Last week Casey and Voight continued their feud, Dawson kicked a frat boy from her rig, Severide almost dropped a dude off a roof before kicking his drug problem into high gear, and Shay tried to show Dawson that reading is fundamental.
I would like to take a moment before getting into the recap to ponder the editor’s choices in the “previously on Chicago Fire” reel that starts each episode. Last week they flashed us a bit of the scene where Shay tells Mills she’s gay and this week we got a flash of Clarice, Shay’s pregnant, married to a dude, ex-girlfriend. This may be the best way to remind the audience that she’s a lesbian since her appearance generally doesn’t ping the gaydar or they may just want to make it clear to new viewers that she’s not looking to hook up with her male colleagues. My personal favorite theory is that they want us to ship Shawson in a big way so by reminding us that Shay’s gay we can read plenty into her chivalry with Dawson and their lingering looks. This week the episode opens with Dawson in a hot leather jacket waiting in a coffee shop for Hallie. Hallie appears and is a little weepy but together enough to say that she knows Dawson and Casey have a relationship. Dawson’s face flashes panic over Hallie apparently calling her out for loving Casey. But Hallie just means that she thinks Casey might listen to Dawson if she tried to tell him he shouldn’t risk testifying against Voight’s son. Dawson tries not to look too pleased that Casey values her opinion more than Hallie’s.
The crew is called out to rescue a graffiti artist who got himself stuck on a tiny little ladder way up in the sky. Voight shows up like a ghoul and tells Casey how pretty his fiancée is and what a nice chat they had the day before. Ugh, he’s smarmy and arrogant and just the kind of guy you want to punch in the face. Casey agrees with my assessment and tries to charge Voight but the firefighters hold him back.
After they rescue the tagger there is a lot of talk about how his art is in museums and Herrmann bitches about how much money the city spends to clean up graffiti and how it’s not art and generally acts like her 97 years old. Shay does her usual killer eye roll and puts him in his place. Shay is totally the sarcastic voice of reason on this show and I love it. Dawson meets with Mouch about her hearing but while Mouch is telling her that she could be suspended for up to three months she’s busy mooning over Casey. She leaves her prep meeting to follow Casey into the locker room because that’s their special place. She tries to talk to him about recanting his statement but he sees right through her and wonders why on earth she would ask him to do something she would never do. Before she can explain the complexity of her feelings of love mixed with guilt over being asked by his fiancé to talk to him about how not to get dead, they are called out to another emergency.
The call is a gunshot victim on a city bus who isn’t breathing and needs a trachea tube. Dawson is about to do it when Shay steps in and says she will. They aren’t supposed to do a tracheotomy in the field and Shay is willing to take the hit for Dawson since the last thing Gabby needs is another demerit before her hearing. Seriously ladies, the lingering looks are kind of ridiculous. Casey’s got his head so far up his ass about Voight he almost gets hit by a car so the Chief tells Casey to go home. Back at the station Severide wants to know where his buddy is and argues with the Chief about the advisability of sending a guy away from the station in his current state of half-cocked, time bomb. I have to say I am with Severide on this one. Chief, at the very least put Casey in the penalty box in the station so he can’t go making trouble elsewhere.
Our lovely paramedics are doing inventory and Dawson gets all cranky that Shay doesn’t trust her to do procedures. Shay gives her a look before speaking slowly and clearly so that Dawson understands that Shay loves her and wants to make lady babies with her. No? That’s not what you heard? Fine, she doesn’t want to deal with a new partner for the duration of Dawson’s suspension so she did the against the rules procedure herself. Potato, potahto. Dawson’s brother shows up and they chat about lover boy. Apparently, they keep trying to get gang members to wear a wire to catch Voight but the last guy decided against it at the very last second. Since this is the twelfth time we’ve heard this “no one will wear a wire” story I am going to guess it’s totally unimportant and just filler, right?
Casey’s at home, arguing with Hallie who wants to take her vacation time and run away with Casey because she’s freaked out by Voight. She should be freaked out because Voight is creepy as hell but seriously, she has unused vacation time? The woman never works. Anyway, in the midst of their contretemps about where to flee a couple of cops show up with a warrant to search their house for cocaine. While Casey sputters about it being ridiculous, Hallie uses her brain and searches the house and finds a bag taped under the counter. She grabs it before the cops make it into the kitchen. Casey gets the cops to leave by convincing them to call Dawson’s brother to vouch for them. They package reveals enough cocaine to start a party and to land these two in prison. While Hallie flushes it down the toilet Casey makes a house call on Det. Voight.
He punches Voight in the face and Voight pulls out a gun. Voight gives the gun to Casey and says that if he’s not going to take back his statement he better shoot Voight because otherwise it will never be over. Please let it be over soon, boys. I am past caring. Dawson is prepping with Mouch and working on her best smile for the hearing. Mouch can’t coax much more than an awkward grin. Call Shay in and let her work her magic on Dawson and you’ll have the hearing in a bag. Casey returns to the fire house and the Chief lets him back on the shift. The crew is called out to a building fire. The Chief puts Dawson in charge of triage for the people who are coming out of the building. When another firefighter can’t intubate and won’t trach a victim, Dawson steps in with her supervisor watching and saves the woman’s life. Meanwhile in the inferno, Casey gets trapped in an apartment with a mother and son and escapes only when Severide rides up on a ladder to pull the people out. Casey dives out of the window and needs Severide to haul his butt onto the ladder.
In a truly useful coincidence the guy Casey recuses is willing to wear a wire to try to catch Voight. I’m so glad I paid attention that the whole will they, won’t they wear a wire story line, the payoff is so fantastic! Glad I stuck with it. The guy wears a wire, he catches Voight saying that he will offer the guy two thousand dollars if he kills Casey and boom, out pop the cops and hooray everything is all better now.
Now the moment we’ve been waiting for since the previews last week. Dawson is all suited up and looking like she stepped off the set of The Good Wife for her hearing. Thank the gods of haberdashery because a woman in a suit is lesbian chum. The hearing opens and Mouch looks completely useless so Dawson reads the old dude running the show the riot act and Mouch asks for a recess. Dawson is steamed until, ta-dah! Madeline, the girl she saved, shows up with her folks. Mouch was stalling so they could get there and save the day. Now, if we could just have had Kalinda be there delivering the witnesses it would have been a lesbian’s suits and boots dream come true. Dawson ends up with a three shift suspension.
In order to make up for her loss of pay the guys decide to cut down the picture the tagger created earlier in the episode and sell it to the highest bidder. The suspension party is in full swing with as much booze as meaningful glances and flirtation and unrequited love as the Casey-Dawson-Hallie triangle gets more lingering glances and sad Dawson faces. The episode ends with Shay taking one for her bro Severide when she asks Mills about his hottie of a little sister. Next week is the Thanksgiving episode and it involves a meth lab explosion just as the Pilgrims envisioned.
Do you think Voight is gone for good? Are you getting the vibe that Shay might have some complicated feelings for Dawson?
