S12.E11: Inside Man

[DanaK]

Quote

05/08/2024 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Wednesday) : Severide goes for an unexpected ride on Truck 81. Ritter's worlds collide when his secret cop boyfriend helps 51 track down Severide and the missing rig.

 

[Kleav]

Ritter’s too nice for his own good.  

[anna0852]

That was pretty good. Definitely a different kind of story. Reasonable explanation for why emergency vehicles are being stolen. All in all, not bad. I still wanna know what’s going on with the truck floater that seems a little too interested in Severide though. I’m still rolling with the popular theory that Jack Damon is Kelly’s kid and he still working up the nerve to say it.

[FnkyChkn34]

This would have been the perfect crossover episode. It's really too bad that their budget was cut so much. But I also hear that ratings are up and all 3 shows are popular on Peacock, so maybe that will help for next year. 

How do you just rip a steering wheel right off?  Damn.  That was a good episode. I think I'll watch it again though, because I really didn't catch what the bad guys were going to do?

Ritter needs to be careful... Jack Damon might have a good name (reminds me of Station 19 where Grey Damon plays Jack Gibson), but he's still super shady. 

[anna0852]

36 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

Jack Damon might have a good name (reminds me of Station 19 where Grey Damon plays Jack Gibson), but he's still super shady. 

That’s the first place my brain went as soon as I heard that name.

[scteel24]

I also think Damon might be Kelly's son. He must have had him pretty young though if it's true. But man he looked pretty evil at the end with Ritter!

I enjoyed the episode and Taylor did a great job.

Anyone else find him ultra sexy all banged up at the end?  😜

[preeya]

16 hours ago, anna0852 said:

I’m still rolling with the popular theory that Jack Damon is Kelly’s kid and he still working up the nerve to say it.

Or perhaps a brother fathered by the late Benny Severide.

[FnkyChkn34]

I think Kylie said that you have to be 21 to go to the fire academy. Is Damon brand new? He's probably 23, 24ish.  I'm pretty sure Severide is Taylor Kinney's age of 42, turning 43.  An old high school girlfriend? People on Twitter think Sev is too young, but the math works out.  

Obviously a half-brother is also a good bet. Or even Stella's half-brother, maybe?  

[anna0852]

1 hour ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I think Kylie said that you have to be 21 to go to the fire academy. Is Damon brand new? He's probably 23, 24ish.  I'm pretty sure Severide is Taylor Kinney's age of 42, turning 43.  An old high school girlfriend? People on Twitter think Sev is too young, but the math works out.  

Obviously a half-brother is also a good bet. Or even Stella's half-brother, maybe?  

The math absolutely can work out that this is a kid Kelly never knew about. Until he and Stella finally figured it out he was quite the ladies man and it’s not at all out of left field that a previous partner might not have informed him.

I don’t think he would be related to Stella. Damon definitely seems way more interested in Kelly than he does Stella.

[Dowel Jones]

Not one of those people in the firehouse heard T81 start up?  Big diesels are loud and inescapable.  

In real life, metro fire department vehicles are loaded with Automatic Vehicle Locators.  CFD's command center would immediately see the T81 was on the move and try to contact them.  Failing that, PD would be notified to intercept the Truck.  Game over.  But then, it didn't seem apparent that Stella even contacted Main to tell them about the incident.  Leave a message for Boden, yeah, that's the ticket.

I didn't get the purpose either.  Rolling bomb?  So what?  No matter, SuperSeveride stopped the plot.  But will someone explain how enough bomb material to completely demolish a 50,000# vehicle didn't cause any shock damage or shrapnel to all three people or the ambulance?  And, of course, all of Station 51 has to check out of Chicago and follow the cops because, reasons.

Pet TV/movie peeve of mine.  People are always being shot in the head, and blood spurts out onto the window behind them.  Obviously, the bullet went all the way through.  Why didn't it break the glass behind his head?

[anna0852]

2 hours ago, scteel24 said:

I enjoyed the episode and Taylor did a great job.

Anyone else find him ultra sexy all banged up at the end?  😜

Taylor’s journey to silver fox is progressing nicely 

[tinkerbell]

I was left with questions. Who were these guys who stole the fire truck, and what was the plan?  What were they going to blow up? Why? Were they hired by someone else?  It just seemed like half the story was missing.

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, tinkerbell said:

I was left with questions. Who were these guys who stole the fire truck, and what was the plan?  What were they going to blow up? Why? Were they hired by someone else?  It just seemed like half the story was missing.

These were also my questions!  I watched it again and still barely got answers.  They were headed to Indianapolis, and the one guy said it's because emergency vehicles can go anywhere... but after that, crickets.  I think the editing wasn't great on this episode; there were some scenes in the trailer that didn't make it to the show.  Also, they were all debriefed - I wonder if those scenes were left on the cutting room floor too. 

[FnkyChkn34]

16 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

In real life, metro fire department vehicles are loaded with Automatic Vehicle Locators.  CFD's command center would immediately see the T81 was on the move and try to contact them.  Failing that, PD would be notified to intercept the Truck.  Game over.  But then, it didn't seem apparent that Stella even contacted Main to tell them about the incident.  Leave a message for Boden, yeah, that's the ticket.

I didn't get the purpose either.  Rolling bomb?  So what?  No matter, SuperSeveride stopped the plot.  But will someone explain how enough bomb material to completely demolish a 50,000# vehicle didn't cause any shock damage or shrapnel to all three people or the ambulance?  And, of course, all of Station 51 has to check out of Chicago and follow the cops because, reasons.

Maybe I'm dumb, but I thought contacting PD would be the same as contacting main.  It's all one 911 emergency system, so she contacted everyone?  Not sure why she and Kylie walked around the block first though... It's not like Sev took Truck for a slurpee run.  

I'm sure main then took house 51 out of action - they didn't have a Truck or acting officer in charge to respond to anything anyway.  No one was sleeping, so why not all go?  Isn't it a good thing that they did?  They needed Engine's water and the ambo for the injured.  

[DonnaMae]

Where's Mouch?  He hasn't been on the show for the past two episodes.

[anna0852]

9 minutes ago, DonnaMae said:

Where's Mouch?  He hasn't been on the show for the past two episodes.

Episode before this one had to throw away line that he’s at some course in Atlanta. It’s why Kylie’s been covering for him.

[tinkerbell]

1 hour ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

These were also my questions!  I watched it again and still barely got answers.  They were headed to Indianapolis, and the one guy said it's because emergency vehicles can go anywhere... but after that, crickets.  I think the editing wasn't great on this episode; there were some scenes in the trailer that didn't make it to the show.  Also, they were all debriefed - I wonder if those scenes were left on the cutting room floor too. 

Right! The bad guys were turning the fire truck into a bomb, because as  an emergency vehicle a fire truck wouldn't be stopped. But no clue as to where it was going, and why. To me, it was a lot of suspense leading up to the explanation that "bad guys wanted to kill people, severide the hero saved the day." 

[iMonrey]

3 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

I was left with questions. Who were these guys who stole the fire truck, and what was the plan?  What were they going to blow up? Why? Were they hired by someone else?  It just seemed like half the story was missing.

That was my takeaway as well. And up until they explained about turning them into stealth bombs I wondered why anyone would steal a fire truck or an ambulance. It's not like you could sell them to anybody. But since they were already loading up this truck with explosives, they must have already had a target chosen, right? Were these people just hired to steal the truck and deliver the bomb or were they actually the terrorists who were targeting a specific location for some reason? We should have at least gotten some followup on them at the end explaining what this was all about.

That aside, I did rather enjoy this episode. It was different, and held my attention.

Not too smart of the shifty new guy to give Ritter the evil stare-down. He knows Ritter overheard his phone call and if he wants a permanent spot at 51 he better play nice with everyone, because Stella is already suspicious of him. 

[Dowel Jones]

2 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

It's all one 911 emergency system, so she contacted everyone?

From the way the dialogue was going it sounded like she didn't contact anyone, outside of the forementioned message to Boden.  Always get the monkey off your back and make contact with a superior about problems like this.

As far as removing 51 from service, in real life the Truck would be responded from the next in station with a Truck, and everyone else would still be on station.  For instance, if T81 blew a tire or an engine belt, the rest of the apparatus is still there, and still responsible to the citizens of Chicago, rather than Indianapolis.  Of course, in this case, plot requirements are that they are needed at the explosion.

[FnkyChkn34]

22 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

As far as removing 51 from service, in real life the Truck would be responded from the next in station with a Truck, and everyone else would still be on station.  For instance, if T81 blew a tire or an engine belt, the rest of the apparatus is still there, and still responsible to the citizens of Chicago, rather than Indianapolis.  Of course, in this case, plot requirements are that they are needed at the explosion.

They were the victims of grand theft auto and kidnapping of their acting officer in charge. We've seen the entire house be taken out of service for waaaaay less. 😉  I also don't think they made it to Indianapolis. They were out of Chicago city limits, sure, but Chicago PD was in charge. 

[NJRadioGuy]

I viscerally detested this episode. Zero redeeming factors and 42 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Not sure of CFD rigs have AVLs on them, although I'm 99% sure they would, but the radio thing was utter BS. CFD operates on a UHF repeatered P-25 digital radio system. What they showed was impossible. Not just that, but UHF radios are 100% line-of-sight, so even with a 35 or 50W mobile radio, not even Main (or Englewood) would have been able to copy them once the rig went outside the receive range of the furthest-south tower and voted receiver.

This was a series of interstate felonies. Forget CPD vs Indiana state police (who would have probably taken point), the whole scene would be swarming with Feds, especially after the explosives plot was revealed.

I gotta wonder if they got a sponsorship deal from a truck manufacturer to get a new T-81 on the show. Shades of when Emergency! retired the 1965 Crown Coach "Engine 51" for a brand-spanking-new Ward-LaFrance in the 4th Season of that show. If memory serves, wasn't this the second T-81 in the show? I seem to recall the original one being wrecked.

[FnkyChkn34]

7 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

I gotta wonder if they got a sponsorship deal from a truck manufacturer to get a new T-81 on the show. Shades of when Emergency! retired the 1965 Crown Coach "Engine 51" for a brand-spanking-new Ward-LaFrance in the 4th Season of that show. If memory serves, wasn't this the second T-81 in the show? I seem to recall the original one being wrecked.

The original wasn't wrecked, but they did get a "new" one.  Gorsch gave it to them as a gift/bribe, and then it turned out that it was used from Cleveland when the aerial malfunctioned.  Stella hit a pothole and broke a wheel once, but I don't know which truck it was and it was just fixed.

As for the rest of your post, I let the show have artistic license, and I also don't know any better.  I did, however, assume when Cruz said that the Truck could be tracked through the radio that he meant a GPS component and that they were both disabled.  I think that they dumb this show waaaay down for the average viewer who knows nothing about fighting fires.  

[NJRadioGuy]

2 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I think that they dumb this show waaaay down for the average viewer who knows nothing about fighting fires.  

They absolutely do, 100%, and they really don't have to. They have technical advisors on the show who could just tweak this or that storyline a tad and suddenly it's very realistic while still retaining all the drama and plot points needed to move the story forward.

That's what I find so annoying about any fire service show. Lazy writing and showrunners' insistence on things like portraying other houses or FFs as lazy, malicious, or inept, and that is a huge disservice to those who have ever served and puts a serious distrust in the viewing public's minds.

Sure I'll handwave bad fire VFX and unrealistic interior conditions since a broadcast camera has to capture the action for the viewer (hint: real fires, the smoke is so thick you can't see anything in front of your mask, and FFs are often down on all-fours doing primary searches), But I can't handwave the constant scenes of Our Heroes going into a working fire without water or at least and unnamed nozzleman with a charged line backing him up. One background actor with a hand line is all it takes to bring a bit more realism. Kelly, Gallo, or Stella can still make a save or find the victim but suddenly it doesn't look so trashy. I'll handwave the Slammigan™© and stuff like that but they don't have to dumb things down so badly.

[FnkyChkn34]

I assume that the fires are a combo of CGI and real, controlled gas-fueled fires. It's obvious that when they DO actually spray water that they aren't aiming for the flames. 🤣

One other thing that bothers me, that I haven't seen anyone mention here but I've seen all over social media, is that people say that Stella needs to "stay in her lane" or "leave rescues up to Squad." And that may be the case in real life, but do we not remember that Casey did all of these daring things for his entire tenure? Now Stella is just doing Casey's job, and doing everything he used to do too. I get that people don't like Stella, but this should not be one of their reasons why, IMO.  

Edited May 15 by FnkyChkn34

[NJRadioGuy]

8 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

... people say that Stella needs to "stay in her lane" or "leave rescues up to Squad." And that may be the case in real life

"Leave rescues up to squad?" Absolutely not. Doesn't matter if it's the guy on the nozzle, a truckee on his way to position a smoke ejector or a probie carrying a fresh radio battery. Protecting life is Job One. Primary search turns up negative but a different crew does secondary and finds a victim everybody's going to celebrate the grab.

HOWEVER.

What is completely unrealistic is the officer on a professional paid department  even being inside the structure. Especially when there is no chief officer at the fireground. Apparatus officers and chiefs remain outside calling the shots, constantly evaluating conditions and commanding resources--ordering additional apparatus, moving their crews, going over rescue strategies in case a crew gets trapped, etc. That's really Stella's lane. And Severide's and Hermann's for that matter. But with a small cast and only one truck as the star of the show, dramatic license has to come into play. So yeah, I'll suspend my disbelief at that wobbly chain of command.