S11.E22: Red Waterfall

[jewel21]

Quote

Brett waits for life-changing news; Herrmann encounters a psychic with a grave warning on a call; Kidd finds a new lead on the Homeland Security case.

Airdate: 05/24/2023

Season finale!

[anna0852]

So either Kara is leaving or Jesse is coming back if Sylvie says ‘yes’.

Anyone know Christian’s contract status? This is the second time the season has ended with Mouch’s life on the line.

Hope Taylor is able to return. I don’t like the character assassination (we don’t need another Alex Karev situation) and I really don’t want to spend season 12 dealing with divorce fallout.

[DanaK]

The young lady with the baby now has custody back so she can let Sylvia adopt, but it isn’t a done deal yet, right? The lady can change her mind and keep the baby, though that seems unlikely

[Debbiejo]

So Casey, upon hearing of Sylvia’s breakup, just plops down on one knee and proposes???  Not even some conversations with her about trying to resume their relationship?  Has he even once seen the baby she is trying to adopt?

[Artsda]

I guess they don't know about Severide returning, it's off now being his father. So they left it open for Casey to come back and for marriage. 

Mouch dying again. 

If kydd doesn't return im good with that.

[preeya]

Triple cliffhanger . . . . .  Mouch, Severide, adoption/marriage OR death, divorce, ready made family.

[Dowel Jones]

I'm all in favor of plot exposition, but I wish this show would lean a bit more toward realism.  I was always trained "Don't touch the evidence.  Let the investigators handle it."  Yet, Kidd picks up a .50 cal boomer, takes it back to the station, doesn't even call anyone until she talks to Casey clear over in Portland.  Too bad there's no one in the Chicago area with any expertise in terrorism.  Had the episode not turned out as it did, any defense attorney would get that bullet thrown out as evidence because, who saw Kidd pick it up?  I think that's the earliest forehead slap I've ever had on this show.

I think Casey's return and marriage proposal was a not too subtle sign to Taylor Kinney that "Thank you for your time here, but we're going to move on with or without you."

Yeah, Casey isn't under Boden's supervision anymore, but that was ridiculous that three of the 51 crew were allowed to follow him.  Not one of them is trained in law enforcement and if those two clowns hadn't been blind all four of them would have been shot dead.

Assuming the power company guy turned off the entire transformer, didn't that cause 80,000 people to lose their power anyway?  Somebody better check on one of the highrises in the area to see if a criminal mastermind is breaking into a vault with a whole bunch of money inside.

[MsJamieDornan]

4 hours ago, Artsda said:

If kydd doesn't return im good with that

Perfect !

[KeithJ]

15 hours ago, Debbiejo said:

So Casey, upon hearing of Sylvia’s breakup, just plops down on one knee and proposes???  Not even some conversations with her about trying to resume their relationship?  Has he even once seen the baby she is trying to adopt?

How exactly is Silvie going to care for a baby as a single mom and still be a paramedic?  Don't the paramedics work 24 hours on / 24 hours off like the firefighters do?

[roamyn]

18 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

How exactly is Silvie going to care for a baby as a single mom and still be a paramedic?  Don't the paramedics work 24 hours on / 24 hours off like the firefighters do?

It can be done.  I know several nurses/lab techs that choose double shifts to then be off for two days in a row.  All of them are mothers, and one is a single mother to two.  

You just need to have the right caregiver in place, and sitters in the event of an emergency situation.

(The two nurses I know that do this actually had their mothers/parents help out during COVID.  My lab tech relative didn't have too much change in her schedule at that time).

[dovegrey]

I caught this episode because of the preview. Haven’t watched since sometime last year and felt like I haven’t missed anything.

The parking garage scene was so silly. For starters, 81 was jingling their gear all over the place, and the bad guys didn’t hear them coming or “sneaking.” They all would have been dead. But it was almost nice to see Casey leading 81 again (except for poor Mouch).

Kidd’s handwringing about Severide becoming his dad struck me as such a waste. These writers spent 6+ seasons getting them together, with Severide’s only solid development across this entire endless series being him settling down, and now they’re apparently trying to hang Kinney’s absence on Severide being “destined” to become Benny (which has already been addressed at least two other times with Stellaride)? Why. He's probably doing dumb shit firefighters would never do, like usual, only not in Chicago.

I can’t tell if Spencer is coming back, if Kilmer is leaving, if Spencer agreed to come back as recurring (like a Donna or Chloe), or if they’re going to torpedo Brettsey once and for all. I mean, Casey could come back as a captain or batt chief on a different shift and we’d never need to see him - and, if he comes back, he really shouldn't be at 51 with Brett, and it would make tons more sense for them to run on different shifts so someone is always home and they get a day off together every couple of days. But if Spencer comes back and Kinney doesn't, I bet Casey takes over Squad and all logic goes out the window.

Anyway, I hope Brett says yes and they’re happy together. Casey’s wanted a kid from literally the first episode of this show, and I’d love for him to end with a happy family, whether that’s in Chicago or Portland. Just…don’t repeat the Louie story.

[iMonrey]

What's this crap about Severide being a wanderer all of a sudden? Severide has been at the same fire station for at least 12 years now. That doesn't spell "wanderer" to me. It's not like he has a history of taking off like this either. I realize they have to explain the actor's absence some way, but it feels like this came out of nowhere. And did Severide's mom actually say that to Stella? I recall no such conversation, or why she would even think Kelly takes after his father.

Would they really kill off Mouch? The actor will be 61 this year, that's a lot for a physically grueling job like being a firefighter. I could see where the show might think it unrealistic for him to keep that job at that age. But I wouldn't want them to actually kill him off.

As for the rest of it, I'm so used to the fire fighters playing superhero all I can do at this point is roll my eyes. You wanna talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight? The fire fighters were armed only with axes and mallets. 🙄

[Dowel Jones]

I kind of wonder why Hermann didn't even notice the rapidly expanding pool of blood in front of his feet before Mouch actually coded.

[NJRadioGuy]

Why would they have various scanners running if, as they said, they are monitoring every CFD call? THEY HAVE REAL CFD MOTOROLA RADIOS, and IRL there is always radio chatter going on and every FF knows what they're listening for all the time! There are only two dispatch channels for the entire city (Main and Englewood; North Side and South Side respectively). And I laughed at the ~40 year old Bearcat 215 first-gen digital scanner (receiver) with a Regency CB mic plugged in the side, displaying 10.745 MHz. I did like the SDS-200 above it, though. Best scanner ever made. Too bad it was locked on a FD dispatch channel for some place called Steger Estates, IL., well south of Chicago. Very curious. I wonder If that $750 scanner is actually in the real CFD Station 18 or just on the filming set? The RadioGuy/dispatch geek in me asks questions like this <grin>. I replaced one of my pictured 996p2 scanners with that SDS last month. Worth every penny!

The power station/switch yard. That first callout was not a transformer on fire. It was the base of an insulator that was burning, and for no more than medium voltage levels at that. They don't burn. Because they're insulators. Made of porcelain. That's their job description. A 240V or 480V disconnect lever switch would *not* de-energize primary wires going into or out of the actual transformer. They would almost certainly be carrying 5-figure voltage levels and the arc flashes would be substantial.  I didn't closely look at that substation to see the layout but it didn't look like a major distribution point. One guy, with no PPE, pulling a handle? I don't teeeeenk so, Lucy. Call the system operator on the landline and get the substation bypassed and de-energized PDFQ. There are three high voltage "phases" leading into the yard and three phases out of the yard. All six lines have to be remotely disconnected to completely de-energize the substation, and those de-energized lines inside the yard must be verified connected to earth ground before it's considered "safe." That process is absolutely non trivial. Often it's done remotely with motorized contactors, but in a smaller switch yard it can be done manually but painstakingly slowly and carefully. One guy in a hard hat is laughable. Same as sending a fireman into a fully involved house fire with a garden hose and a raincoat.

Keep sending 10-1s on the radio until every blue flashing light in northern Illinois rolls in. You can bet black SUVs with black tinted windows would be on scene within 5 minutes given the state of alert.

Why a deck gun? The only thing that could possibly burn (once power was removed) would be the transformer oil from the burst tank, and you'd want foam or some other chemical agent for that, and it might even self-extinguish. Spraying water on equipment that might possibly still have been energized would be a very quick and permanent exit. No matter how you slice it that facility will be down for days, and likely weeks. It's far too small to power the entire city; more likely a transit or heavy-rail type thing by the looks of it. Still a major PITA, though.

Sylvie. Baaaayyyyybeeeeeeeeeee! Not just no, but Oh F--K NO. Bad enough we had to endure Louie. Bad enough we have to endure Burgess' foundling on PD. Can't anybody on One Chicago acquire their babies the normal way? I really like Brett as a character (nice moral center of niceness that this show does so well with) but if all this plays out then take Casey and Julia back to PDX. I just don't want any more manufactured BS baby drama.

Great pain is quite likely Mouch dying, I hate to say. He's my favourite character on the whole show but how much of his story is left to tell? I hope it's a false flag, but I got a bad feeling. Given the reduced One Chicago budgets for next year I can see them chopping off a few members of each show's cast.

I don't care about Severide that much at this point. With Casey it was a great pairing. Each by themselves? Not so much. If he leaves he leaves, let Stella cry and then fall into Carver's arms next season.

Edited May 26, 2023 by NJRadioGuy

[Dowel Jones]

11 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

Why a deck gun?

My guess is that the producers said "Have we ever used a deck gun for an incident?  I can't remember.  Let's do it for the season finale.  Forget about realism."

[Josh371982]

On 5/26/2023 at 1:52 AM, NJRadioGuy said:

Why would they have various scanners running if, as they said, they are monitoring every CFD call? THEY HAVE REAL CFD MOTOROLA RADIOS, and IRL there is always radio chatter going on and every FF knows what they're listening for all the time! There are only two dispatch channels for the entire city (Main and Englewood; North Side and South Side respectively). And I laughed at the ~40 year old Bearcat 215 first-gen digital scanner (receiver) with a Regency CB mic plugged in the side, displaying 10.745 MHz. I did like the SDS-200 above it, though. Best scanner ever made. Too bad it was locked on a FD dispatch channel for some place called Steger Estates, IL., well south of Chicago. Very curious. I wonder If that $750 scanner is actually in the real CFD Station 18 or just on the filming set? The RadioGuy/dispatch geek in me asks questions like this <grin>. I replaced one of my pictured 996p2 scanners with that SDS last month. Worth every penny!

The power station/switch yard. That first callout was not a transformer on fire. It was the base of an insulator that was burning, and for no more than medium voltage levels at that. They don't burn. Because they're insulators. Made of porcelain. That's their job description. A 240V or 480V disconnect lever switch would *not* de-energize primary wires going into or out of the actual transformer. They would almost certainly be carrying 5-figure voltage levels and the arc flashes would be substantial.  I didn't closely look at that substation to see the layout but it didn't look like a major distribution point. One guy, with no PPE, pulling a handle? I don't teeeeenk so, Lucy. Call the system operator on the landline and get the substation bypassed and de-energized PDFQ. There are three high voltage "phases" leading into the yard and three phases out of the yard. All six lines have to be remotely disconnected to completely de-energize the substation, and those de-energized lines inside the yard must be verified connected to earth ground before it's considered "safe." That process is absolutely non trivial. Often it's done remotely with motorized contactors, but in a smaller switch yard it can be done manually but painstakingly slowly and carefully. One guy in a hard hat is laughable. Same as sending a fireman into a fully involved house fire with a garden hose and a raincoat.

Keep sending 10-1s on the radio until every blue flashing light in northern Illinois rolls in. You can bet black SUVs with black tinted windows would be on scene within 5 minutes given the state of alert.

Why a deck gun? The only thing that could possibly burn (once power was removed) would be the transformer oil from the burst tank, and you'd want foam or some other chemical agent for that, and it might even self-extinguish. Spraying water on equipment that might possibly still have been energized would be a very quick and permanent exit. No matter how you slice it that facility will be down for days, and likely weeks. It's far too small to power the entire city; more likely a transit or heavy-rail type thing by the looks of it. Still a major PITA, though.

Sylvie. Baaaayyyyybeeeeeeeeeee! Not just no, but Oh F--K NO. Bad enough we had to endure Louie. Bad enough we have to endure Burgess' foundling on PD. Can't anybody on One Chicago acquire their babies the normal way? I really like Brett as a character (nice moral center of niceness that this show does so well with) but if all this plays out then take Casey and Julia back to PDX. I just don't want any more manufactured BS baby drama.

Great pain is quite likely Mouch dying, I hate to say. He's my favourite character on the whole show but how much of his story is left to tell? I hope it's a false flag, but I got a bad feeling. Given the reduced One Chicago budgets for next year I can see them chopping off a few members of each show's cast.

I don't care about Severide that much at this point. With Casey it was a great pairing. Each by themselves? Not so much. If he leaves he leaves, let Stella cry and then fall into Carver's arms next season.

Yeah with the reported budget cuts for next season and after seeing this episode I am wondering if they are going to kill off Mouch and actually risk having Brett, Casey and Severide gone as well. I read something like the episode counts  for all the regulars is gonna be 15 episodes. 

[NJRadioGuy]

11 hours ago, Josh371982 said:

Yeah with the reported budget cuts for next season and after seeing this episode I am wondering if they are going to kill off Mouch and actually risk having Brett, Casey and Severide gone as well. I read something like the episode counts  for all the regulars is gonna be 15 episodes. 

In a show about a firehouse these kinds of budgets problems will be especially hard to deal with. It's not like T81 and R3 can operate with 3 crew every shift. It's easy to sideline Boden since as a Chief he would respond to calls that the apparatus in his house aren't assigned to. Kiley will be off to the academy, but how much more cutting can they do to the core cast? In Chicago PD they can alternate between storylines sidelining half the squad every other episode, and that works just fine. Even in Med, they can focus more on the case of the week and not feature certain members who aren't involved. But when you have a firehouse with two featured pieces of fire apparatus, both of which need a 4-person crew to be functional, it's a vastly different story. If they take Engine 51 out of the equation, as it had been for most of the show's run, then what do you do with Hermann? If Kinney leaves the show Cruz likely gets promoted to LT on Squad, and that leaves a vacancy. Gallo to Squad, Hermann back to T81 (a demotion) as a crewman, then? But still they can only appear in 15 episodes. This is going to be increasingly difficult to watch and retain any ability to suspend what little disbelief is left.

[dovegrey]

1 hour ago, NJRadioGuy said:

In a show about a firehouse these kinds of budgets problems will be especially hard to deal with. It's not like T81 and R3 can operate with 3 crew every shift. It's easy to sideline Boden since as a Chief he would respond to calls that the apparatus in his house aren't assigned to. Kiley will be off to the academy, but how much more cutting can they do to the core cast? In Chicago PD they can alternate between storylines sidelining half the squad every other episode, and that works just fine. Even in Med, they can focus more on the case of the week and not feature certain members who aren't involved. But when you have a firehouse with two featured pieces of fire apparatus, both of which need a 4-person crew to be functional, it's a vastly different story. If they take Engine 51 out of the equation, as it had been for most of the show's run, then what do you do with Hermann? If Kinney leaves the show Cruz likely gets promoted to LT on Squad, and that leaves a vacancy. Gallo to Squad, Hermann back to T81 (a demotion) as a crewman, then? But still they can only appear in 15 episodes. This is going to be increasingly difficult to watch and retain any ability to suspend what little disbelief is left.

If Kinney leaves and Spencer doesn't come back (sounds like they probably can't afford him anyway), I'd write Squad 3 out of Firehouse 51 and have Cruz decide between leaving the firehouse or replacing Mouch (or Carver) on Truck. The only reason to keep Squad is so Severide has a reason to be at 51. Also, I don't think they really need to have an Ambo 61 story every episode, with or without Brett. I'd also say to write out Herrmann/Engine, write out Mouch (and I love Mouch), put Ritter on Truck, and then focus the show on Truck 81 with Kidd, Cruz, Gallo, and Ritter, with sometimes Violet, sometimes Boden, and maybe Brett.

I'm curious how it will all work out without Haas, with the budget issues, and with the viewers. I'm surprised this show is still consistently #1 on Wednesdays and I have no idea what draws viewers in. I only stuck around for Casey, and this episode was like watching a bad color of paint dry. 🫣

[NJRadioGuy]

The takeaway for me from reading the conditions of renewal in the trades a few weeks back was (I think) no more than 15 episodes per actor. If they keep the episode count at 22 then it will look nothing like what we're used to. Obviously there's no budget going forward for complex technical or water rescues, major fire scenes and similar VFX-laden calls, so probably a lot more MVAs and ambo calls--which quite frankly is closer to real FD responses these days anyways, but not as much for TV viewers to engage with.

[MsJamieDornan]

2 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

The takeaway for me from reading the conditions of renewal in the trades a few weeks back was (I think) no more than 15 episodes per actor.

What prompted all this ?

[NJRadioGuy]

57 minutes ago, MsJamieDornan said:

What prompted all this ?

A lot of factors are in play, but the most significant is that C3 ratings for all scripted broadcast series continue to plummet. Ignore pretty much any and every rating number you read except for the 18-49 totals, and even there, the ratings that allow a show to continue or not are never made public. The C3 numbers are the numbers of people (in that all-important 18-49 demo) who are Neilsen households with measuring devices and who watch the show live or within 3 days with the commercials intact. i.e. they actually watch the ads. Advertisers pay for the show, and they won't pay for something where people aren't watching their expensive commercials, regardless how popular the show is.

Fire is a very popular show and the publicly-released ratings (typically overnights and 2-day, and Live+7, in which ad viewing is not included) are good but not stellar. Survivor is opposite One Chicago; it's not scripted, cheaper to produce and it eats Dick Wolf's proverbial ham sandwich for lunch. Here's last Wednesday's finale numbers:

Again, the ONLY numbers here that matter (and at that, not fully since they don't factor ads) are the Sales Demo Ratings 18-49, second column. 0.4something. Two or three years ago a 0.4something would be cause for immediate cancellation. In 2023 those are just enough to warrant renewal, albeit at lower prices going forward. One Chicago series are old shows with expensive actors, expensive production costs and have to make the network money and get eyeballs on ads.

There are other inside-baseball factors at play but compared to C3, nothing matters anywhere near as much. The only programming that makes any sort of money for networks in 2023 is live sports, and at that, mostly NFL football or NBA basketball. Everything else is just to help build the brand.

If, like me, you have little use for sportsball, the headwinds are getting stronger and network scripted series will likely be a thing of the past within 10 years and possibly less. There's talk of dropping 10pm from networks for the same reason. Enjoy CM/CF/CPD while you can because the model that pays for them is failing worse and worse every year. Sportsball subsidizes the shows, to a degree, as well.

[FnkyChkn34]

On 5/24/2023 at 11:01 PM, Debbiejo said:

So Casey, upon hearing of Sylvia’s breakup, just plops down on one knee and proposes???  Not even some conversations with her about trying to resume their relationship?  Has he even once seen the baby she is trying to adopt?

I don't think he cares, he's always wanted children.  People blame Gabby for the Louie storyline, but Casey wanted a kid just as much as she did.

Reading about these budget issues and the predictions (or knowledge, not trying to say anyone is wrong) about next season is pretty disappointing.  This was the original show for One Chicago, and it's always been the best, IMO.  (Except PD was just as good for about 3-4 seasons before it went downhill.)  Why don't they just get rid of Med and PD and throw more money at the original?

If people have to leave the show, and one is Severide, then Kidd needs to go too.  They can say that Severide got an opportunity that he couldn't pass up, and there is an opening for her too so they can leave together for a happily ever after.  If they can't afford to get Jesse Spencer back, then Sylvie can go too.  At this point, Cruz, Hermann, Gallo, Ritter, Violet, and Carter can carry the show, with Boden and Mouch as support, depending on what happens to him.  Maybe Mouch needs to become the new Kylie and be on desk duty.  If both Kidd and Sylvie were to leave in my example, however, I'm sure they could get a no-name decent actress to round out more women with Violet for a lot less money than they're paying Kara or Miranda; they could also keep Kylie.  

I really don't want to watch a show that has Kidd without Severide.  Sylvie without Casey was bad enough.  (And Upton without Halstead was so much worse... though Halstead without Lindsey was the worst and started that downward spiral... but I digress.) Once they've established the relationships, they are not good at figuring out what to do when they're done.  

[jabRI]

On 5/25/2023 at 5:19 PM, iMonrey said:

What's this crap about Severide being a wanderer all of a sudden? Severide has been at the same fire station for at least 12 years now. That doesn't spell "wanderer" to me. It's not like he has a history of taking off like this either. I realize they have to explain the actor's absence some way, but it feels like this came out of nowhere. And did Severide's mom actually say that to Stella? I recall no such conversation, or why she would even think Kelly takes after his father.

I think the implication was his being a womanizer like his father, not so much having staying power at a firehouse.  But either way, its definitely come out of left field for this couple, I agree.

[izabella]

On 5/25/2023 at 3:58 PM, dovegrey said:

Kidd’s handwringing about Severide becoming his dad struck me as such a waste. These writers spent 6+ seasons getting them together, with Severide’s only solid development across this entire endless series being him settling down, and now they’re apparently trying to hang Kinney’s absence on Severide being “destined” to become Benny (which has already been addressed at least two other times with Stellaride)? Why. He's probably doing dumb shit firefighters would never do, like usual, only not in Chicago.

With this whole storyline, I've been sitting here wondering if Stella has forgotten how she ghosted Kelly while on her Girls on Fire cross country tour, which she kept extending without talking to him about it.  And how she expected him to just be fine with her behavior without any explanation.   She set the precedent.

Edited May 29, 2023 by izabella

[DanaK]

At some point, given the show’s age, it might be better to just end it rather than keep cutting the budget and/or license fee. I would give it and some other long running shows, like Blue Bloods, one last season of maybe 13 episodes. That seems better than wringing steep salary reductions out of the actors and cutting the budget in general