Chicago Fire season 9 premiere recap: Rattle Second City

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What happened in Chicago Fire season 9, episode 1?

This week’s Chicago Fire was mostly about Ambulance 61, as it kept One Chicago’s paramedics busy—and introduced the newest One Chicago main character.

Wednesday’s episode “Rattle Second City” saw Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) meet her new partner Gianna Mackey (Adriyan Rae), who was revealed to have some history with Brett’s ex-boyfriend and ex-roommate Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso). The duo’s very first call had them calling the cops.

Meanwhile, Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) was once again the apple of Chief Wallace Boden’s (Eamonn Walker) eye after she pulled off more heroics both in the firehouse and out in the field.

Here’s what happened in the latest Chicago Fire episode for each of your favorite characters, starting with:

Brett and Mackey

Like Chicago Med before it, Chicago Fire opens with showing how things have changed since COVID-19. Cruz has to get a temperature check before he busts into Boden’s office out of breath.

He’s that excited because the new paramedic is Gianna Mackey, who grew up on the same block with him. “Looks like you’re going to fit right in,” Boden tells Gianna after she ribs Cruz.

Brett thinks her new partner “seems cool” while telling Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) that her ex-partner Emily Foster is “loving it” in medical school while also volunteering in a COVID-19 unit. Annie Ilonzeh is not seen in this episode.

Mackey and Brett go on their first call, where an apparent overdose turns into them being held at gunpoint. “If he dies,” the victim’s brother tells them, “you die.” Brett eventually muscles her way past the gunman to take her patient to Chicago Med.

Casey is there when Ambulance 61 returns to make sure that Brett is okay. Mackey gets her comfort from Cruz, but she really doesn’t need it. She’d also like Cruz to calm down. “You have gotta bring it down like a good three notches,” she tells him, saying that she’s wanted to work at 51 since she graduated from the academy.

Boden tells Brett, Mackey and Casey that Brett’s patient died at the hospital and Chicago PD are going to continue looking into the man’s brother. That means a crossover appearance from Chicago PD‘s Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati). She explains that the guy who threatened Brett and Mackey is Joe Halleck, who has a long rap sheet. While the cops keep looking for him, Boden wants to take 61 out of service but Brett and Mackey refuse.

Chicago Fire later turns on the super-suspenseful music as Brett returns to her apartment (with Cruz married and Foster gone, she’s now gotten her own place) and finds her door open. Instead of calling the cops she phones Casey, who decides he’s staying over to make sure that nothing happens to Brett. She looks unenthused about it but the two are soon laughing and playing games together.

The one good thing about this is that we get to see Jesse Spencer, who is Australian, do an intentionally terrible Australian accent:

After Gianna calls out Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) for being so intimidated by Cruz that he won’t talk to her—potential new One Chicago ship alert—Ambulance 61 gets run off the road by a gun-toting Joe. The end of the episode sees the ambulance crashing over a bridge.

Well, if Chicago Fire couldn’t threaten someone’s life at the beginning of the season premiere, why not at the end of it?

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