Chicago Fire season 13 episode 3 recap: Who's leaving 51?

From the moment the Chicago Fire season 13 episode 3 promo dropped, fans had been worrying about who exactly on the cast would be leaving the show and their panic was understandable. 

In the promo for the episode, we see Chief Pascal sitting someone on the team down in his office as he tells them, “You’ve broken my trust, I’m dismissing you from this firehouse,” as he then puts what appears to be a pink slip in the document tray on his desk. The moment left fans speculating about who might be getting the boot and wondering what could lead to Chief Pascal letting someone go. 

Given the way the promo was cut, there were three characters in particular that fans were most worried about: Severide, Kidd, and Damon. There were arguments for each theory fans had over who might be leaving the show, but at the end of the day was this all a misdirect or did Chief Pascal really fire Severide, Kidd, or Damon? 

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Chicago Fire season 13 episode 3. Be sure to refresh for updates as we’ll be recapping the episode as it airs live. 

As the episode begins, Kidd sits down with Severide and tells him that there is just too much baggage and that 51 is not the best place for Damon. She’s going to go to Chief Pascal and tell him that she wants Damon gone. 

When Kidd arrives, she’s surprised to see Damon is already at the house and has been working to clean the truck before shift. He asks to speak to her about what went down on their previous call and Kidd tells him they can speak later, as 51 is called to a multi-floor building fire. 

Ritter and Herrmann are first on the scene and race in to save a victim spotted in a window. As Herrmann helps get the victim to safety Ritter does a sweep of the second floor to check for other victims. As Chief Pascal tells him to get out of the building, Ritter is blasted through the window by the force of an explosion and Violet and Novak quickly rush into action to help their friend. Things look dicey, but he’s stable as they load him into the ambulance to take him to Med. 

After the fire is put out, Severide and Squad look around the building and it’s clear Severide is suspecting foul play. The family who owns the restaurant arrives and Severide tells them there was a fire in the kitchen that spread and we learn the man pulled from the fire was a renter who they had kicked out the previous week. 

Kidd gives Chief Pascal an update on Ritter and uses it to pivot into her need to put Damon into the floater pool. Chief Pascal is confused as there have been no issues noted in her reports. He says she should have flagged things sooner and points out that this once again means more turnover on his rig. He makes it clear that he’s in charge of determining who stays and who goes, and he’ll decide whether her leadership is part of the problem as he dismisses her.

After the conversation with Pascal, Kidd fills Severide in and he’s ready to go to battle for her but Kidd tells him the best thing they can do is ride it out. Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Arson investigator Captain Tom Van Meter suggesting Severide’s hunch that something was off about this fire and it could be arson. He goes to meet with him and Van Meter when Cody, the man who was rescued from the fire, comes in and confronts Severide saying the family went to the hospital and accused him of starting the fire. He tells Severide and Van Meter he was there to get some stuff he left behind and that he heard a car peeling away when he was there and that the last thing he wanted was to get involved in the drama between the couple who own the restaurant. 

Back at 51, Damon is called into Chief Pascal’s office and asked about the issues on the last call. He asks Damon about the issues that apparently happened on the call and Damon comes clean about there being some communication issues… right before throwing Kidd under the bus telling Pascal that he just wants to be the best he can be and that it’s hard to know what Kidd wants sometimes.

Kidd calls Severide and tells him about Pascal meeting with Damon and she’s feeling quite nervous about what Damon told him during the meeting. Meanwhile, Seviride goes full fire-cop and is helping to look into the fire. He meets with the family who owns the restaurant and asks them if they are having money problems as Cody told him about the fights and them raising his rent. Their daughter tells them about how her mom wanted to sell the restaurant. The mom begins to worry that her old rice cooker could have been left on overnight and be the cause of the fire.

Ritter is going to be okay but it’s clear someone is in danger

Fortunately, all of Ritter’s tests come back good and he’s cleared to be discharged from the hospital and to return to active duty. 

As Mouch shares the good news with Chief Pascal, he’s happy Ritter is all good but quickly changes the subject to a topic that raises a lot of flags. 

Chief Pascal tells Mouch he’s been impressed with what he’s seen and asks if he’d be willing to step up and take the lieutenant test if he needed him to. This confuses Mouch as there isn’t an opening at 51 to which Pascal tells him he never knows when one could open, hinting that perhaps Kidd is the one in jeopardy, not Damon.

Following the chat with Pascal, Mouch checks in with Kidd to ask if everything is okay between her and the chief as he’s been picking up on some weird tension. Kidd tells Mouch about going to the chief to ask for Damon to be transferred out and how the request was rejected as he turned things around to her and her leadership skills. As Kidd tells Mouch, she’s worried she’s somehow become the one on the chopping block.

Speaking of Pascal, when he returns home his wife is none too happy with him after finding out about how he attacked that other firefighter in jealousy. However, her mood quickly shifted and we discover she found his jealousy attractive. The pair begin to get quite cozy before a knock at the door kills the mood. So who’s at the door? That would be Mouch, who has come to stand up for Kidd. 

Mouch tells Pascal he is set on becoming a lieutenant because he’s been inspired by some of the best in the CFD such as Kidd. He tells Pascal he didn’t want him to make any decisions without showing her records, especially those concerning turnover. All he asks is that he take a look as he leaves the files behind and Chief Pascal to look over them.

Who is leaving 51? 

After looking into Kidd’s past, it seems that Chief Pascal was won over, and realizes that Kidd was not the problem. He meets with Damon and tells him that he’s going to be putting him back into the floater pool as it’s clear there have been issues with him not following her leadership on calls. Damon is stunned as Chief Pascal makes it clear he’s removing him from 51. 

Chief Pascal later meets with Kidd to let him know Damon has been put back into the floater pool and that he’s going to let her decide who fills his spot, hinting that some new blood is about to enter the mix. Cut to a very pouty Damon who is sitting in Severide’s office and is not happy. Damon says he came to 51 to learn from him, but he turned his back on him when he needed him most. As Damon leaves, he tells Severide he's just like Benny as he storms out.

Is this really the last we've seen of Damon? That remains to be seen, but it's clear his time at 51 has come to an end.

As for other odds and ends from the episode. It turns out the fire was indeed arson as Severide discovers the daughter of the restaurant owners was behind it. We find out she rigged her mom's rice cooker to explode seeing it as her only option for her parents to use the money to retire so that she didn't have to inherit the family business.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC and streaming on Peacock!