Chicago Fire season 7, episode 14 recap: It Wasn’t About Hockey

Chili cook-off surprise

Back at Firehouse 51, everybody else was preparing for the house’s chili cook-off competition. (Including the fill-in paramedics, one of whom was played by T.J. Jagodowski. He previously appeared in season 4’s “Bad For The Soul,” but you know him as the loud guy from the Sonic commercials.)

This involved a lot of blustering and people coming up with grand ideas, particularly Otis (Yuri Sardarov), who refused to lose again. He and Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) were bickering like an old married couple arguing over dinner.

Shenanigans abounded throughout this Chicago Fire subplot. Otis distracted Ritter (recurring guest star Daniel Kyri) with Tuesday to sneakily test his chili, while Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) were secretly competing.

That last bit of news did not go over well with the rest of the gang, especially since they waited to reveal it until the absolute last second. But Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) tested every entry and picked a winner: no one that we knew.

Yep, the fill-in paramedics had shown up, stolen the prize money, and swaggered back out. Well, that was a downer, but at least the firehouse could bond over their shared defeat. And the worst mistake that happened was Tuesday “adding ingredients” to Ritter’s entry, in the form of her dog toys.

Meanwhile Stella, who had gotten stuck at Molly’s North, called Brett and didn’t get an answer since Brett was busy with yet another painful procedure using a bottle of tequila. So would Stella figure out what was happening and send help? Well, not exactly.