Chicago Fire season 9, episode 11 recap: A Couple Hundred Degrees

This week’s Chicago Fire was a showcase episode for new paramedic Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith) and a difficult one for Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney).

Wednesday’s episode “A Couple Hundred Degrees” saw the women of Ambulance 61 chase the idea that a deli owner’s accident wasn’t an accident with some help from a mystery note, while Severide found out that his problematic recruit at the CFD academy was the son of a battalion chief who was friends with Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker).

Here’s what happened in the latest Chicago Fire episode for each of your favorite characters.

Chicago Fire season 9, episode 11 recap

Severide is teaching a course at the fire academy, and it’s not going well. A recruit named Mercer goes too fast and drops his mannequin to what would’ve been the guy’s certain death.

Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) and Greg Grainger (guest star Jon-Michael Ecker) are discussing Brett’s painful relationship with Veronicat as he drives her to work. Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Violet are of course right outside the firehouse to comment on her relationship. Brett insists that things are “really good” as Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) reassures Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) that he’s totally fine now. Brett overhears and doesn’t sound convinced when Casey repeats to her that he’s good.

Elsewhere in the common room, Darren Ritter (Daniel Kyri) reveals he and his boyfriend broke up after quarantine got to them, and Violet is very protective of her bread dough. She’s serious about her baking, kids. Chicago Fire does what it always does: interrupts all this personal talk with an alarm. Time to rescue a poor dude who’s fallen down some stairs and gotten stuck in a very painful way. And let’s notice the awkward, almost creepy other guy that asks if the victim is “badly hurt.” Ronnie is eventually rescued, though, with a busted arm.

Back at Firehouse 51, Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) wants to set Ritter up with his only other gay friend Andy, and Casey asks Severide how his class is going. Severide admits Mercer “scares the hell out of me” and Casey advises his friend to cut bait early, using the example of someone else who screwed up after barely getting through the academy. Stella, though, disagrees and suggests encouraging Mercer just before Kylie reappears to tell Severide that Boden wants a meeting.

That’s because Mercer’s father is a chief and an old friend of Boden’s: double whammy. Severide awkwardly comments about Mercer being a “hard worker” and exits Boden’s office as quickly as possible.

Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) hands Violet an anonymous letter addressed to her. Cue Chicago Fire‘s ominous music as she reads: “That fire wasn’t an accident.” Time for Violet and Brett to do some sleuthing! They decide to ask Ronnie if he knows what it means, but not before Violet entrusts her ex-boyfriend Gallo with baking her bread.

Oh, and Stella’s got a literal wrench in the oven because she’s hiding it for Severide’s recruits to find. Guess who locates it first? Yep, though he’s not smart enough to realize grabbing a hot piece of metal is a bad idea. Should’ve put the gloves on first.

Back to the Ambulance 61 story. Brett learns from Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss from Chicago Med) that Ronnie has already been discharged (two Will cameos in two weeks!) and inadvertently blurts out to him that Casey’s the “friend” he was talking about, which leads to Will admitting that he told Casey to see a doctor. After Chicago Fire shows that Herrmann is excited to give Ritter Andy’s number and Gallo realizes he’s burned the bread, the paramedics take their suspicions to Boden. He lets them go back to the deli… but first we have to get Gallo super-apologizing about the bread to a speechless Violet.

Ronnie is glad to see the paramedics when they return to the deli; he’s already back at work. However, he’s still not sure how he fell in the first place. Could someone have bumped into him? Like the cafe owner who wants to buy out the deli so he can expand his own shop?

After Severide admits to Boden his misgivings about Mercer, he tells Stella he’s decided to try and stick with the kid, if only to keep from making trouble for Boden with Mercer’s dad. Brett also decides to talk to Casey now that she knows what’s actually going on with him; he keeps insisting that he’s fine. NO ONE BELIEVES YOU, CASEY.

Ritter arrives for his date with Andy only to find out that Andy is a total jerk. He also realizes that he’s also Ritter’s ex-boyfriend’s previous ex-boyfriend. How the heck is Herrmann friends with this guy? Anyway, Ritter stands up for Eric and then walks out.

At Molly’s we see our paramedics getting advice from Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) from Chicago PD. Ruzek is skeptical about their theory, so Brett moves on to talk about going on a ski trip with Grainger, which would also be the first time they’ve spent the night together. But what’s a real “WTF” is that Mercer has accidentally filled all of his team’s oxygen tanks with carbon monoxide and somebody just collapsed.

Yeah, he has to be getting cut from the academy now, right?

While everyone else works to get help and proper ventilation, Mercer just freezes on the spot. Severide explains this whole disaster to Boden while Casey and Stella discuss it amongst themselves. Brett overhears this and it motivates her to tell Casey that he needs to do something about his own issue before it’s too late.

Chicago Fire has Ritter’s ex-boyfriend Eric turn up at the firehouse after hearing about what happened with Andy. Eric thanks Ritter for standing up for him and admits that he misses him; looks like those two might be on the road to reconciling! Not so for Violet and Gallo, as he keeps apologizing about the bread. He’s even made a replacement dough for her.

Things also aren’t super-happy for Severide, who’s getting chewed out by Mercer’s dad for his son’s screw-up. The guy even tells Severide he’s been thrown out of the academy because of it. Nobody has time to process this before another call from the deli. Poor Ronnie, who’s collapsed again. Violet convinces Brett to administer some Narcan. It works and Violet deduces that Ronnie’s being poisoned. Damn muffins.

Cue the convenient arrival of the bakery owner. Brett convinces him to drive Ronnie’s wife to Chicago Med to preserve the evidence at the scene, while Boden has decided to make Severide’s problem his problem. “He crossed the line. He’s going to pay for it,” Boden insists but Severide wants to handle it himself.

Chicago Fire segues back to the deli story, as Ruzek is at Chicago Med taking the situation much more seriously now. When the bakery dude gets to the hospital, Ruzek confronts him; after he uses Violet’s name, she realizes he’s the letter writer. He turns on Ronnie’s wife, saying she wanted to sell the deli and she’s the one that’s been poisoning her husband.

After Severide confronts Papa Mercer with the facts of his son’s shortcomings, and an admission that he gave the kid too many chances, the episode gives us a Molly’s wrap-up. “The prognosis on [Ronnie’s] marriage isn’t so good,” Violet tells Gallo, implying that Ronnie’s wife is indeed the culprit. Things look good between Ritter and Eric, which Herrmann wants to take credit for in his own warped way, and Severide tells Stella that he’s not being kicked out of the academy after all.

He thanks her for her advice, before Casey pulls Brett aside for giving her advice. He admits to her that he’s worried about his career; she assures him that he’s getting ahead of himself, and offers to go with him to his doctor’s appointment. Casey agrees, but he suggests Friday, which is the same day Brett had those plans with Grainger. She decides that she can reschedule. How will that go over?

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