Chicago Fire season 8, episode 5 recap: Buckle Up

The truth emerges

Cindy Herrmann (Robyn Coffin) appears at Firehouse 51 for a random one-scene cameo, while Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) wants to help Mouch with his newsletter. Once she says that, everyone else starts to chime in with story ideas.

A safety investigator shows up, too, stopping the fun times by yelling at Mouch for pulling a civilian trucker into the rescue, since they could have been liable for any damage or injury that jerk may have suffered. There’s always someone who has to be worried about lawsuits first and foremost.

Upon hearing of the visit, Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) tells his team that he’ll talk to Chief Walker about the complaint. He also wants nothing to do with the newsletter.

Speaking of useless complaints, Stella is immediately chewed out at the conference for choosing to hold her gloves rather than actually put them on. While she serves out punishment, Cruz finally blurts out to Brett that he was dumped. Brett tries to console her ex-boyfriend, but Cruz is in full mope mode. At least he’s talking to someone who knows a lot about heartbreak.

Gallo finds Mouch in the locker room, also moping, and tries to tell him not to worry about the safety complaint. Mouch tells him not to follow his example and “aim higher up the ladder.” Gallo wants to tell Mouch he’s wrong, but the other man is gone by the time the words come to him.

Stella tells Severide about her first day, and Chicago Fire has her get insecure all over again. Severide doesn’t know what to do for her by now. But he’s got a bigger problem: another car accident, with the same truck driver. This time he’s running away, with one of the cars attached to his truck. He’s definitely complicit somehow, especially since this accident has the same modus operandi. We have a mystery!

Chicago Fire cuts back to the conference, where everyone is tasked with a scenario and Stella wins back some points by coming up with the correct answer. Then we skip over to Mouch being reassured by finding out the first crash victim will be okay, and then bound to Brett asking Chloe why she broke up with Cruz. Turns out Chloe has been spending a lot of time helping Lily deal with the loss of Otis, and she doesn’t want to go through that herself. Brett urges her to reconsider.

But let’s get back to the real meat of this episode: another weird thing for Severide to investigate. He’s tracked the tow truck to its yard, and starts taking pictures. But the driver spots him, and a confrontation ensues. Like it’s the first time Kelly Severide has ever been threatened.