Heading into Chicago Fire season 14, episode 19, “Exit Point,” we knew that the show would be finally welcoming back a handful of characters who had missed the last few episodes of the show. The hope was that we might finally see the full 51 team back in action together for the first time in weeks, but sadly that was not the case.
Early in the episode, it was made clear via a quick conversation that three key characters would be sidelined for the week.
“Vasquez, Makami, and Naomi all have the shift off; they’re dealing with police follow-up on the hostage situation,” Hopkins informed Lucy at the beginning of the episode.
“So Ambulance 61 is out of service?” Lucy remarked as Hopkins confirmed that, "Yes [Ambulance 61 is out of service], and 81 will have a floater.”
Holt would indeed be brought in as a floater for the shift, which gave us a really meaningful moment, and there was simply no presence from Ambo 61, with paramedics from another house showing up to help respond to the scene of the store fire at the heart of the episode.
Truthfully, while it was disappointing that the trio failed to appear in the episode, as it marked the sixth consecutive episode with three or more cast members missing, it wasn’t surprising that the trio missed the episode. After all, Violet and Novak, in particular, went through a very stressful experience in the episode after an unstable man took them hostage.
Their absence in the episode, while disappointing, made sense as it was certainly believable for them to need to take the shift off to deal with the fallout of the hostage situation. We honestly had expected there was a good chance that Violet and Novak might miss the episode, though we did expect Vasquez to appear in the episode. Interestingly, Vasquez was featured in a photo that was labeled to have been from episode 19, but it now seems that photo might have been from the previous episode and simply mislabeled.
Hopefully, with just two episodes left this season, we’ll see the full 51 team back in action when episode 20 airs on May 6, and the trend of three or more characters missing in a single episode will finally come to an end. It would be fitting if Violet, Novak, and Vasquez were the last group to miss an episode this season, as that trio were actually the ones who started this unfortunate trend the show has been.
Violet, Novak, and Vasquez were all missing in episode 14, and that began a cycle of multiple series regulars missing in the same episode. Episode 15 was without all of Squad 3; episode 16 sidelined Kidd, Hermann, Mouch, Violet, Vasquez, and Novak; episode 17 was then without Severide, Cruz, and Mouch; and episode 18 sidelined Severide, Kidd, Herrmann, Cruz, Mouch, Tony, or Capp.
Let’s hope that Violet, Novak, and Vasquez’s absence in episode 19 was what it takes to break this unfortunate streak, as we’ve missed seeing the full ensemble in action the last several weeks!
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