Chicago Fire season 9, episode 12 recap: Natural Born Firefighter

This week’s Chicago Fire provided some crucial answers to the questions about Matt Casey’s (Jesse Spencer) health while also giving fans a great Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) storyline spanning the episode.

Wednesday’s episode “Natural Born Firefighter” saw Herrmann making it his mission to help a “natural born firefighter” who jumped into action during this week’s fire of the week where he helped Herrmann save the life of an unconscious victim. Elsewhere in the episode, Casey finally sought out treatment after previously trying to brush the symptoms he had been having under the rug

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

Chicago Fire season 9 episode 12 recap

More from Chicago Fire

• Here’s the perfect Chicago Fire episode to watch on Thanksgiving
• Chicago Fire gets season 12 release date (and it’s very soon!)
• Kara Killmer’s Chicago Fire exit kind of spoils Brett cliffhanger
• 4 ways Chicago Fire could write Sylvie Brett out of the show
• Every cast member leaving a Dick Wolf show in 2024

Chicago Fire opens with Casey finally having an actual doctor’s appointment while Brett (Kara Kilmer) sits angstily in the waiting room. He explains to the doctor that he’s having vision issues, and is sent to get an MRI because he might be having “temporal lobe seizures” that could turn into full seizures. Casey’s worried that would mean the end of his career and Brett tells him not to jump the gun.

They return to Firehouse 51 where Casey tells Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) that he shouldn’t see any action for the next few calls, just as a precaution. They agree to cover for him and break the news to the rest of the team. Boden will replace Casey on Truck 81 with Mouch taking the first seat.

The fire of the week brings our heroes to a burning storefront with a residence above and exploding balloons inside. One woman is quickly saved, but her daughter is missing, and another man leads Christopher Herrmann to his unconscious neighbor. The guy reveals himself to be an ex-firefighter and helps Herrmann get the neighbor out through the window while Mouch (Christian Stolte) searches for the kid. Unfortunately for him, Boden’s just found out it’s flammable acetylene gas in all those balloons. Mouch barely recovers the kid before the whole store explodes in a true Chicago Fire dramatic moment.

In the aftermath, Mouch quips that it was the “worst party ever” while Herrmann talks about the “natural born firefighter” he met who’s vanished from the scene. Casey has some clear FOMO as the team returns to 51, while the comedic subplot kicks in when everyone else wonders who’s been parking in Boden’s usual spot outside the firehouse – and how they’re going to fix the problem.

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

Herrmann wants to know more about the mystery dude, and learns his name was Mason. Brett tells him that Mason was headed back to his place so Herrmann tracks him down and formally introduces himself. Mason says he’s from Colorado, moved to Chicago to be with family, and his firefighting experience came from a prison program. Therefore his status as a felon would keep him from becoming a civilian firefighter.

After Casey thanks Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) for expressing concern about his well-being in previous Chicago Fire episodes and has his own angsty moment, Herrmann tells Mouch about Mason. He’s invited the other man to join them at Molly’s and reassures Mason that he’s good people. At another table, some of the others are drawing straws to see who gets to handle Boden’s parking problem (Ritter draws the short straw), and Brett apologizes to Grainger for canceling on their ski trip. She offers to make it up to him by taking him to a pop-up omelet festival(?!).

And Severide has a frank discussion with Casey about his issue and how he didn’t tell Severide about it. Casey admits that he tends to shut people out and Severide reminds him that he shouldn’t be going through this alone. Chicago Fire cuts to Brett as Casey explains that she’ll be going with him to his MRI.

The show then segues to Herrmann trying to get a meeting with the Fire Commissioner so he can discuss CFD hiring policies. He’s referred to Deputy Commissioner Hill, the woman who dropped by to congratulate Stella earlier, while Casey and Brett wait for his MRI. “Have fun?” Brett says awkwardly.

Ritter puts Herrmann’s old recliner in the street to save Boden’s parking spot, while Herrmann asks Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) to help him get that meeting with Hill since she’s been bragging about her new friend. In the firehouse, Casey is now twitchy waiting for his MRI results and Brett is missing a bunch of phone calls talking to Casey. Apparently, she has to make reservations for the pop-up omelet festival.

Gallo and Ritter are getting a group of young firefighters together for a meeting at Molly’s and want a guest speaker just before Ritter finds out that someone moved the recliner to steal Boden’s spot again. Now Boden is angry and you won’t like Boden when he’s angry. Plus, Chicago Fire has Stella run Herrmann’s request past Severide; she thinks it’s considered “special treatment.” Severide points out he did a lot of dumb things as a teenager and just didn’t get caught, and that Herrmann doesn’t go to bat for people often.

Having overheard all the phone calls Brett missed, Casey has changed his mind and tells Brett she doesn’t need to tag along anymore. She does not look happy as Chicago Fire has Ambulance 61 respond to a tennis machine accident. Do not stick your arm in the tennis ball launcher! Amber is relatively unscathed, but her saying tennis is her whole life strikes a chord with Brett, who can clearly draw a parallel to Casey.

Chicago Fire shows us that some of the guys are now staking out Boden’s parking spot while Stella tells Herrmann that she got them (both of them) a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Hill. She also wants them to prepare their remarks in advance. And while we note the Wal-Mart bag placement on the firehouse counter, Ritter and Gallo ask Mouch to be the guest speaker to their firefighters’ group. He’s thrown and says he’ll check his schedule as Brett insists to Casey that she’s coming with him whether he wants her to or not. She even adds an “or else” in there.

Cut to Stella, Herrmann and their note cards waiting for Hill. She doesn’t think the hiring policy will change and believes making an exemption for Mason will open them up to lawsuits, and she actually sounds pretty cold about it. Even after Stella delivers a monologue singing Mason’s praises, Hill calls the department “exclusionary on purpose.” Afterward, though, she gets a call that sounds a lot happier.

Oh, and Boden finds out the guy parking his truck in Boden’s spot has been helping a nun. With sufficient egg on his face he mobilizes his team to help her and makes sure he gets rid of the last angry note he penned before giving up his parking spot for the greater good. Unfortunately for him, the nun saw the note first and orders him to do proper penance for all the bad language in it.

In its final few minutes of this Chicago Fire installment, Herrmann gives Mason a challenge coin from Firehouse 51 before telling him that they did get him a job interview – not in Chicago, but in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mason is floored both by the opportunity and what Stella and Herrmann have done for him, while Mouch gives a speech to the rest of the bar that we don’t get to hear, and Brett gets a call from Casey while on her date with Grainger. He does not look thrilled, especially because he’s figured out the friend she’s helping is Casey.

This is the hill their relationship is going to die on. “I think you have some stuff you need to figure out, Sylvie,” Grainger tells her before he walks off. That doesn’t stop Brett from making it to the hospital where the doctor explains his problem is a shoulder injury, not a brain one. He’s going to be fine. Everyone breathes a deep sigh of relief and Brett and Casey share a relieved hug.

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.