Chicago Fire season 7, episode 21 recap: The White Whale

Saving a life

The next day, seeing that Russ had given Mouch his medal only fueled Ritter’s suspicions that Russ was not okay. He convinced Herrmann to go with him to Russ’s house, where his wife said that they were separated and he’d gotten his own apartment. Ritter explained to Herrmann that his beloved Uncle Anthony, the one who’d inspired him to be a firefighter, had committed suicide. “I always wished I’d seen the signs,” he said. “You’re seeing them here.”

Elsewhere Severide quite obviously snapped a photo of Gavin to show it to the person who’d caught a glimpse of the arsonist. Carol recognized his last name and she was able to identify Gavin, but when Severide turned his back she was also rifling through Benny’s notebook. Hey, was it time for another Chicago Fire fourth-act plot twist?

Indeed it was! The woman slipped away allegedly to make coffee, but Severide saw suspicious items on her table and then caught her car speeding away. He phoned Casey to tell both him and Boden that he’d gotten it all wrong: it was Carol, not Gavin, who was the arsonist—and he knew she had already planted her next device at a church!

With minutes to go, Chicago Fire sent everyone to the church in hopes of stopping Carol, especially since there was a baptism going on at the time! While Boden started to evacuate all the attendees, Casey followed Severide’s instructions (based on the supplies he was looking at in Carol’s house) and headed down to the church basement.

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He began to smell gas, and followed the scent to find the latest device—but the timer had already run down too far to stop it. The device went off and the fire broke out, with Casey locked outside. Finally, he busted the lock and Herrmann swept in with an extinguisher to put the blaze out in the nick of time.

“The White Whale” concluded with Severide returning to the firehouse, where both Stella and Hubble wanted a word with him. Chicago Fire cut away from that, though, because Casey needed Brett’s help with his bandage. Cue more piano music and a long look between them, plus another look from him when she walked away. So fans will have to just guess what Hubble said, and what Stella wanted to say.

But what happened to Russ LaPointe? Herrmann found him at his apartment, bringing along Russ’s wife, Ritter, Kyle and a bunch of other people to tell him that there was help available for him. Mouch was there, too, returning Russ’s medal and convincing him to go get help. Russ broke down crying again as Herrmann told him it was going to be okay.

Back at the firehouse, Hubble spelled out the full story of the arsonist for the team and the fans: Carol had stopped lighting things on fire when she got married and had “emotional stability,” but she started again when her marriage ended three months ago. She then let Severide take over the briefing, because somebody still had to find Carol!

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