While Chicago Med opted to jump ahead right at the top of its premiere, the Chicago Fire season 15 premiere dropped fans right back on the scene of the warehouse fire that closed out season 14.
As the premiere opens, we watch as the ball of fire hits those on the ladder trying to flee the roof and are able to breathe a quick sigh of relief when Ballard, Herrmann, Vasquez, and Kidd are all unharmed by the flames, though we don’t get much time to relax as mayday calls come through the radio and we pan inside the warehouse fire where several members of 51 are trapped.
Kidd quickly preps her team to head in to provide support and Pascal tries to convince her to wait for backup, noting that their masks could fail them after the heat exposure. While Kidd respects his concerns, she makes it clear he’s no longer her chief and this is not his call to make as she heads into the building.
Inside, Cruz hears a clanking that suggests there are people trapped. Severide gives him a minute to search as he continues to work on clearing a path for them to head out. Cruz heads deeper into the warehouse, following the sound of banging, and finds a group of people trapped and in need of rescue.
As Herrmann and Ballard make their way in via another entrance in the back of the building, Cruz works to clear the debris blocking the room. He breaks through the bottom of the wall just as Herrmann and Ballard enter to help the victims outside to safety. Meanwhile, Kidd and Vasquez arrive to help free Capp, Tony, Mouch, and Severide.
After freeing the last of the conscious victims, Cruz sends Herrmann away to get them to safety as he begins making his way into the entry space to reach the final two victims who have passed out from the smoke. Just as Cruz begins making his way into the space in the wall, the ceiling crashes down on him, pinning him down as Herrmann sends out a mayday call for a firefighter down.
No one from 51 dies in the Chicago Fire premiere, but Cruz is severely injured
Following the first commercial break, we jump ahead in time to a montage that includes Severide driving his motorcycle into work, Kidd enjoying a run when a call from the CFD Headquarters comes through, Vasquez waking up in bed next to a mystery woman who appears to be part of the CPD as evidenced by the police uniform by the bed, Novak heading out of her apartment before quickly ducking back in to avoid a neighbor, Violet avoiding a call from a “Margaret Mikami,” Herrmann driving by the warehouse fire where a tribute has been set up for those seemingly lost in the fire, cut to Chloe folding laundry as she pulls in one of Joe’s CFD shirts and holds it tightly to her chest, and finally land on Mouch exiting at Gaffney’s Neuro-Spinal Unit as he sits down and wipes tears from his face.
At Gaffney, Archer comes to see Cruz and prompts him to try to lift his left leg, but it seems Joe is unable to. Archer gives him hope and notes that he’s optimistic as Cruz questions whether he’ll be able to walk again. Before we get that answer, we move over to Firehouse 51, but it's clear that the injuries Cruz sustained when the building collapsed are quite severe.
We finally arrive at Firehouse 51 as two of our new candidates arrive for their first day, including new series regular Da’Vinchi. In the locker room, Violet asks Vasquez about the lady cop, but things get icy when Novak arrives and she quips about the handcuff marks the lady cop left on his wrist. As he leaves, Novak assures Violet she doesn’t care who Vasquez is sleeping with, but her face certainly says otherwise.
As Severide comes to see Kidd, we learn that Isaiah is back in Chicago but not living with them. Turns out his mom changed her mind and has since moved back to Chicago as well. The conversation shifts to her meeting with the training chief, and Kidd admits it was a little intimidating, as all of the probes assigned to her were at the top of their class.
Severide assures her she’s got this as he sends a call to voicemail from someone at The Telegraph, who wanted to talk with the head of 51, which is the show’s subtle way of revealing that Severide has indeed taken the captain job at 51.
Severide calls the house together for a briefing and introduces the five new probies joining 51 to complete the final stage of their probationary period. Severide gives the team an update that Cruz is still waiting for MRI results and encourages everyone to send positive thoughts to him. Herrmann thanks everyone for their help with the meal train as he talks the team through retrofitting the Cruz household for a wheelchair.
A blast from Violet's past arrives and causes chaos at 51
As Herrmann goes over the plan, Tony pulls Severide aside to speak with an unexpected guest who has arrived at the firehouse: Jacob Morales from the Chicago Telegraph, aka the journalist whose calls Severide has been dodging. Jacob is working on a piece about the warehouse fire and presses for information on the CFD’s findings, as two civilians died in the fire, but no information has been released on the fire’s cause.
Severide attempts to cut the conversation short as he makes it clear he has no comment, as Jacob notes that he has a reliable source who claims the CFD is dragging their feet to protect one of their own, which he assumes means they’re protecting Firehouse 51. Things get heated as Severide notes that one of his guys broke his spine while rescuing five civilians as the others begin to enter the room. Rather than escalate things further, Jacob hands over a list of questions he compiled, which he leaves for Severide to answer with an ultimatum: finally provide some answers, or he’ll run with his source’s information.
After Jacob leaves, Mouch reviews the questions and admits they’re pretty straightforward and could get from their after-incident reports, as Kidd suggests they call the PIO to get clearance to answer the questions so it doesn’t look like they’re stonewalling him. It seems Severide isn’t keen on the idea, though, and wants no part in helping this reporter.
Outside, Violet follows after Jacob and we learn the pair went to high school together, and he only just recently moved back from New York last year to accept the job at The Telegraph. She presses him for information on this article, and he confides in her that the focus is on the two victims who lost their lives in the fire, as their families deserve answers. Violet assures him that’s what the process is for, but Jacob points out that they’ve been waiting for three months already as he asks her to consider how she’d feel if she were in the shoes of the victims’ family. He assures her he’s only trying to get them some closure as Violet assures him that everyone at 51 did everything they could to save their lives.
After shift, everyone gathers to begin working on Cruz’s home to get it retrofitted for his wheelchair as they prepare for him to be discharged from the hospital. Well, almost everyone we should say, when Chloe asks Mouch where Herrmann is so she can thank him for arranging everything, Mouch informs her that there was an emergency and Herrmann was unable to make it.
As most of the team is working to get his home ready for when he returns, Severide drops in at the hospital to check on Cruz. Severide asks about the MRI results, but Cruz informs him the MRI tech is out of town, so they’ll have to wait. Severide tells Cruz about the reporter dropping by as he shares the list of questions he left and how he wants to put the blame on the CFD, claiming he even has a source to back it up.
Cruz looks through the questions as Severide assures him he wants to do another check of all the reports and that the guy is grasping at straws. To Cruz this is personal, as the reporter isn’t blaming the CFD; he’s blaming Cruz. Cruz points out how the questions ask about how the team assessed the risk before breaching the wall, a decision that Cruz made directly in the moment. In his words, they think he killed the two victims.
Later, Severide brings Kidd up to speed on how the last question on the list is keying in on Cruz’s action, and if the review board finds him responsible, they’ll fire him. Severide is set on looking into the case, which Kidd reminds him is a bad thing as it’ll look like he’s interfering with the investigation because he will be, and that’s when the weight of the situation truly becomes evident. Severide is carrying guilt for what has happened to Cruz as his commanding officer.
As a new day begins, Violet, Novak, and Vasquez are heading in for their shift as Novak asks the question everyone was thinking of when we learned Violet and Jacob went to school together: was there ever anything between them? Violet assures them nothing ever happened between them, as he was a few years ahead of her and was one of the cool kids, despite him also being kind of a nerd, which made him the crush of all of the girls in school.
Speaking of crushes, it seems Novak has developed one on Burke as she breaks away from the group to flirt with 51’s new candidate. As Violet and Vasquez continue on their way to the locker room, she suggests that one of the two finally put an end to the awkwardness between them. He’s adamant that he’s not buying into anything, as she encourages him to apologize so they both can just move on.
Upstairs, Herrmann drops in to pick Mouch’s brain as he’d like to order a special meal to celebrate Cruz’s homecoming but he can’t decide on what to order. As they chat, Mouch asks him about the emergency with the contractor and presses Herrmann on why he didn’t come over to the Cruz’s when Herrmann brushes it off as a false alarm. Herrmann plays it off that he knew Mouch had things under control and they need another cook in the kitchen, but it’s clear that he’s carrying guilt as well over what happened to Cruz.
Severide heads out to the site of the warehouse fire and begins looking around, hoping to gather intel that will paint a clearer picture of what will happen. He FaceTimes Cruz, who walks Severide through what he saw the day of the fire. Cruz recalls seeing a glow from the ceiling and realizing the beam could go at any moment, leaving him minutes to get the people out. He used the pallet jack to break through the wall to free those trapped, which is why Severide wants to try to prove that the beam was involved before the collapse; it would confirm Cruz made the right call. Unfortunately, things don’t look the best, and Severide ends the call to take some photos.
Cruz comes under fire for his actions during the warehouse fire
Back at the firehouse, Kidd is running rope drills with the candidates, who again seem more interested in their personal finish times than in completing the drill correctly. Before she can offer commentary, Novak enters the room and informs everyone that The Telegraph article has dropped and is calling out the CFD for a cover-up and cites a report that indicates the collapse was caused by a wall breach.
Before they can react further to the article, they hear a crash from outside the firehouse and race into action, responding to a two-car accident. Kidd orders Burke and McCaffrey to handle traffic control of the scene, and McCaffrey orders Burke to get cones and flares while he watches traffic. Rather than listen, Burke pushes back at McCaffrey’s order, which results in Novak getting sideswiped by a passing car.
After checking to make sure Novak was okay, Vasquez’s emotions get the better of him as he confronts the pair over their actions before Kidd breaks things up and takes command of the scene.
Following the incident, Kidd brings Severide up to speed as she admits these candidates are a disaster. She needs to whip them into shape before something happens, as Severide points out that this is their last house and their performance could be the difference between a top firehouse and a floater pool, thus why they’re all trying to look like the star player in the group.
The conversation shifts to his investigation of the scene, and he admits he understands why the review board didn’t think the beam was on fire when it collapsed. He’s still working out possibilities, but now that the article has dropped, time is not on his side to clear Cruz’s name and save his job.
Severide isn’t the only one chasing down a lead, as Violet and Novak attempt to get some answers of their own by tracking down someone who might know a thing about the article’s source and the report at its heart.
The pair head down to The Telegraph office, and Violet confronts Jacob about his article and his anonymous source. He assures her his source is solid, as he works at the State Fire Marshal’s Office and saw the report weeks ago. Jacob informs her that his piece achieved what he hoped as the CFD slipped him a copy of the report that was set to be released.
Meanwhile, back at the firehouse, Mouch confronts Herrmann on avoiding seeing Cruz. Herrmann is convinced that Cruz doesn’t want to see him, as it should have been him who went in after the people, not Cruz. Mouch reminds him that if he were in the same spot as Cruz, Herrmann wouldn’t blame anyone else for what happened.
Following her conversation with Jacob, Violet sits down with Severide and reveals that the CFD is recommending Cruz’s termination. While reviewing a copy of the report Jacob gave her, Severide has a light bulb moment as he informs her that the CFD is wrong and their own report proves it.
Severide helps to clear Cruz's name, but his future in the CFD might be over
Severide heads back to the scene and gets a surprise visit from Pascal, who asks about the meaning of the photos Severide sent him. Severide informs him that they’re blaming Cruz based on the burn patterns, but there was no way the investigators could have nailed down the orientation of the beams by looking at the pile of debris.
The investigators went back and pulled the original architecture plans to reconstruct everything, but there’s a hole in the beam, which led Severide to revised plans and reversed the orientation of the beams, which proves that Cruz didn’t cause the collapse; the fire did. Severide enlists Pascal’s help in taking these findings to the review board; otherwise, they’d know he went rogue and did his own investigation. Pascal reminds Severide that his actions and consequences aren’t his alone anymore, as they have the potential to blow back on all of 51.
Back at the firehouse, Kidd brings the candidates together and makes it clear she knows how high the stakes are and when it feels like life or death, it can be easy to justify stepping over other people to save yourself, which is the wrong instinct for a firefighter. To remedy this, Kidd informs the group that at the end of their assessment, they will not receive individual assessments but rather one assessment for the group. They live or die together.
After being dismissed, Vasquez heads out and bumps into Novak on his way out. He decides to take Violet’s advice, but Novak jumps in first as she notes she put herself out there and she got the message loud and clear when he didn’t say anything. He tries to interject, suggesting the situation is more complicated, but ultimately doesn’t push back as they agree to act as though everything is normal.
Over at Molly’s Violet grabs a drink with Jacob as she assures him there are no hard feelings, especially since he had to publish a correction to his article. He jokes that it’s a badge of honor for a journalist to admit a mistake as he laughs about having flashbacks to academic decathlons and calls her a force. The comment surprises her, as she never would have guessed he saw her that way back then, and she asks him if it was really a coincidence that he ended up doing a story on her firehouse. Jacob admits he would have chased the story no matter what, but when he saw her name on 51’s roster, he was hoping he’d run into her.
At the bar, Kidd assures Severide that she’s happy with how everything turned out but that Pascal has a point as he can’t be afraid to evolve; neither of them can as they have a lot more weight to carry now.
Elsewhere, Herrmann goes to see Cruz, and things are awkward between the two. Cruz is relieved that Severide cleared his name, but it doesn’t change anything. Herrmann tries to convince Cruz to stay positive, but he’s struggling to do so after the MRI results came back showing he only has a sliver of healthy tissue. Even if he eventually gets out of the wheelchair, he’ll never be a firefighter again.
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