S13.E05: Down The Rabbit Hole

[DanaK]

Quote

10/23/2024 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Wednesday) : Kidd and Severide investigate a trucking company responsible for a string of accidents. Herrmann recruits Kylie to help get new radios. Firehouse 51 celebrates Violet's birthday. Carver's allegiances are torn.

 

[DonnaMae]

I must have missed something.  When did Carver and Violet break up?  Or did they?  Violet seemed so shocked when she saw him with that woman.

[anna0852]

31 minutes ago, DonnaMae said:

I must have missed something.  When did Carver and Violet break up?  Or did they?  Violet seemed so shocked when she saw him with that woman.

Violet said something very hurtful to Carver last season, accusing him of being in love with Stella. It was heat of the moment, and she felt awful afterwards, but it was a terrible thing to say, and Carver rightfully dumped her.

[anna0852]

Oh Carver. Don’t you have an inkling of how to recognize crazy by now? Or are you being deliberately self-destructive?

[Sandman]

Aaaaand I’m back to yelling at the pretend people. Meaning Sam. Again. 

ETA: @anna0852, I believe the correct answers to your (clearly rhetorical, ahem) questions are Yes and Yes. 

Edited October 24 by Sandman
Sam is dumb sometimes

[iMonrey]

Please, show, don't drag out this dumb Carver/Violet/Tori triangle. Tori is obviously toxic, and now Carver just looks dumb. This is a show that usually wraps up a storyline in one or two episodes. Of all things not to wrap up, this is the worst. I guess the show thinks they have to have a romance story every season so that's why they're so damn focused on Carver and Violet but it's not interesting. It wasn't interesting when they did it with Casey and Sylvie and it's even less interesting with these two.

I'm also kind of tired of Herrmann being wacky. At first when he was complaining about the radios I thought maybe they were circling back to his hearing loss, but no. They've apparently dropped that plot point and it was just another "Herrmann is wacky" story.

[Ohiopirate02]

2 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm also kind of tired of Herrmann being wacky. At first when he was complaining about the radios I thought maybe they were circling back to his hearing loss, but no. They've apparently dropped that plot point and it was just another "Herrmann is wacky" story.

I hate that the show wants to have it both ways when it comes to Herrmann. He goes on a wacky side quest every other episode, but is also the one Boden wanted to take over for him at 51 after passing the captains exam. 

[Sandman]

16 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'm also kind of tired of Herrmann being wacky. At first when he was complaining about the radios I thought maybe they were circling back to his hearing loss, but no. They've apparently dropped that plot point and it was just another "Herrmann is wacky" story.

 

I think when Hermann pointed to his ear in highlighting “state of the art noise cancellation” (or whatever that feature of the new radios was) was the show’s implicit acknowledgement of that plot point, which I’m prepared to give some credit for; but I’m also losing patience with the whole “Oh, Hermann’s so adorably wacky!” pattern. No. The devotion Ritter and the other younger members are required to express begins to look untenable — you’d follow him anywhere, but just to pull his cranky ass out of disaster, maybe. 

Edited October 24 by Sandman

[FnkyChkn34]

I think that part of the problem for this episode (and maybe some in the future) is that David Eigenberg (sp?) is in a walking boot. Instagram had some behind the scenes photos. If you watch carefully, he was only ever shown sitting down. The radio thing might have been a last minute re-write of whatever the b-plot was supposed to be? (The pickleball excuse was laughable, too. He's supposed to be an in-shape professional firefighter but he can't play mini tennis with a wiffle ball? Dumb.) 

What's with Severide calling Pascal "sir" so much? No one else seemed to. Also, he just allowed Pascal to criticize Stella by calling her a pain in the ass? I mean, he's not wrong, but weird for Sev to not defend her better...

Severide was also not in any of the scenes at Molly's. Not sure if he's been there yet this year?  Strange that he'd miss Violet’s birthday if everyone else was going. I obviously know nothing and am only guessing, but I wonder if Taylor Kinney doesn't want to be in a bar?

[anna0852]

1 hour ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

What's with Severide calling Pascal "sir" so much? No one else seemed to. Also, he just allowed Pascal to criticize Stella by calling her a pain in the ass? I mean, he's not wrong, but weird for Sev to not defend her better...

I think Severide is dealing with a new boss and doesn’t have the relationship with him that he did with Boden so he’s going to be far more formal. And as far as criticizing Stella goes, it was a nasty comment but Pascal already made it clear that he wasn’t thrilled about having a married couple serving on the same shift. I don’t think Severide could have said anything without opening that can of worms.

[NJRadioGuy]

Inside baseball here, ignore unless you're interested in tech, but tangentially related to this episode.

I was laughing at the whole radio plot (as you'd expect given my username <g>). Many years ago a shop I worked for part-time (I was in dispatch as my Real Job) did programming, installs and repairs on PD, and some FD radios in a Medium Sized City. There is a zero percent chance we'd ever allow a copper or fireman to go on duty with a faulty HT or mobile. I got called out many a time to fix a cruiser's mobile install or an Aerial's aerial (er...antenna) <g>.

The why is obvious: "51 to Main. Mayday Mayday Mayday. We're trapped in a collapse, hose line's burned through, heavy fire is advancing on our position." Imagine transmitting that only to have nobody receive it because the radio died...followed soon after by the entire Engine company.

This plot device really bothered me on a visceral level, because in the fictional world of that show, whoever the tech is who allowed Hermann's company to go on duty with unsafe gear would never forgive himself if Something Bad happened. I know I sure as hell wouldn't have, which is why I always triple-checked my repairs and installs. But it's something to be handwaved, I suppose, just like them going into a structure fire without a charged line and no SCBA.

Those APXs 8000XEs are sweeeeet (friend of mine managed to snag an APX 5000 series HT on the county OEM's dime). They're also about $8000 each, depending on the installed modules. FD won't have ENC, and CFD is UHF conventional (for now), so an APX 8000 is a bit overkill since they're essentially built for P25 Phase II trunking systems (which Chicago is moving to shortly IRL, if memory serves). And notice how Truck and Squad both had higher-end /\/\s with speaker-mics, as they absolutely should. Gotta wonder whether Batwings (based in Schaumberg, IL) has promotional consideration for their gear on the One Chicago universe shows.

But yeah, I'll take one any day and twice on Sundays. In my time, I was working with Astro Sabers, old MX-350s and a gazillion HT-1000s and MT-1000s. You couldn't kill any of those if you tried. My HT of choice today is a used XTS-5000 for LMR stuff (including Ø) but cheapo Chinese $25 specials for hamming, GMRS, playing around camping and off-road. Nearly 50 years in radio, both professionally and now as a hobbyist.

[TAG42481]

This writing overall on the show has just REALLY gone downhill the last couple of years.

[NJRadioGuy]

6 hours ago, TAG42481 said:

This writing overall on the show has just REALLY gone downhill the last couple of years.

You're not wrong. Ever since Casey left and the Casey/Severide dynamic evaporated it hasn't been the same. I like Kidd (maybe the only one??), but she's become the new Saint Gabby. It seems they're toning that down this year, but I still don't give a fig about Carver and probably never will. The cast was really starting to gel with Gallo, but his departure, and Brett's and the rest of the cast's musical chairs hasn't done the show any favours. Not to mention the slashed budget, and IIRC, episode count.

[iMonrey]

I'm not seeing any difference in the quality of the writing, per se, which has never been stellar. The show does very good fire and rescue scenes but the interpersonal stuff has always felt like soap opera 101. 

But to @NJRadioGuy's point, the show has suffered from the loss of several key cast members, and now with Eamonn Walker out of the picture it's a shell of its former self. Taylor Kinney is just not a strong enough actor to carry the show as a lead, and Jake Lockett (Carver) is no great shakes either. 

I also think the show has vastly overestimated our interest in the Violet/Carver romance if this is the relationship they've decided to revolve around. I was much more dialed into Cindy's cancer storyline because she and Herrmann are characters I actually care about. Violet and Carver? Not so much.

[NJRadioGuy]

Walker added a lot of real gravitas and I miss him, although I like Pascal and Mr. Mulroney is a hell of a good actor. So long as they keep giving him decent material to work with I think he'll be a positive addition. Carver just isn't likeable to me. If they want to go with him and Violet, fine, whatever...just make it happen sooner rather than later instead of the slow-burn. There's not a lot of chemistry at the moment but there could be if they show them in a healthy relationship. But it will always be a fraction of Brett and Casey. Those two worked very nicely, but (again) the slow burn was just irritating. 

[FnkyChkn34]

20 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

Walker added a lot of real gravitas and I miss him, although I like Pascal and Mr. Mulroney is a hell of a good actor. So long as they keep giving him decent material to work with I think he'll be a positive addition. Carver just isn't likeable to me. If they want to go with him and Violet, fine, whatever...just make it happen sooner rather than later instead of the slow-burn. There's not a lot of chemistry at the moment but there could be if they show them in a healthy relationship. But it will always be a fraction of Brett and Casey. Those two worked very nicely, but (again) the slow burn was just irritating. 

I agree with your last two posts for the most part, but I'll have to disagree about Casey and Brett - I saw no chemistry there.  Yawn.  (But also, I saw no chemistry between Casey and Dawson either.)

I like Kidd too, but I also understand the complaints that the show sometimes revolves around her.  I think her and Severide have good chemistry, but maybe I should say "had" instead.  It was great in the beginning but lacking now.  

I read somewhere that Ritter will have more stories this season, and I think he's a decent actor.  This could be good, and I do think Taylor Kinney is getting back to himself a little bit.  Seasons 11 and 12 were worse than usual...

I'm bothered by Carver's lack of growth.  He knows that he has trauma in his past and drinking/partying issues, but he's doing nothing to try to overcome them.  He started, but now he's right back into bad patterns with Tori.  I see nothing appealing about her, but I'm also with you guys - Carver and Violet doesn't really interest me either.  

Maybe Mouch needs a bigger story for once.