Chicago Fire spoilers: What happened in season 10 episode 16?

Chicago Fire has continued to add and subtract cast members throughout season 10. We’ve already seen the departure of Casey (Jesse Soffer) and his interim replacement, Pelham (Brett Dalton), and now it looks like Brett (Kara Killmer) will be MIA for a brief time.

The new episode, “Hot and Fast”, takes a clever approach in the handling of Brett’s absence. Not only does it provide some more screen time for supporting players, but it allows for some more drama to occur between Violet (Hanako Greensmith) and Chief Hawkins (Jimmy Nicholas).

What happened on Chicago Fire last night? (March 16th)

Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) gets more of a focus than he has in previous weeks. The episode opens with him struggling to juggle sleep with caring for his son, Otis. He manages to pull things together by the morning, however, and he’s one of the firefighters who answer an emergency call.

The building fire they arrive at has three Honduran children inside, and thankfully, all three of them get rescued. There’s some confusion over how the fire started, and its quickly determined that one of the boys started it. Lt. Seager (Andy Allo) is brought in to check things out, and Violet checks on Gallo (Alberto Rosende), who gets especially concerned about fires when kids are involved.

The sweet moment of concern between Violet and Gallo quicky dissipates, however, when Brett’s absence leads Chief Hawkins to fill in for her and go on ambulance rides with Violet. Gallo doesn’t like the idea of them spending even more time together, and he makes his jealously obvious.

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Eventually, Violet spills the details of her romantic past to Hawkins. The chief asks whether Violet wants to get back together with Gallo, and she assures him that’s not the case. They let the topic go, but one gets the impression that it will come up again at some point in the future.

The confirmation that Javier, one of the boys, started the fire, led him to run away out of fear for being punished. Thankfully, he returns to the fire station and establishes a strong bond with Cruz. The firefighter asks what will come of him and is told that he will likely be sent to a foster home. Cruz reflects on the idea, and asks Chloe (Kristen Gutoskie) whether they can adopt him.

She points out that they don’t have a lot of room in their home, but she warms to the idea and assures him that they can make it work. The episode ends in a nice roundabout fashion, with Javi coming to live with the Cruz family and sharing a room with little Otis. The happiness surrounding this newfound family member is nearly overshadowed, though, by the actions of Violet and Chief Hawkins.

Someone apparently saw Violet and Hawkins kissing on the job, and now brass wants to talk with Hawkins about the secret romance. The cliffhanger ending definitely hints at some crucial changes for the pair moving forward.

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