S08.E05: Buckle Up

[jewel21]

Kidd must prove herself at the National Firefighter Leadership Conference while the rest of Firehouse 51 is called to two eerily similar car wrecks. Mouch tries to keep everyone in the firehouse informed by starting a newsletter, but things quickly get out of hand. Cruz deals with a heartbreak.

Airdate: 10.23.2019

[izabella]

Yay Cruz!!!  Finally, some happiness and joy for him.

[spunky]

Herman is the worst! What was his son supposed to do, tie the kid to a chair so he couldn’t jump from the roof to the pool!? I’m sure this was a PSA for all the people who do crap like this for you tube followers, but the message was lost the moment Herman opened his mouth. Go Stella! Hopefully she doesn’t become the next Gaby (whom I liked until the writers ruined her). Cruz finally found love.

[mxc90]

Where were the parents of the house? Why didn't Hermann get on their case?  The writers had to resolve it quick and have the son agree with him.

Did the kid that missed the pool get off "easy" with his injuries (no cuts or blood)? His pride is going to get hit harder! No way he can show up to school with out being mocked for this! His crash was probably posted on Youtube before Hermann arrived.

Is it a bad sign for Cruz and Chloe's future if the cupcakes drop to the ground? I bet Cruz had already returned the ring. Now it will cost him a few extra bucks for a new ring due to her indecision.

So the collision between the little yellow car and the blue SUV was so hard... it lifted the end of the SUV high in the air for the Miata(?) to fit its front under it? That is some serious tailgating and lack of attention on the road!

The 2 chain reactions tonight appears fitting for a highway not a regular road. The last one, it seems thoses vehicles needed to be doing at least 70 mph to make those type of damages.

Ah! The season will not be complete if we didn't have an "angry" suit showing up to make threats to Casey and Mouch! 

Private detective Kelly Severide at your service! And the guy never once took a swing at Kelly or tried to force Kelly off the road or tow away his car. He just showed a mean face all the time. And of course, the police is informed and arrives after Kelly has solved the case.

Is Boden hinting at leaving or major changes to the ranks in 51?

Good for Kidd. At least, we didn't get the jealous firefighters doing some 3rd grade backstabbing to her for being a non officer or answering the question correctly. I liked the battalion chief running the program (no nonsense).

Who knew Mouch has the speed of a cheetah? He disappeared on Gallo so fast, he must have heard someone say "dinner is ready".

Cap is lucky he didn't get any harassment charges for his puzzle.

Edited October 24, 2019 by mxc90

[jewel21]

I'm happy Cruz finally had things go his way. Just don't kill Chloe off, show. Also, did Cruz really have to drop those cake pops? That's a waste of perfectly good sweets, damn it. 

Herman is a sucky parent. He's always mad and yelling at his kids. His son shouldn't be responsible for other kids' stupidity. And, his son performed CPR and kept that kid alive. Herman should be proud of his son, not mad. 

[rhys]

I thought the leadership conference was going to be all leadership not more firefighting academy 2.0. I figured it would be classroom, round table discussion, etc. Really surprised at that.

[LittleIggy]

I loved the Chief roaring at everyone squabbling like school kids over that newsletter. Eamonn Walker can bellow like nobody’s business. 😆

[preeya]

Joe Cruz gets his soulmate.

Severide is the new Gabby Dawson with better results.

Herman remains being dick.

Kidd turned into a bad-ass and it looks like promotion time for her, (but where?).

What's up with the kids outdoor pool party while the adults are wearing long sleeves and jackets?

The newsletter plot was childish and a waste of time.

[tinkerbell]

Good episode.  I really wanted the crooked tow company to be called Lincoln Towing, after the actual chicago crooked tow company.

[Dowel Jones]

I was all set to vent about the absurdity of an in-station newsletter, not vetted by management, but fortunately Boden stole my thunder.  That could have gone wrong in so many ways.

I have to agree with the downtown guy about using a civilian to assist on a rescue.  Maybe he got an earful from his boss, which gave him the bad attitude, but he's right.  Mouch should have cleared it with his boss at the time (Casey) so the liability at least would land on the incident commander.  Of course, Casey uttered the Station 51 mantra "Nothing went wrong, it ended okay."

I guess Chicago PD is so busy that they would never notice two brake check accidents in the same area in town in one day, so it falls to Severide to take over the investigation.  In real life, he might have shot the investigation all to hell by contacting the victim/suspect without police approval first.

Those pool floaters really stabilized that guy's head and neck, yep.  After which the medics just cut them off in the ambo and put a c collar on him anyway. 

[Guildford]

7 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Herman is a sucky parent. He's always mad and yelling at his kids. His son shouldn't be responsible for other kids' stupidity. And, his son performed CPR and kept that kid alive. Herman should be proud of his son, not mad. 

Correction....Herman is a sucky person full stop. What exactly does he bring to this show other than aggravation, attitude & piss poor leadership?

[dovegrey]

Severide isn't a cop but plays one playing one on TV. What's so hard about handing reports and information over to PD? The only reason Boden didn't shut Severide down completely (like he shut Casey down back in the domestic violence episode in season 6, like he shut Severide down at the end of season 7) was because the writers couldn't have him do that. It's bad, lazy writing.

Brett and the supporting characters are pretending to be on a Disney tween sitcom, but the writers, after how many seasons of this crap, still want to call this a primetime drama. I feel bad for Christian Stolte, who tweeted that he was really excited for this episode (literally because he got screentime); Mouch was torn between what could have been a decent, drama-worthy B storyline (with the second-guessing/safety committee guy and Casey) and whatever the hell the newsletter storyline was supposed to be.

Useless Casey needs to be written off, and Jesse Spencer needs to send Monica Raymund a strongly worded letter about taking his (co-)lead status with her when she left (I'm not being literal). It seems like all Casey must do is sit in his off-screen office and hide from his coworkers in between tone outs - which, can't blame him for that, but Spencer's probably getting paid a lot of money for something like ten lines and a "who cares" facial expression per episode.

I wish Kidd would have turned to Casey for help with the conference (they used to have a really cool arms-length friendship thing going) and tried to hide her self-doubt from Severide. It would have been far better than her damn near melting into Severide's arms and acting like a ditz because of all her sudden insecurities. Don't get me wrong: I love that the writers went the imposter syndrome route with her, but it's the hard pivot in her characterization that bugs me. She was awesome at the "conference" - but how embarrassing for all these wonderful, top-tier officers to have no idea how to run a scene. It is now established that House 51 is the only house IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY with competent people.

Herrmann is a dick. Such a dick. I work with kids and the #1 lesson is that a kid is only responsible for the kid's own self. Way to set this kid up for a life of guilt and insecurity. (His kid could have spoken up and tried to do something, but Herrmann made it about being responsible for the friend's decisions. NOPE.)

Couple things I'm wondering about:

-why Boden was so relieved that Kidd is officer-ready. (I think it was 8x1 or 8x2, when I posted that it felt like a big leadership leapfrog was being set up at 51...and with the anvil foreshadowing about Mouch having another chance to drive the Truck someday, that's a near certainty now, IMO).

-why Stellaride is getting the perfect honeymoon treatment. When is the bottom going to fall out? When Kidd becomes an officer and they butt heads?

-why they brought the safety committee guy back from 8x1 and why he still seems to have a bug up his butt about Casey's existence. Are they going to have Casey get nailed by this guy and have Kidd replace him? Or is this the lead up to "if you want to be Batt Chief Casey, get used to always being under scrutiny for every decision you make"?

[Waterston Fan]

Dang... you guys said the same things I felt about the episode. 

I wish Hermman got punched in the mouth sometimes. 

[jewel21]

They should have killed off Herman instead of Otis. Otis at least brought the humour, Herman is just constantly crabby.

[spunky]

4 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

He shoots his mouth off and apologizes later, he needs to think more before he speaks.

They were really using their "noodle" when they made that neck brace contraption.  That said, it didn't look like it was stabilizing that kid's head and neck very well.

It was Kelly Severide's turn to play the role of Jessica Fletcher.

I like pie far more than cake, sorry about that Mouch.

I'm waiting for his behavior to backfire on him. 

[iMonrey]

I don't normally mind Herrmann but I agree he was out of line blaming his kid for some other kid's idiocy. Just because he's the son of a fire fighter doesn't mean he's the designated police for everything other kids do around him. Geez. That was crazy. He should have gone looking for the parents and chewed them out instead.

Quote

Also, did Cruz really have to drop those cake pops? That's a waste of perfectly good sweets, damn it. 

That bugged me too! They could have just set them down first. I mean, she did say she baked them, not bought them. Perfectly good cake pops!

Quote

What's up with the kids outdoor pool party while the adults are wearing long sleeves and jackets?

Yeah, what time of year is this supposed to be? It's way too cold in Chicago right now for an outdoor pool party. 

I'm not sure I got the whole tow truck scheme. The tow guy paid someone to cause crashes by slamming on his breaks, which would cause a pileup behind him. Then . . . the tow truck shows up and offers the crash victims a tow? And then gouges them on the price? What was he doing when Severide showed up at the bridge and he took off with some wrecked car? If the crash victims are agreeing to the tow why did he speed off and where was the driver of that wrecked car?

[dovegrey]

50 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm not sure I got the whole tow truck scheme. The tow guy paid someone to cause crashes by slamming on his breaks, which would cause a pileup behind him. Then . . . the tow truck shows up and offers the crash victims a tow? And then gouges them on the price? What was he doing when Severide showed up at the bridge and he took off with some wrecked car? If the crash victims are agreeing to the tow why did he speed off and where was the driver of that wrecked car?

No, the tow truck scheme storyline was nonsensical - literally nonsensical - largely due to the guy stealing a car in front of the firefighters. At first, I figured he was staging the accidents and then conveniently arriving to help clear the scene ($$). When he stole the car and ran from Severide, my SO thought it was a chopshop operation, but that still seems nonsensical. Even if the plot was to forcibly tow the cars and make the owners pay to get them back, it seems like that would last about a day or two before the police got involved. This guy was terrible at whatever he was trying to do.

If the writers cared about internal consistency, the storyline would've been Boden orders Severide to call Halstead and let CPD do their job, Halstead takes care of it in no time flat, operation gets shut down, end of issue. But then Severide couldn't be a real life Chicago Firecop and that just won't do. 

[Dowel Jones]

I think the driver of the wrecked car was the one in the hospital.  He was part of the crew but this one went bad on him. 

First off, no car would leave the scene of the accident until the PD clears the scene after investigation.  Running away with that car would immediately draw heat for the tow operator, and PD wouldn't even need hints from Fire to head over to the impound yard.  And E-51 wouldn't have had to show up at the yard just in time for the arrests.

4 hours ago, cbsspecialreport said:

. She was awesome at the "conference" - but how embarrassing for all these wonderful, top-tier officers to have no idea how to run a scene.

I'll stand up a bit for those officers that attempted to answer the Chief's question.  He asked specifically "What do you do?"  A couple of them started to answer that, but he cut them off.  Kidd said what she wouldn't do, but not what she would.  There's a common acronym in firefighting, RECEO, which stands for Rescue, Exposure, Confinement, Extinguishment, Overhaul.  It's the order of priorities on a structure fire (Exposures are the other buildings or floors that might catch on fire).  Obviously, as she said, rescue is out, but you have to come up with a plan for the rest of it.  Simply stating what you wouldn't do is not an answer.  With all that in mind, I get that it was designed to show that Kidd does have some leadership potential

[SG11]

Herman is a terrible parent. Yes tell the kid he should tell his friend not to do it. NO you do not say he disappointed you. And then the kid says he’s sorry for letting him down... does nitwit say, “no you didn’t, son?” No. Moron. Every time he deals with a kid he sounds like an idiot. “Im proud of you for keeping your friend alive” would have been nice.

By the way, his manner of speaking sounds way more like Boston area (where I’m from) than anyone from Chicago I know.

The towing scam was obvious, but I do not understand how Severide continues to be allowed to do criminal investigations by himself instead of reporting them to PD.  Bowden even directed him to at one point. And he drives the fire truck over to see the meanie who makes mean faces get arrested because... that’s what he takes to get lunch?

Cruz’s girlfriend’s reason for bailing was ridiculously obvious, come on. Coming back with the “ask me” move was cool though, snif.

Edited October 25, 2019 by SG11

[WinJet0819]

On 10/23/2019 at 10:27 PM, jewel21 said:

I'm happy Cruz finally had things go his way. Just don't kill Chloe off, show. Also, did Cruz really have to drop those cake pops? That's a waste of perfectly good sweets, damn it.

Couldn't agree more. So happy for Cruz to find his love. And a shout out to Sylvie for giving Chloe the push. Great way way to end the episode. And I agree he could have set down the cake pops instead of dropping them. They said "ASK ME", so they deserve some respect.

P.S. Though I will say I wouldn't be shocked if Minoso dropped those cake pops accidentally during the filming of the scene, and the director decided to just keep it in, rather than have wait for a new batch to be baked.

Edited October 25, 2019 by WinJet0819

[WinJet0819]

21 hours ago, cbsspecialreport said:

I wish Kidd would have turned to Casey for help with the conference (they used to have a really cool arms-length friendship thing going) and tried to hide her self-doubt from Severide. It would have been far better than her damn near melting into Severide's arms and acting like a ditz because of all her sudden insecurities. Don't get me wrong: I love that the writers went the imposter syndrome route with her, but it's the hard pivot in her characterization that bugs me. She was awesome at the "conference" - but how embarrassing for all these wonderful, top-tier officers to have no idea how to run a scene. It is now established that House 51 is the only house IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY with competent people.

Exactly this. I like the firefighter Stella over the needing-Severide Stella. Her constantly needing her boyfriend to reassure her with affection is annoying and takes away from her character and makes her look very week. Female first responders don't need constant reassurance from their significant other to know that they're good. They believe in themselves that they're good. That's why I miss the the Stella that first came onto this show. She was trying to be one of the guys and the best firefighter. Now, it's like her character only revolves around Severide and can't stand on her own two feet without him. Even, when they broke up, she still had to bring him up in every conversation and have awkward glances and conversations with him. It's tough to watch at times.

[Guildford]

10 minutes ago, WinJet0819 said:

Exactly this. I like the firefighter Stella over the needing-Severide Stella. Her constantly needing her boyfriend to reassure her with affection is annoying and takes away from her character and makes her look very week. Female first responders don't need constant reassurance from their significant other to know that they're good. They believe in themselves that they're good. That's why I miss the the Stella that first came onto this show. She was trying to be one of the guys and the best firefighter. Now, it's like her character only revolves around Severide and can't stand on her own two feet without him. Even, when they broke up, she still had to bring him up in every conversation and have awkward glances and conversations with him. It's tough to watch at times.

Thank You...that was perfectly written and I am disappointed that they've turned Stella into this needy character. I used to really enjoy her.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Thank You...that was perfectly written and I am disappointed that they've turned Stella into this needy character. I used to really enjoy her.

Eh, I've never warmed to Stella. She's just sort of there. She came out of nowhere because the show decided they needed more women in the cast and I've never felt like they've done anything with her to flesh out her character. We know so much about Casey and Severide's families, pasts, childhoods, etc., and we know a good deal about the home lives of Mouch, and Herrmann, and Otis. And God knows we knew all about Gabby. Stella still feels like one of those background characters like Capp or Tony only with more lines.

[dovegrey]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Eh, I've never warmed to Stella. She's just sort of there. She came out of nowhere because the show decided they needed more women in the cast and I've never felt like they've done anything with her to flesh out her character. We know so much about Casey and Severide's families, pasts, childhoods, etc., and we know a good deal about the home lives of Mouch, and Herrmann, and Otis. And God knows we knew all about Gabby. Stella still feels like one of those background characters like Capp or Tony only with more lines.

Stella became a main character around the time I believe the writers stopped writing for the characters. But. Everything we have learned about her stems from men: relationship with Grant, the whole Tyler thing last year, and Severide Severide Severide. I wish she was another Capp or Tony, so she could be a firefighter, period.

On the other hand, I don't think Kidd is the only one who isn't being developed. I came into Fire after season 7. I watched season 7 first, then binged the older seasons. If I hadn't watched the older seasons, many of these characters would be one-dimensional and superficial, with little interesting about them. Nothing new about Brett has come out since season 3, not even when we saw her in her hometown living in her parents' home. The last new insight into Casey was the domestic violence ep in season 6; he's become a glorified supporting character, where he's good for calls and that's about it. Severide's constant arcs last season only reinforced his childhood and arson insights rather than revealing anything new about him. And Boden's good for over-the-top dramatic reactions, period. The writers write plots and then force the characters into those plots. The writers don't write for the characters.

The other problem is that they've tiered off the characters, outside of calls. Casey and Severide don't talk to or interact with their firefighters, and so it's really...all plot. (Which is a shame, because the humor they're trying to create through newsletters, dumb EMTs, hockey goals, stines, piercing nozzles, etc used to come naturally, mostly through Jesse Spencer as Casey managing his firefighters. "On the count of 3, you're going to stop being delusional. Ready? Here we go... 1....")

[NYCFree]

On 10/25/2019 at 12:04 AM, SG11 said:

Herman is a terrible parent...

By the way, his manner of speaking sounds way more like Boston area (where I’m from) than anyone from Chicago I know.

The actor who plays Herrmann grew up in a Chicago suburb from the time he was four.

[CoyoteBlue]

3 hours ago, NYCFree said:

The actor who plays Herrmann grew up in a Chicago suburb from the time he was four.

I've lived in the area my entire life and only known one actual person who had a noticeable Southside accent. It's just the most noticeable accent because the rest of us pretty much sound like newscasters, so Southside Chicago apparently sounds closer to Boston (Southie Boston?) than other Chicagoans.

[gumbo]

On 10/25/2019 at 9:17 PM, cbsspecialreport said:

Stella became a main character around the time I believe the writers stopped writing for the characters. But. Everything we have learned about her stems from men: relationship with Grant, the whole Tyler thing last year, and Severide Severide Severide. I wish she was another Capp or Tony, so she could be a firefighter, period.

On the other hand, I don't think Kidd is the only one who isn't being developed. I came into Fire after season 7. I watched season 7 first, then binged the older seasons. If I hadn't watched the older seasons, many of these characters would be one-dimensional and superficial, with little interesting about them. Nothing new about Brett has come out since season 3, not even when we saw her in her hometown living in her parents' home. The last new insight into Casey was the domestic violence ep in season 6; he's become a glorified supporting character, where he's good for calls and that's about it. Severide's constant arcs last season only reinforced his childhood and arson insights rather than revealing anything new about him. And Boden's good for over-the-top dramatic reactions, period. The writers write plots and then force the characters into those plots. The writers don't write for the characters.

The other problem is that they've tiered off the characters, outside of calls. Casey and Severide don't talk to or interact with their firefighters, and so it's really...all plot. (Which is a shame, because the humor they're trying to create through newsletters, dumb EMTs, hockey goals, stines, piercing nozzles, etc used to come naturally, mostly through Jesse Spencer as Casey managing his firefighters. "On the count of 3, you're going to stop being delusional. Ready? Here we go... 1....")

They stopped developing characters after Gabby left.  It's like they invested all of their energy into Gabby, and then when she left, they just gave up

[iMonrey]

They certainly gave up on Casey. Honestly I think the writers are still waiting around hoping Monica Raymund decides she wants to come back. 

[mxc90]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

They certainly gave up on Casey. Honestly I think the writers are still waiting around hoping Monica Raymund decides she wants to come back. 

Now it makes sense why Sylvie and Matt didn't hint at any romance when she returned. They needed to avoid the triangle when the Great Gabby returns.

[juliet73]

On 10/23/2019 at 10:27 PM, jewel21 said:

Herman is a sucky parent. He's always mad and yelling at his kids. His son shouldn't be responsible for other kids' stupidity. And, his son performed CPR and kept that kid alive. Herman should be proud of his son, not mad.

THIS!!! Hermann's a firefighter and he let his son go to a pool party without any parental supervision!!! Where were the parents?  That's who Hermann should have been bitching out instead of his son who saved a life!  The EMT's and everyone over the age of 14 were in long sleeves and jackets so it obviously wasn't summer, but yet there's a pool party?  

The tow truck driver scheme plotline was stupid.  

I didn't care for the Stella conference storyline either.  She's not as experienced as the others but she answers one question correctly and suddenly she's Gabby?!  Everybody nominates her because she's the best?  Gag!

I'm glad Cruz got engaged and it's not to someone from 51.  Instead of eating up the clock with these lame subplots (newsletter, etc), I wish they would show them outside of work having a personal life...and not at Mollies and not with each other!

[SG11]

My guess was that everyone nominated Stella because they were hoping she would fail under pressure.

[Guildford]

1 hour ago, SG11 said:

My guess was that everyone nominated Stella because they were hoping she would fail under pressure.

But didn't they know she was from 51? The home and the greatest and best firefighters to ever walk the earth?

[WinJet0819]

9 hours ago, juliet73 said:

I'm glad Cruz got engaged and it's not to someone from 51.  Instead of eating up the clock with these lame subplots (newsletter, etc), I wish they would show them outside of work having a personal life...and not at Mollies and not with each other!

Couldn't agree more. It's amazing how many people are available to fall in love with that our outside of the workplace. The Chicago shows, for the most part, seem to forget this.

[SnarkySheep]

On 10/23/2019 at 10:34 PM, spunky said:

Herman is the worst! What was his son supposed to do, tie the kid to a chair so he couldn’t jump from the roof to the pool!? I’m sure this was a PSA for all the people who do crap like this for you tube followers, but the message was lost the moment Herman opened his mouth.

Luke is, what? 10-12? What kid that age EVER in the history of kids managed to successfully dissuade his peers from doing something stupid? Had he even tried, all that would have happened was the others laughing in his face, calling him a nerd, and doing it anyways. Surely Hermann remembers being that age?

What was the purpose of that ten-second Platt appearance at the end? What a waste of Amy Morton.

[spunky]

4 hours ago, SnarkySheep said:

Luke is, what? 10-12? What kid that age EVER in the history of kids managed to successfully dissuade his peers from doing something stupid? Had he even tried, all that would have happened was the others laughing in his face, calling him a nerd, and doing it anyways. Surely Hermann remembers being that age?

What was the purpose of that ten-second Platt appearance at the end? What a waste of Amy Morton.

Agreed on all points 

[anna0852]

On 10/23/2019 at 11:27 PM, jewel21 said:

Herman is a sucky parent. He's always mad and yelling at his kids. His son shouldn't be responsible for other kids' stupidity. And, his son performed CPR and kept that kid alive. Herman should be proud of his son, not mad. 

I was really hoping to see his wife rip him a new one for that piss-poor parenting. Herrmann owes a 'car when you're 16' size apology to his son.