Chicago Fire season 13 premiere recap: What is the new Chief hiding?

We knew it was going to take some time to get used to a new Chief sitting in Boden’s chair at 51, and we were most certainly correct as the new Chief of 51 is nothing like Chief Boden. 

After arriving at 51, Chief Pascal meets with the entire 51 team and makes it clear to everyone that he’s no Boden and he’s not about to try to be. He makes it clear that there is change to come as he does things differently and we quickly see him begin to ruffle feathers in the house. Before he can make too many waves, 51 heads out on their first call under Chief Pascal and he earns some major browning points with some members of the team with how he quickly races into action. 

The brownie points he earns on the call quickly expire when they get back to the firehouse and he tells the 51 team that there is no such thing as being too familiar with everyone as he bans the use of cell phones while on duty and encourages everyone to have more conversations. Speaking of conversations, he tells Kidd, Severide, and Herrmann that he plans on meeting with them each after calls to understand their leadership methods starting with Severide. 

When meeting with Severide, Chief Pascal doesn’t have any qualms with Severide’s actions on the call but makes it clear he’s not a fan of the fact that he’s working at the same firehouse as his wife. He tells Severide that immediate family members should not work the same shift and that going on calls with family members can be trouble. He says Kidd not taking Severide’s last name was a nice loophole for them, and basically makes it clear he’ll be watching them closely and hints he could spell trouble for them. 

He next meets with Hermann, and surprisingly the pair hit it off nicely… but the same can’t be said for Kidd. When Chief Pascal pulls Kidd aside for her assessment, she says she has some Girls on Fire work to do which he says can wait as they go to meet. She later tells Severide after shift that Chief Pascal called her out for avoiding the review and she pushed back and tried to put it off which is something she never would have done to Boden. Kidd admits she’s missing Boden more than she expected and confesses to Severide that something about him just makes her nervous, and Severide agrees there is something a little off about him… and they’re not wrong! 

Earlier in the episode, Chief Pascal gets a visit from a lieutenant who used to work with him before he moved to Miami. This lieutenant tells Chief Pascal that he doesn’t want to overstep but that he heard about what happened in Miami and that he wanted to check in on him. While Chief Pascal assures him there’s nothing to talk about, the lieutenant tells him that he’s always there if he ever wants to talk about it hinting that perhaps Chief Pascal was involved in a tragedy of some sort down in Miami before coming back to Chicago. 

The mystery thickens as the premiere comes to a close as we see Chief Pascal making his way home only to be puzzled when his keys don’t work. His wife, Monica, appears at the window and tells him to go somewhere else and comments about how he should have stayed in Miami. He tells her he came to Chicago to be with her and that he doesn’t give up, adding that they got weak in Miami again hinting at something going down in Miami that led him to seek a change of scenery. While Monica lets him in as the episode ends, telling Chief Pascal he’s a lucky man, it’s clear that 51’s new Chief is hiding something and we’ll have to wait to see exactly what skeletons are hiding in his closet. 

Elsewhere in the premiere...

Chicago Fire season 13 premiere spoilers 

Carver returns from a six-week furlough and basically iced Violet out during his time away after she pushed him away in the season 12 finale. Violet is ready to tell him that she wasn’t pushing him because she doesn’t love him but because she does and was letting fear hold her back. Unfortunately, it seems her window might have closed as Carver seems to have a new woman in his life. When Violet finally gets the courage to speak with Carver and apologize, he tells her they should just be coworkers. Ouch! 

Speaking of romances, it seems Damon has eyes for Novak but she’s not exactly keen on dating someone at 51, though we have a feeling Damon won’t give up easily in trying to persuade her to get coffee and give him a chance.

While Damon seems to strike out with Novak, his relationship with Severide has strengthened since he came clean about being Benny’s son. The pair have started bonding outside of work and are building a relationship in getting to know each other, and Severide is taking on a mentorship role of sorts with him on the job. It’s all going great, but Cruz is somewhat worried about the pair working together knowing that he’d do anything for his own brother. In fact, when Severide tells Cruz about Chief Pascal coming down on him and Kidd working together, Cruz asks what he said about Damon being his half-brother which is when Severide reveals he kept that secret from Pascal which makes Cruz uneasy. 

Violet and Novak respond to a car crash in which a car crashed into a building. The daughter tells Novak not to let her dad go because he drove the car into the wall on purpose and they call PD, but when PD speaks with the mother she denies that her husband drove the car into the wall on purpose and claims her daughter was lying. Novak isn’t about to let this go and she gets the okay from Chief Pascal to check up on the daughter. When they go to visit the girl, Novak returns her lost doll which was left behind in the car and the young girl tells her about holding onto her doll as soon as her dad started speeding up and that her dad said they couldn’t live anymore and it was time for us to die. This time, the little girl’s aunt was present and heard it all which is when she gives a statement to the police that allows them to question the mom again. When they do, she comes clean about her husband’s actions. 

Finally, in other odds and ends, we learn that Mouch has not taken the lieutenant test because he doesn’t want to leave 51 and is waiting for Herrman to pass his captain’s test. Turns out Herrman is not Chief of 51 already as he missed the captain test as he was sick, but Mouch seems to believe it was actually a bit of self-doubt and encourages him to believe in himself.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC and streaming on Peacock!