Last week, Chicago Fire celebrated 300 episodes with an action-packed episode that ended with a heartbreaking goodbye to an original member of the team. After Severide and Mouch spent the episode fighting to save Cruz’s job on Squad 3, Cruz made the ultimate decision to walk away from the firehouse to put his family first and move to Minneapolis to be closer to Chloe’s family for support as he finished his rehab.
As Chicago Fire season 15, episode 6 begins, Burke and the probies arrive for their final day at Firehouse 51 and they’re feeling the stress of their assignments. Hollis and Jansen aren’t sure they’ll land at a house, and Burke assures them both they’ll be okay. He then has a little fun pushing Vasquez’s buttons, jokingly asking if he’ll miss him, to which Vasquez quips he can’t wait to see if absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out in the common room, Jacob drops in to surprise Violet with a donation from the newspaper team for the Joint Duty Program. We learn that the pair are working to raise funds that can be used to put kits together to help firehouses that can’t afford their own. They’re doing all they can to raise money, including putting out a video to try to go rival and garner additional awareness for the funds.
We cut to Severide as he opens some mail including the group photo taken in the closing moments of the 300th episode. As Kidd comes in to see him, Severide shows her the photo as he informs her that Cruz and Chloe are about to finish packing up and are getting ready to move to Minnesota in a week's time. Kidd asks Severide about filling the spot as Severide notes he made a deal that should give him time, but Kidd encourages him not to drag it out.
The pair head out to speak with probies. Kidd reminds them they’ll receive their full assignments soon, but until then they have 24 hours, and they’re going to step it up by riding with Squad today. As if on perfect queue, Squad is called in and the head out to the scene of an accident in which a motorcycle is pinned under a car.
After Squad is able to get the motorcyclist out from under the car, Violet and Novak drop him at Med and Novak uses the opportunity to ask Violet about Jacob. While Violet admits it’s been great reconnecting, she’s unsure on if there is a future for them, as he seems to only want to talk about the past, which wasn’t the best time for her.
As Novak heads down to the ambulance, Violet goes to return the charger she borrowed, which is when she bumps into Nurse Kacy. Kacy congratulates Violet on the big donation that puts them past their fundraising goal, one that came from Margaret Mikami, news that surprises Violet as she excuses herself.
Violet informs Novak that she called Chief Robinson and told them they couldn't accept the $5k donation. She explains to Novak that her mom never does anything out of the kindness of her heart and will want something. Violet finally opens up to Novak and tells her how when she was in high school her mom tried to bribe Violet’s way into Stanford. When Violet found out what her mom had done, she pulled her application, and led to her parents' divorce. While the silver lining is that it helped her realize she wanted to help people, Violet still holds it against her mom, as she knows she could have gotten into Stanford on her own merits.
Elsewhere, Kidd heads down to HQ to look at the placements and runs into Lt. Maletski, who has a permanent spot and wants one of her probies, calling them the cream of the crop of this class of probies. When Kidd checks the postings, she’s shocked to see there is only one open spot in the entire CFD: the one at 73, which Maletski offered.
Upon learning the news, Kidd is disappointed, as she doesn’t want to choose one to get the spot and to see the others land in the floater pool. Severide offers to help her choose after seeing what they’ve got while working on Squad. He has the trio run drills outside the firehouse to test their skills. To his surprise, they all three come in under time, and Severide asks for Herrmann’s advice as he admits he hasn’t gotten to know them as well as he hoped.
As Severide is running drills, Kidd gets a call chasing down some leads, but all of her friends within the department have been unable to find something. Vasquez mentions a buddy who had to keep checking the pension board to see when his hearings would be and suggests they check the site to see about potential openings.
Violet's mom surprises her with an unexpected visit and even more surprising news
When Violet and Novak get back to the firehouse, Violet gets an unexpected surprise when she finds her mother chatting it up with her colleagues. Needless to say, Violet is not thrilled to see her mother and confronts her for dropping by her place of work unannounced.
Margaret tells Violet she had something important to tell her, and it wasn’t something she wanted to tell her on a voicemail. She tries to get Violet to agree to go to dinner so they can speak, but Violet shuts down the idea. With no other choice, Margaret drops a bombshell: she’s been diagnosed with ALS and given a year, maybe less
Elsewhere, Kidd takes Vasquez’s advice and visits a local firehouse after hearing about one of her guys being injured and out for 4-6 months. She goes hard for her probies in hopes of helping them land at a firehouse and not in the floater pool. Back at 51, Severide asks Vasquez his thoughts on the probies and Vasquez admits he doesn’t have much to say about Jansen, gives a glowing review of Hollis, and calls Burke a high-risk, high-reward kind of guy.
As a call comes through, Violet hides the news from Novak, but when she sets the tablet down, Novak notices the ALS article up as Violet gives her a knowing nod. They join 51 in heading out to respond to an apartment building fire.
While evaluating the situation, Severide finds there is no good anchor point, forcing them to think outside the box as he heads over the roof to rescue one victim. Severide gets the first victim down, but he can’t make it up and needs someone else to get the second victim. Burke is already harnessed, so he steps up to head over the roof for the rescue, successfully pulling it off.
After the save, another probie informs Burke, Hollis, and Jansen that there’s only one open spot and everyone is saying it’s going to someone from 51. Understandably, the news shakes their confidence and quickly takes the wind out of their sails.
Back at the firehouse, Violet brings Novak up to speed on things and admits that she’s angry and not sure how to feel about everything. Novak assures her that it’s okay to feel conflicted as she reminds her that she never runs from the hard stuff and will figure this out.
We'll be recapping the episode live, so be sure to update the piece for the latest updates through the night as Chicago Fire airs!
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