Picking up almost right after the events of the penultimate episode, the Chicago Fire season 13 finale begins with Chief Pascal being brought in for questioning by the police. While he’s not under arrest, it’s made clear to him that the evidence is not looking good. It looks as though he was stalking the victim, and the officer questioning him makes it clear he’s going to need a good lawyer.
That same morning, Van Meter confronts Severide about withholding information about Pascal from him. He makes it clear to Severide that if Pascal goes down, Severide is going with him as an accessory. After the chat, Severide tells Pascal that he has a witness in Lieutenant Vale, but they fear this could be hard to prove and they need to take things further to clear Pascal’s name.
Severide goes to see Bishop in prison. He tells him he was wrong about Pascal and that he thinks Hendricks is behind the frame job. Severide asks Bishop to confirm that he called Hendricks after he was put away. Bishop is hesitant to cooperate, which is when Severide points out that he’s certain Bishop hates prison more than Pascal and suggests he can help get him a deal if he cooperates.
Bishop ends up offering up information, which Severide takes to a detective in hopes that she can look into the information and find something that can clear Pascal’s name. At the same time, the police show up with a warrant to search Pascal’s house.
Severide tells Pascal about the police tracking down the names, but says they need something concrete to tie it back to Hendricks. He asks if anyone has reached out from Miami fishing for something, but no one has. Unfortunately, the officer pulled logs, but Hendricks hasn’t made a call in months. Hendricks has cancer, and the lead seems to be a dead end.
Pascal looks at Monica’s phone and seems to find something, just as Severide goes to see Van Meter, who tells him maybe it’s time to look at this case for what it is: the simplest explanation being the right one. He suggests that Pascal was guilty but Severide doesn’t believe it. In chatting, Van Meter says the work suggests it was a firefighter which is when Severide realizes they’ve been looking at the wrong one.
We see Pascal going to visit Lieutenant Vale, and he shows him texts from Monica and confronts him for continuing to send them. Lieutenant Vale says it was love, to which Pascal says it was obsession. Pascal says he’s not the only one who would go after Franklin. Lieutenant Vale then kicks him out as Pascal says he’ll tell them everything he knows, but Lieutenant Vale says he did what he didn’t have the courage to do, confirming without saying directly that he killed Franklin. We hear sirens outside, and the police arrive to arrest Vale after Severide managed to find the evidence to clear Pascal's name.
Elsewhere in the episode...
Violet decides to finally give Carver the letter she wrote him, confessing her feelings. When Carver arrives at the firehouse the next day, Violet asks him why he didn’t reach out after getting the letter and he reveals that he plans on leaving Chicago. As we learn, he’s put in an application with the Denver Fire Department and needs a change of scenery in order to successfully maintain his sobriety. It looks like there is no hope, but as the episode ended, Carver showed up at Violet’s doorstep with the pair sharing a passionate kiss and exchanging I love yous.
Herrmann decided not to pursue the chief position and took a demotion so that Mouch could become a lieutenant at 51.
Finally, we saw Kidd thrust into the center of some drama between Natalie and Julia. It looked as though Kidd could end up taking Natalie in, but we learned that Julia never wanted to abandon her sister. She is, however, very overwhelmed, trying to raise her sister and keep her life on track as well. Kidd assured Julia she had no intention of trying to take Natalie from her, but what we didn’t expect was that she’d end up taking them both in.
Not only does it seem that Kidd and Severide will be taking in Julia and Natalie, but they also have a baby on the way! That’s right, Kidd is pregnant which means a Stellaride baby is coming!