Chicago Fire season 15 kicked off with an action-packed and emotional episode that brought fans back to the scene of the season 14 finale warehouse fire before jumping ahead to explore the fallout that came after. While everyone from Firehouse 51 survived the fire, Cruz was severely injured, leaving him paralized and in danger of never walking again.
As his injury wasn’t bad enough, he found himself under fire as the CFD and media looked to make him their fall guy after two civilians died in the fire. Thankfully, Severide was able to clear Cruz’s name, but doing so came with some risks as he had to perform an off-the-books investigation. It’s clear that Severide has some adjusting to do now that he’s overseeing 51, which is understandable given the jump from simply being a leader within the firehouse to being its new captain.
Episode 2 begins with Severide and Kidd in bed, forcing themselves out of bed as Severide informs Kidd that Chief Lowen is coming by the firehouse to check out the probies. She’s not sure they’re ready for primetime, but they’re finally rowing in the right direction, so she’s ready for the challenge.
At the firehouse, Violet and Novak are walking in for shift as Jacob drops by to surprise her with a copy of his story on Cruz and tries to enlist Violet’s help with a new story he’s working on. Violet turns him away, not recognizing that his entire conversation was clearly a ploy to try to spend more time with her, which Novak also picked upon.
Shortly after shift begins, Violet and Novak respond to a call at a local grocery store involving a woman who is bleeding badly and has locked herself in the bathroom. Tensions rise between Violet and the CPD officer on the scene, but Violet holds her ground and is able to coax the woman into opening the door to let them in so that they can treat her wound.
Once inside, they find that the woman has sustained a pretty severe arm injury, which will require stitches. When Violet informs her they’ll need to take her to the hospital, she panics and begs them not to take her to Lakeshore, as Violet assures her they can take her to another hospital, such as Gaffney. After administering a medication to help calm her down, Violet and Novak escort the woman out of the bathroom with the intention of taking her to the hospital. To their surprise, the officers take command of the scene and grab the woman, taking her into custody as they inform Violet and Novak that a call just came through reporting her as breaking out of a psychiatric facility.
After the credits and our first commercial break of the night, we return to the firehouse, where Mouch has gotten off a heated call with his publisher informing him that he is obligated to do a reading for his book launch. Herrmann offers to help fill seats by enlisting Cindy’s book club, but Mouch is worried about reading erotica in front of a bunch of strangers. Hoping to help a friend out, Herrmann tells Mouch to send over the contract, and he’ll have his lawyer pal take a look at it.
Following the call, Severide calls around to gather information and is informed that the woman was taken to Valley Crest Mental Health Center, who has already signed off on the transfer of liability. Violet is worried that the woman is not getting the help she needs and feels guilty for letting the woman down, so Severide encourages her to go check in with the woman. As Violet and Novak depart, Chief Lowen arrives to check in on the probies.
He’s impressed with their progress and admits to Severide that he wasn’t sure what to expect with all the chatter he had heard about Severide and Kidd. Severide pushes for clarification on the remarks, as Chief Lowen mentions that there have been some concerns about the chain of command at 51 now that Kidd is not working with him, but for him. He offers Severide some friendly advice to thread lightly so that he doesn’t give anyone an opportunity to take a shot at him, assuring him that he does have friends down at HQ.
Violet and Novak arrive at Valley Crest and the admin informs them that the patient was given stitches for the injury on her arm as he then accompanies them to her room. He informs them that they administered some heavy sedation to help calm her as Violet informs him that the woman was genuinely scared about returning. She asks for permission to speak with him, but he refuses to grant her access. After being turned away by Valley Crest, the pair heads out to Lakeshore to try to get answers.
Following Chief Lowen’s departure, Kidd drops in to ask Severide how it went, and he informs her that Chief Lowen was quite impressed. Kidd mentions that she heard some of the discretionary budget was restored and asks if it might be enough to finally get the Keisler sled to help train the probies. Severide lets her know he’ll think about it as he steps away.
Elsewhere, Herrmann tracks down Mouch and informs him that Uncle Larry looked over the contract, and it notes that the contract doesn’t mention Mouch has to be Cyrus Mayberry, just that Cyrus Mayberry has to attend all of the readings. Herrmann suggests that Mouch enlist the help of an actor to play the role of Cyrus Mayberry and he even knows someone who could help play the role: Cindy’s cousin’s kid, who is a local actor.
Looking to track down some information, Violet and Novak head to Lakeshore, where one of the nurses mentions that she came through the ER to refill a prescription. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a psychiatrist on shift and referred her to Valley Crest, but that was two weeks ago, making it quite suspicious that she’s still being held as a patient.
The pair meet up with the rest of 51 at the scene of a construction site accident, where things get a bit dicey when Burke put himself in the line of danger. Thankfully, all worked out, and they get the patient off to Med for treatment as Kidd gives Burke a stern reminder in the field to always avoid the collapse zone so as not to put his life or the lives of others in danger.
After dropping the patient off at Med, Violet and Novak chat, picking Dr. Charles’ mind on what could be going on as he notes he has heard of institutions keeping patients involuntarily to increase revenue. All signs seem to indicate that Valley Crest is keeping her around until insurance runs out as he suggests they look into the health code and offers to speak with Med’s legal team.
Back at the firehouse, Burke confronts Vasquez for making him look bad in front of Kidd, and things quickly turn physical between the pair. Kidd overhears the fight as she rushes into the locker room to break things up. Vasquez takes the blame for the fight as Kidd reminds him he is supposed to be an example to the probies as she sends him home.
Following the ordeal, Kidd goes to see Severide and informs him that she sent Vasquez home, noting that she knows she should have checked in with him first, but Vasquez started a fight with a probie and this is him getting off easy. As they sit, Severide points out how Kidd’s actions will now require him to request a floater for truck, file an incident report, and loop in HQ all for a little schuffle. Severide assures her it’s not about paperwork; it’s about optics, and it can’t look like things are out of control here. He orders her to get Vasquez back on the floor as she pushes back on how it will look if he overrules her on this, but he points out that it was not her call to make. He makes it clear he can’t always say yes to her as she hears him loud and clear as she exits and orders Vasquez to get back in gear.
Violet and Novak review mental health codes and the patient’s file, but they just seem to keep hitting road blocks. As they continue their search, elsewhere in the firehouse, Cindy’s cousin’s son, Ethan, comes in to read an excerpt for Mouch, who is being overly critical of the audition. With limited time, Mouch has no choice but to give him the job, but Herrmann notices how into the reading Mouch seems to be, hinting that he might have other plans.
Out on the floor, McCaffrey asks Burke about his fight with Vasquez as he encourages him to not mess around. Burke points out that he had to bust his ass to get here, as he then calls McCaffrey out for being third-generation CFD with a dad who’s a state senator. McCaffrey points out how he has to work three times as hard to prove he deserves to be here and knows that the others call him a nepobaby behind his back, as Burke makes it clear he has no intention of landing in the floater pool and isn’t interested in McCaffrey’s advice.
Kidd informs Severide that Vasquez is back on the floor and makes it clear that she doesn’t always expect him to say yes to her, and he apologizes for how it came out. He reveals to her that people down at HQ are questioning whether he should be commanding 51, specifically Kidd, and that he needs to be worried about optics. The pair work through things as Kidd makes it clear that she’ll support him no matter what decisions he has to make.
With help from one of the responding officers, Violet and Novak arrive to pick up the patient and take her to Med. Back at 51, Vasquez heads out and makes it clear to Burke that he would never sabotage another firefighter, but he doesn’t like him, as he’s cocky, and that’s dangerous. Elsewhere, Herrmann gives Mouch the nudge he needs to convince him to do the book reading.
At Molly's, Novak admits that this case hit close to home and made her think of whether her mom felt something similar. She can’t help wondering how many other patients are at that place in a similar situation, which is when Jacob arrives and we learn Violet called him in to be his source for an expose on the care facility.
As the episode ends, Severide informs Kidd he put in the request for the Keiser sled and makes it clear to her that he’ll never stop fighting for what he feels is right and wants her to do the same. No matter what else happens, they’ll figure it out.
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