Chicago Fire season 9 premiere takeaways: Rattle Second City

Chicago Fire season 9, episode 1 breakdown.

What did One Chicago fans learn from the latest Chicago Fire episode? Here’s what we took away from this week’s premiere, “Rattle Second City.”

“Rattle Second City” featured the introduction of Firehouse 51’s newest paramedic, Gianna Mackey (Adriyan Rae), who was promptly held at gunpoint on the first call she went to. Also, Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) got another opportunity to advance her career.

If you missed any of this week’s episode or just want a refresher on the events that we’re about to discuss, you can catch up with our Chicago Fire recap.

Below are our takeaways from this week’s episode:

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1) Gianna’s introduction

Audiences met Gianna Mackey this week, and so far, the biggest thing to separate her from her predecessors is that she’s a childhood friend of Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso).

This isn’t an uncommon tactic; giving a new character an established relationship with one the audience already knows is oftentimes a way to give the new one credibility with viewers. As in, if Cruz likes her, you should too!

In this case, though, the idea actually works because it also gives Joe Minoso something new to do in season 9. Cruz has primarily been used for comic relief on Chicago Fire, and while we saw a lot of that in the premiere, Gianna gives him another relationship the writers can explore and maybe a chance for more serious scenes if he continues to mentor her. Let’s see how this plays out.

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2) What was Brett thinking?

Sometimes TV shows contain scenes where you have to give them a bit of dramatic license. The moment where Brett’s apartment was possibly broken into was one of those.

Did it seem weird to anyone else that, after phoning her landlord to make sure they hadn’t gone into her apartment, Brett’s next call was not to the police—who were already investigating and who could send armed patrol units to safely check the place out—but to Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer)? And that rather than go to a safe place like a neighbor’s apartment or outside, Brett stayed in the hallway where the only thing possibly separating her from someone who wanted to hurt her was her front door?

Chicago Fire was clearly toying with things here, because that gave us Casey coming to Brett’s rescue, and another cute Casey and Brett shipper moment. So we can forgive the show for not being totally logical, but it was definitely not the best course of action.

3) Is Stella ready to be a lieutenant?

The Stella Kidd hype train continued in “Rattle Second City” as Boden (Eamonn Walker) decided that she ought to take the lieutenant’s exam. And that came after he pointed out that she could get her request approved by CFD brass, but he couldn’t get multiple requests through—granted, allowing a civilian back into the firehouse is bigger than a small high school program, but it was strange that Stella would have more sway than Boden just because she’s persistent. (Unless our beloved Chief has burned too many bridges with his bosses at this point.)

Stella’s a great character, but it’s still hard to embrace how hard Boden, and thus the show, are pushing her. She may be tenacious, but she can also get a bit anxious and/or overexcited, and that doesn’t seem like the maturity needed for a leadership position.

Plus, this feels like another Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) situation, in the sense that her getting promoted would seem to push her off the show. 51 already has two lieutenants and a captain, so there’s no vacancy for Stella there that we can see. And she can’t leave 51, unless this is Miranda Rae Mayo’s swan song on the show. So will Stella take the test and fail, which would be sad for her? Or where is this going exactly, and are fans that invested in the answer?

For the latest Chicago Fire season 9 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.