Chicago Fire dealt the firehouse a heartbreaking blow in Sacred Ground. Find out what happened in our Chicago Fire season 8, episode 1 recap.
This week’s Chicago Fire was another one that changed the show permanently, as Firehouse 51 experienced another heartbreaking change.
Wednesday’s episode “Sacred Ground” was the last for Otis (Yuri Sardarov), who was revealed to be the unlucky character killed off in the fire that started during the previous season’s finale. Much of the episode dealt with the team, particularly Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso), struggling with his loss.
Meanwhile, Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) dealt with unexpected consequences from the fire that threatened his career, and a new paramedic arrived at Firehouse 51 but not in a good way.
Click through this slideshow to find out what happened in the latest Chicago Fire episode for each of your favorite characters, starting with:
The fatal fire
The Chicago Fire premiere jumped right back into the, well, fire that ended the previous season. With literally everyone in danger, there was no choice but to run for it. Otis was one of the last people to bail before the boiler exploded, causing the floor above to collapse and general insanity to break out—again.
Once the dust settled, it was time to start taking a head count. One by one, characters were shown moving and coming back to their senses. Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) had been pinned down by falling rubble in the floor collapse. While she was quickly freed, Matthew Casey was already apologizing for her injury, which was a big sign that the Brett and Casey idea is not dead.
But the bigger story was Otis. Cruz found his BFF massively burned and unresponsive. While the whole team looked on, Otis was hauled into another ambulance and rushed to Chicago Med, with Cruz breaking down into tears beside him.
Eventually, all of Firehouse 51 made their way there as well. Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) took the waiting time to chew out Darren Ritter (returning guest star Daniel Kyri) for not following orders. “I am responsible for your life,” he said, “whether you care about it or not.”
The bad news Chicago Fire fans had been dreading but also expecting finally came: Otis was dying. Boden didn’t even need to say it; the rest of the team knew from the expression on his face. In Otis’s hospital room, an emotional Cruz said goodbye to his friend, who replied in Russian before he died.
Three months later
Three months later, an emotional Cruz returned to work along with the rest of Firehouse 51. Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) informed Casey and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) that the department could be in trouble because of Casey’s decision to bring the paramedics into the burning factory, and asked about getting a new firefighter to fill Otis’s spot on Truck 81. Which was apparently what Ritter was doing, since Herrmann was still angry at him.
And Emily Foster (Annie Ilonzeh) met her weird new partner Chad, because Brett was getting the cast off her arm. But in Fowlerton, where she had moved to after getting engaged to Kyle Sheffield (Teddy Sears). She was hired on at the local firehouse and found someone she wasn’t expecting: her former friend Hope Jacquinot (Eloise Mumford)! Hope still wanted to be BFF’s again, which further dampened Brett’s mood.
Severide and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) were much happier, as Chicago Fire showed them out on a date night. But Stella asked about Casey, who Severide admitted “carries the weight of this more than the rest.” They decided to head over to Molly’s to cheer up their friend. At the bar, Herrmann explained that Otis’s grieving girlfriend Lily (an unseen Ariane Rinehart) had decided to close down Molly’s North without him and Boden sat with Cruz, who was trying to figure out what Otis’s last words meant.
“We got all these plaques on the wall and these badges at the academy,” he reflected, afraid his friend would be forgotten. “But what happens five years from now? Or ten?” Boden assured him he wasn’t alone in that concern, just before getting a phone call from Chicago Fire Department headquarters: there would be an immediate inquiry into Casey’s actions at the fire scene.
But before that, it was time for another emergency call. A child was trapped inside the claw machine at a local restaurant (which certainly looked like a redesigned Rainforest Cafe). The kid was quickly rescued, but Foster discovered Chad had the world’s shortest attention span. She expressed her concerns to Boden, who asked her to provide a statement to the committee supporting Casey.
And Mouch realized where he’d seen Chad before: the dude was also an underwear model. Well, that was random.
The inquiry
Boden, Casey and Severide went to the hearing, which predictably was being overseen by a whole swarm of bureaucrats with zero firefighting experience—because it wouldn’t be Chicago Fire without a political headache. One of the talking heads tried to twist Casey’s words, to which Boden pointed out that he’d been the one to ultimately send Brett and Foster into the fire. Good old Boden, always falling on his sword for his firehouse. It worked, though, because Casey’s name was cleared. His conscience, however, was not.
Ritter apologized to Herrmann, who told him that he wasn’t being vindictive; he’d just been loaning Ritter out to Truck until a replacement for Otis was found. And Chicago Fire‘s new bromance was restored while a desperate Foster called Brett, who was clearly not happy in Fowlerton. She expressed this to Kyle, whose response was that she didn’t have to work if she didn’t want to. Not really the answer she was looking for there, dude. But points for trying.
Back in Chicago, there was an all hands meeting outside the firehouse. Following off the conversation he had with Cruz, Boden unveiled a memorial to Otis. He wanted Otis’s legacy to live on in the rest of Firehouse 51. He also revealed that Otis’s last words were “Brother, I will be with you always.” That, naturally, made Cruz break down all over again.
“I can’t think of a better way to remember Brian,” Boden added. “So from this day forward, this memorial site is sacred ground.” And the surviving characters of Chicago Fire all took a knee to remember the one that they had lost.
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