Chicago Fire put Sylvie Brett back in the spotlight in Badlands. Find out what happened in our Chicago Fire season 8, episode 3 recap.
This week’s Chicago Fire gave Sylvie Brett a warm welcome back by making her the star of the show!
Wednesday’s episode “Badlands” saw Brett (Kara Killmer) officially return to Firehouse 51 after breaking off her engagement and moving back to Chicago. She was quickly the center of attention as the paramedic team investigated a case of abuse at a local juvenile facility.
Meanwhile, Brett’s possible love interest Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) was glad to have her back, but not so glad that he didn’t jump into another impulsive fling. At least this one didn’t end with his apartment burning down, but still.
Click through this slideshow to find out what happened in the latest Chicago Fire episode for each of your favorite characters, starting with:
Brett’s return
The episode opens with Brett returning to Firehouse 51, but the smile on her face disappears when she walks into Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) arguing with a crew of engineers who’ve been asked to install a new smart system at the firehouse. Everyone else is lying in wait to surprise her and tell her how happy they are that she’s back.
Brett shares a hug and an overly long look with Casey, notices there’s a new recruit, and gets an update from her partner Emily Foster (Annie Ilonzeh). But their catch-up chat is short-lived when they’re sent to an injury call at a youth detention center.
The officer in charge at the center doesn’t want them stepping on his turf until Foster threatens his job, and even then he just stands in the room and glowers the whole time. Dude is not subtle, and Chicago Fire‘s ominous music suggests he might be hiding something. So does the fact he insists that a guard travel with them in the ambulance.
Back at 51, Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) is deciding who to send to a leadership conference, and when he sees Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), he thinks he’s found his woman. She isn’t aware of that, though, because she’s introducing Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) to Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende). Cruz starts by telling Gallo to stay out of Otis’s locker.
Casey is learning about the smart firehouse system from one of the reps, who’s quite possibly hitting on him. While they have an awkward moment, Foster and Brett take their concerns about their case to Boden. He hands them a report that says their patient was the victim of an unprovoked attack by his fellow inmates.
But if that’s the case, why was Isaac repeating that he was sorry and that he wasn’t going to say anything? Boden advises his paramedics to have an airtight case or they’re just putting their patient in harm’s way again.
Spinning their (ferris) wheels
After a surprised Stella agrees to the leadership conference, the paramedics decide to visit Isaac’s mom only to find out she thinks it’s better he gets beaten up in a correctional facility than shot on the streets. “Isaac made his mistake,” she says. “He’s on his own.” No wonder why she doesn’t work at Chicago Med anymore.
Chicago Fire cuts to everyone handling a collapsed ferris wheel. Of course there’s one kid still trapped at the top, because this is Chicago Fire and we specialize in the most outrageous scenarios possible. And who gets to be the hero this time? Yep, it’s Gallo, since he’s still the new guy and needs to keep winning over the viewers. He and Casey save the kid, while the rest of the crew tends to an injured work.
Once they get back to Firehouse 51, Gallo explains that he chose to become a firefighter after one of them rescued him from a fire when he was 12. Boden overhears and goes to tell Casey that he’d better be sure Gallo doesn’t think he’s “living out some comic book fantasy life here.”
Meanwhile, thanks to a tip from Chicago PD‘s 21st District, Brett and Foster have tracked down Isaac’s former lawyer, who is more interested in his coffee than listening to them. Luckily, Isaac’s social worker Ryan is nearby and actually helps. He says the correctional officer they suspect has a reputation for bad behavior, and offers to look into the situation.
The action shifts to Casey and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) having a chat, before we realize that yes, the tech rep was hitting on Casey. We know that because he asked her out on a date and here she is. She takes his beer and chugs the rest of it, and within seconds we get a cut to them getting naked in Casey and Severide’s apartment. It gets momentarily weird when she admits she Googled him, but when she’s taking her shirt off in front of him, he’s not that turned off.
Justice for Isaac
Brett goes to visit Isaac the next day and tells him the story of her injury in the factory fire. It’s her way of trying to get him to open up about what happened to him. He mentions “the Badlands” but won’t explain what that means; he just asks Brett to stay with him so he can sleep peacefully. And Casey is regretting his fling, which is not good since he has to call her to fix the now-broken system before Boden’s head explodes.
Severide checks on a still-nervous Stella and reassures her, while Brett meets with Ryan to see what he’s found out. He explains that “the Badlands” is the nickname of another wing in the correctional facility. That’s proof that he was set up to be attacked. He and the paramedics take their accusations to the facility’s superintendent, but it’s an ambush; the suspect officer is waiting for them there. And of course, when Isaac is brought into the room, he immediately recants his story. Brett begs him to say something, and he finally snaps as he’s being dragged away.
When the other kids hear the scuffle, they start standing up with their own accusations. Between that and Foster and Brett’s threats to testify, the superintendent has no choice but to do something. Boden finally rips out part of the system just before Casey’s fling shows up, sees the damage and tells Casey to lose her number. Just after her comes Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati), who explains there will be a full investigation into the correctional facility and Isaac has been sent to a new facility where he’ll be safe.
While Brett appreciates a job well done by having a drink with Ryan at Molly’s, Severide takes Stella scuba diving so she won’t be so nervous when she goes to the leadership conference, which includes a session on scuba rescues. And the chief of the firehouse that rescued Gallo tells Boden what Gallo didn’t: that the rest of Blake’s family died in that fire he was saved from.
For the latest Chicago Fire season 8 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.