Chicago Fire midseason finale recap: Best Friend Magic
A drone story
Everyone else is doing spring cleaning, and they find Otis’s remote control drone on a shelf. It had been broken and stashed away. Joe Cruz decides he’s going to get it to fly again.
Meanwhile, Severide and Seager meet with the maybe-not-an-arsonist, Dustin. They ask him some questions about his trial, though like he’d know why the prosecution brought in an out of state expert. Dustin admits he trusted his public defender too much, and our heroes are starting to smell a possible conspiracy. Especially because the fire was started by a photography chemical, and Dustin doesn’t even own a camera. He begs Severide to help him as he’s taken away.
Casey confides in Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) about Dawson, including the invite to her charity event. He can’t even articulate why he’s not sure it’s a good idea. Brett encourages him to accept, saying that he’ll regret it if he doesn’t see his ex-wife while she’s in town. The moment is broken up by a phone call from Severide, who needs his help on the arson case.
Casey explains both had renovation permits, with the same contractor working on both. Looking at the blueprints, it’s easy to see the commonalities between both scenes. It’s looking more like the owners of both malls were looking for an insurance payout (so the opposite of the case from the last episode). Oh, and Severide tells Casey he has a secret admirer, but Casey’s convinced Seager really has the hots for Kelly instead. Either way this won’t end well.
After Cruz, Ritter (Daniel Kyri) and Gallo spend some time tinkering with Otis’s drone, Chicago Fire calls for Ambulance 61. There’s a woman having a panic attack in a cab, because there’s an eyeliner pencil literally sticking out of her eye. Ew. They solve that problem, before Cruz tells Gallo and Ritter he feels guilty because he’s the person who broke the drone in the first place. Fixing it is his way of atonement.
As Chicago Fire fans sniffle for a second, Severide and Seager continue to discuss their arson cases. They’re looking squarely at the contractor, whose sister happens to own a photography store, and agree to call in the police. What they don’t agree on is going out for a drink. And Severide misses an exhausted Stella getting into a car accident just moments after driving away from Firehouse 51. She injures a young girl and herself in the process of running a stop sign. She’s officially gone too far.
He does make it to Chicago Med to comfort his shaken girlfriend, who is relieved to find out everyone will be okay. Severide takes Stella home for some much-needed rest but is then called back out by Seager, who has another lead in their case. She introduces him to a Chicago PD detective who says they’ve been investigating the contractor for a long time, and he promptly goes with a SWAT team to raid the guy’s offices. That might be a little extreme, and it’s all for nothing as the contractor isn’t even there anyway.
Seager and Severide poke around regardless, with the latter forcing his way into a cabinet where he finds plenty of fun stuff: blowtorches, flares, fertilizer and ammonia. And what’s in the basement? The aforementioned photography chemical! Chicago Fire has left no doubt as to who’s guilty now; they just have to find him.