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“Chicago Fire” recap (3.1): A damn Shayme

Previously on Chicago Fire, Boden and Hot Donna got married at Firehouse 51. Casey decide that someone else’s nuptials was the perfect moment to propose to his girlfriend. Then, the entire group got called out one last time. Before they went in, Shay and Severide buried the Devon shaped hatchet and promised that they would always love each other. The building they were in blew up and we spent the summer reading tea leaves and wondering if this was the last call for Leslie Elizabeth Shay.

We begin where we ended, with Chief Boden frantically screaming into his radio for anyone to report. Slowly, the camera starts to find bodies inside. While the Chief’s voice crackles over the radio Severide is the first to stir and pop his helmet back on. The crew begins looking around, and every time they show another face we are another step closer to finding out who isn’t going to make it. Severide, Casey, Mouch, Otis, Herrmann-well, let’s just say all the men are fine. Mills has a broken leg but he’ll live. Casey and Severide start looking for the women folk, those delicate flowers best used to advance the plot for the big, tough men.

They find Dawson giving Shay chest compressions (and not the kind that Shawson fanfic is made of). Severide rushes over and Dawson tells him to take over so she can get a last kiss administer mouth-to-mouth. Casey pulls at Dawson and tells her that they have to get Shay to the ambulance but neither she nor Severide are ready to give up. Both plead for Shay to come back to them.

Severide flashes back to Shay’s first day at 51. She meets Cruz and Otis who are squabbling over Otis’s viper helmet (the one Devon stole). They both welcome her by ogling her assets and then send Darden to find Dawson. Dawson swaggers out and welcomes Shay before introducing her to Casey, Vargas, and Herrmann. They saunter over to the Squad table where Shay volunteers to be Severide’s roommate. He thinks this means she wants to do the sex with him but she shuts him down. No vagina, no sexy times, bucko.

We jump forward six weeks and watch Mills walk in on his newly healed leg. Maybe Shay isn’t really dead. Maybe she’s going to pop out of that rig or maybe she had another miraculous recovery. It’s not like they haven’t tried to kill her half a dozen times on this show already. Shay’s death was not in vain, however, because it’s provided Severide with enough pain to disappear completely for six weeks. Dawson hurries in late from an appointment and disappears to stare at a photo on the wall.

Dawson is getting coffee when Shay’s doppelganger/replacement walks in. Dawson’s having none of it. She’s mostly polite before the Chief pulls her into his office to chat. He thanks her for sticking around 51 rather than joining her firefighter placement at Firehouse Neanderthal. She gives a weak smile and he tells her that he’s going to put her paperwork through now so she can move on. She starts to go and he asks if she’s okay. Before she can say anything, Mouch busts in to talk about his double date with Boden.

Casey asks the Squad guys if they have heard from Severide. They have all left messages but the only person who ever got through to him was Shay. Won’t it be fun to watch him unravel without her? Definitely worth losing a great gay character to watch Severide grow. Cruz tells Casey they need to gas up the truck so everyone suits up and rolls on out. While they fill the tank, Herrmann starts talking about how Shay always thought expanding Molly’s was a great idea. Hard to argue with a corpse, isn’t it? While this meeting of the counsel of dumbasses meets, another truck rolls up. It’s Welch and his crew of assholes who take the opportunity to make a crack about Dawson. They all get called to a fire and Casey yells, “Last one there is a rotten egg!” Good lord. Next time just hold an actual pissing contest.

Cruz gets Truck 81 there first and Casey tells Welch to play crossing guard while they go inside. Casey runs down stairs to help a guy out of the basement but the stairs collapse leaving them both trapped. Once they get the guy out, Dawson shows newbie paramedic how to intubate a burn victim and then tells her she has to earn the right to drive the rig. Dawson pops in the driver’s seat and finds Shay’s signature on some paperwork on the dashboard. Sometimes that’s all it takes; a signature, the smell of perfume, someone calling the name of the person you lost, to send you spinning.

After she drives off, Casey tries to play nice in the sandbox with Welch but that guy is just an ass and they nearly come to blows. Boden tells everyone to go pack their trucks and get the hell out of his sight. Back at the house, Boden yells at Casey who takes it as a sign that he should go find Severide. In six weeks it never dawned on anyone to go look for the guy? Good grief.

It’s time for another flashback, this time we follow Shay and Dawson into the building. They stop to help a guy at the bottom of the stairs and Dawson quizzes Shay on the proper technique for helping him because it’s their last shift together before Dawson becomes a firefighter. Shay passes the test and they swap places so Shay can start administering the help. Shay starts to say that she will never get used working without Dawson when a beam knocks her on the head.

Dawson comes out of the flashback on her bunk (I mean where else but in bed would she be thinking about Shay). New paramedic tells her that she’s not trying to fill Shay’s shoes. Dawson jumps up and tells Casey to hurry up and ask her to marry him again because she doesn’t want their proposal to have happened on the day Shay died. He’s going to ask again but he’s going to do it right (you know, not like asking at someone else’s wedding, for starters).

Casey goes looking for Severide in the woods. He pulls up in his truck and finds a sweaty, manktop-wearing Severide chopping wood. Merry Christmas, Casey-Severide shippers. Casey grabs a beer and asks if Severide is coming back to 51. Severide tells him that he’s going to fix boats and stay the hell away from the house that has taken two of his best friends. Casey has one pep talk left up his sleeve and it involves reminding Severide of all the lives they have saved. It’s a nice sentiment, really, but small comfort when Severide has just lost his best friend to the dangers of being a lesbian on television.

And it’s time for another flashback in which we all throw things at the screen and wonder why we are only getting this much character development for Shay after she’s dead. Shay kisses a girl good-bye before Severide tells her that the girl is bad news. Shay laughs and says that’s half the fun. They decide to make a roommate contract. Shay suggests they put it on video and then shows off her skills with the camera. Clearly not her first time she’s used it. Back in the present we revel in Severide’s pain. Oh so much drama and all it cost us was the best character on the show!

Back at 51, Otis is asking Brett how she ended up in Chicago. Turns out she ran away from her fiance and right out of her small town. On the other side of the house, Mills learns that his grandfather is still alive and living close by! Oh for joy, new characters we don’t care about to help ease the loss of the one we did love. Newhouse hands him his family tree and plays a few bars of the “Who Do You Think You Are?” theme music.

The double date hasn’t even started and Boden is trying to convince Donna to make it as short as possible. He wants to get away from Mouch and Platt as quick as he can but Donna thinks he needs to engage with humanity. We can argue whether Mouch really counts. Mouch produces tickets for a Led Zeppelin cover band and Donna agrees that it sounds fun before Boden can fake an excuse.

Boo Radley Van Mills is staking out his family tree and we care almost as little as we do about Boo Radley Van Cullen’s mom. Back at the firehouse, Mouch wants in on the Molly’s expansion. Dawson tells Casey she needs to reschedule lunch with his sister so he can go to lunch with Antonio and, by the way, she’s transferring soon. Before they can finish their heartwarming chat about how 51 won’t be the same without her they get called out.

The call is to a car that has rolled onto a hydrant. A woman is trapped under the water line and by the time they pull her out she’s not breathing. There’s no cric kit in the bag but newbie paramedic improvises one. Dawson’s so impressed she lets her drive the rig.

Dawson sure has been spending a lot of time with Antonio lately. She tells Casey it’s because he’s have a rough time, too. Casey wishes she would talk to him. She says she’s fine, in that “I just lost my eye-shag buddy, my best friend, and semi-platonic work partner” kind of way. Casey starts to leave when he spots Severide waiting on his motorcycle.

Mouch waits for the Chief for their double date but it starts to look like Boden is going to stand him up. Instead the Chief reveals a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and asks when he should pick Mouch and Platt up.

Dawson is very much not having lunch with Antonio. She’s sitting in the chaplain’s office for the sixth time and doing her best Will Hunting impression. She’s not talking and the chaplain gives her a pep talk and she breaks down. She told Shay to switch places and she would be alive if Gaby hadn’t done that.

Severide is standing outside his apartment looking up. He and Casey walk in and start packing up Shay’s stuff. There’s the helmet they gave her after she nearly died that time. Severide can’t stay there without her so Casey insists he come stay with him and Dawson. Should be cozy, right? Severide slips in the video of their contract and we see Shay one last time. She tells him that no matter what happens they promise to be there for each other, always. Severide cries as he watches it.

I can’t say I was shocked by Shay’s death. The summer articles about the show led me to believe she would be the one to die. From a storytelling place, it makes absolute sense. Shay was central to more characters on the show than anyone else. Her death would make the biggest impact and it sets up a season full of drama for all of the characters. But that doesn’t take into account the fact that the dead lesbian is a tired trope.

Even more tired is the idea that women on television shows exist solely to advance the storylines of their male counterparts. They were never going to kill Severide or Casey (in spite of the fact that last season we learned that one good knock to the head could be the end of Matt). Instead, they looked around and found that the way to make Severide more interesting was to kill his best friend. Shay gets sacrificed so we can watch Kelly deal with his grief, so he can spiral out of control, or rage, or screw things up with Det. Hairporn, or whatever else they have in store for him.

This is the third time this show has killed a female character (yes, they also killed Darden but he has had maybe one minute of screen time, total). Hailey died to advance Casey’s storyline. Jones died, at least in part, to advance Dawson’s but also to advance Herrmann’s character growth. Now, Shay is dead to give Severide room to grow. It’s disappointing. Not just because this is a lame trope, but also because we have lost a character we loved before we got a chance to really know her.

So, while I understand this made sense from a storytelling standpoint, I can’t ignore the greater picture it fits into. Female characters need to be more than just props to make male characters look good or to give them something to overcome. For a while Leslie Shay was a character who advanced her own plots, had her own triumphs and losses, and even a smidgen of a love life and it’s a sad thing to see her join the pantheon of dead lesbians so Severide could have a reason to cry.

Thanks to all of you who have been tweeting along with the #ShaycagoFire hashtag and to everyone who has read these recaps. I will miss writing them almost as much as I will miss Shay and her priceless quips.

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