chance to Forgive” seemed like it might permanently injure Otis (Yuri Sardarov).
In the second half of the season’s first two-hour event, Firehouse 51 responded to what seemed like a normal residential fire. But it took a surprising turn for the worse when live ammunition began to explode in the house, with Otis and Stella inside.
Otis was clipped by a bullet, and because no one else could go into the house with the bullets still flying and Stella couldn’t get him out until it’s safe, it was a terrifying few moments until he was finally extricated and rushed to the hospital.
Otis survived, but the bullet was lodged near his spinal cord, so he wasn’t out of the woods yet. The prospect of Chicago Fire delivering a long-term injury to one of its own, and how that would mean the end of his firefighting career (just like Jimmy Borelli), was something that defined not just this episode but the next few episodes. It was scarier and more moving than all of the other cliffhangers.
Plus, there was an outstanding subplot for Cruz as he desperately wanted someone to pay for Otis’s injury but found out that the gun owner and his family were suffering enough. While Cruz struggled with his emotions, “The Chance to Forgive” also gave Chicago Fire fans the long-awaited moment where Stellaride finally became a couple again. There was hope, there was pain, there was action—this episode was everything we wanted out of Chicago Fire season 6.
Next: 5 reasons why Chicago Fire will miss Dawson
Which Chicago Fire episodes were your favorites from this season? Let us know which ones stood out to you in the comments.