S02.E21: One More Shot

[formerlyfreedom]

With everyone’s support, Dawson makes final preparations to retake the fireman’s exam, but a call to the field may throw a major wrench into her plans. Elsewhere, Lt. Casey  has an important matter to discuss with Antonio. Meanwhile, Lt. Severide and the firehouse welcome Rick Newhouse, the latest addition to the squad, Shay gets an uninvited surprise guest and Chief Boden makes a bold move.

 

 

[Cee23]

Please Casey, don't ask Antonio for his blessing to propose to Gabby.

And I guess Shay is fine after being impaled!

[MaryHedwig]

Chief Boden makes a bold move.

Maybe Boden will steal the Casey/Dawson engagement ring and slip it on his baby mama's finger.  Writers, hand me that pen!

[SnarkySheep]

I wonder how much time is supposed to have passed between the explosion and tomorrow's episode? I would presume it's been longer than the week in our universe, because surely Gabby wouldn't be allowed to take that exam; even if she insisted she was fine, knowing what she'd just been through, I'd think TPTB would want to cover their own butts in case something happened to her while exerting herself.

 

Re: Casey and Antonio - My first thought is that it's wedding-related, but maybe it's something to do with Voight or the Intelligence Dept? Maybe he's helping Severide find out or do something for Lindsay? A girl can surely hope...

[LittleIggy]

My Chief looked so handsome in his dress blues!

[Lillybee]

Was it Kenny Johnson who played the Lt on that other fire truck? If so, I hope that he stays around for a bit.

[millahnna]

The line read on the line "is time for us to go start our periods" was hilarious.

[iluvobx]

Really writers?!  Shay is okay after being impaled and losing a lot of blood. 

As for the baby, WTF?  You don't check mommy before heading her down 5 flights of stairs?  You just decide to walk her down?  You already know that her contractions are very very close together.

 

Please, oh please Gabby pass the exam and move to the other firehouse.  That other firehouse would knock the smugness out of Gabby so fast.  Plus, she would have no one to tell her just how awesome (NOT!) she is.

Casey, you can do much much better than Dawson.

[maraleia]

When Chief Boden was proposing at the elementary school the show got two things wrong: there should have been more African-American and Hispanic students and very few white students and the class should've been at least 30 kids not the 15 they showed. I still loved the proposal.

 

I wish we would've gotten some idea of how much time had passed between this episode and the previous cross-over event episodes.

 

I want the writers to focus on Shay next year and let Gabby be the supporting player because I want Shay to get a girlfriend that isn't a loser or a thief.

 

I think its great that a WOC has been front and center but I am disappointed that the show couldn't write even stories for both women at the same time hence my hope for next season's focus to shift to Shay's story.

Edited May 7, 2014 by maraleia
added another comment

[Neurochick]

I'm just that that a WOC is front and center, that's why I don't mind Gabby.  I'm tired of always seeing white women front and center while the WOC is the sidekick.

 

One thing bothers me though, is Boden's fiancee black?  To me she looks like my mom when she was younger, so I'm curious.  Does it matter?  Well to me it does because it seems that black women, especially brown skinned black women are being erased on TV, save Olivia Pope of course.

[Rapunzel]

I love seeing a WOC featured though I wish they would make her more real. My issue with Gabby is that it comes across as though she can do no wrong, everything works out for her, everything seems to revolve around her and all the men seem to think she is the perfect woman. This show has a very strong and diverse cast - most of the actors/actresses are much better than the one playing Gabby IMO - and they need to use that cast to develop better, more interesting, less predictable storylines.

 

The whole "Gabby wanting to be a firefighter more than anything" plot bugs as well particularly because we were so frequently reminded in the first season that she wanted to go to medical school and become a doctor to the point where she was performing procedures on patients that an EMT would never be authorized to do and I think it was mentioned that she frequently shadowed the docs at the hospital - Hallie included. The firefighter thing seemed to come out of the blue and  now it's so important to her that they have the whole house escorting her to take the test that she failed the first time around? Not to mention that they rammed it down our throats that she so wanted to be with Casey and now that she is she often questions the relationship because she feels he isn't supporting her supposed life-long goal of becoming a firefighter (and has the audacity to mention that she considered other career paths previously). Some consistency and continuity would go a long way towards helping me tolerate Gabby.

 

I lived in the UK for a long time and still split my time between then US and UK and I recently watched a show called "The Smoke" in the UK. It is focused on a fire department (no EMTs though) and the characters were so well written and so real, especially in that there wasn't a single one that was "perfect" or infallible in every aspect of life - they all had certain (very human) flaws. This show also had a strong WOC as a firefighter (one of the main characters) that had been with the squad for a while and was clearly "one of the gang" and well respected though not perfect/infallible by any means. Watching that show made me realize that Chicago Fire could be so much better if they made the characters more human/real and didn't spend so much time focusing on ramming one particular character down our throats. Oh, and the fires/rescues they responded to on the UK show were great as well.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Rapunzel

[Neurochick]

 

I love seeing a WOC featured though I wish they would make her more real. My issue with Gabby is that it comes across as though she can do no wrong, everything works out for her, everything seems to revolve around her and all the men seem to think she is the perfect woman. This show has a very strong and diverse cast - most of the actors/actresses are much better than the one playing Gabby IMO - and they need to use that cast to develop better, more interesting, less predictable storylines.

 

Actually I don't have a problem with Gabby being like that because, though I can't remember the shows, I am sure that I grew up with shows where the white character was the perfect woman.  As for a WOC being that, I have no problem, it's about time WOC's are seen as "the perfect woman" instead of the sidekick or the best friend or the office mammy.

[Rapunzel]

Actually I don't have a problem with Gabby being like that because, though I can't remember the shows, I am sure that I grew up with shows where the white character was the perfect woman.  As for a WOC being that, I have no problem, it's about time WOC's are seen as "the perfect woman" instead of the sidekick or the best friend or the office mammy.

Very good point and also very true. There are still a number of shows today that tend to portray someone (WOC, white woman, MOC, etc.) as perfect and infallible. I think with me personally I tend to really want to see more human/flawed characters (male, female, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.) in general portrayed as I've seen that it can work and make things more realistic and generally make for more compelling TV as a number of shows in the UK have gone this route. I guess maybe I'm just tired of the "Mary Sue" type character - whatever form it may take. Just my opinion of course.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Rapunzel

[t7686]

Actually I don't have a problem with Gabby being like that because, though I can't remember the shows, I am sure that I grew up with shows where the white character was the perfect woman.  As for a WOC being that, I have no problem, it's about time WOC's are seen as "the perfect woman" instead of the sidekick or the best friend or the office mammy.

As someone who is also a WOC, I get what you're saying but I don't think Gabby should take all the storylines simply because she's a WOC. Personally, I think that's just as annoying as WOC always being the sidekick or the best friend etc. I liked Gaby in the beginning and I still see potential with her now. I just don't like that she can do no wrong, everything is always about her etc. etc. Some of the other characters are pretty awesome in their own right (like the Chief) and I think some of the storylines could be spread out a little. Chicago Fire has the ability to be a really good show but gets bogged down in predictability and focusing on some characters while ignoring the others.

 

Anyway, re the episode I'm curious to see how it all plays out next week :)

[LittleIggy]

I think the Chief's fiancée is bi-racial. Just a guess, doesn't matter to me.

[Neurochick]

 

As someone who is also a WOC, I get what you're saying but I don't think Gabby should take all the storylines simply because she's a WOC. Personally, I think that's just as annoying as WOC always being the sidekick or the best friend etc.

 

I don't see it that way because when a WOC is a sidekick you don't learn anything about them, their lives, nothing, they exist for the betterment of the white main character.  So, to me, Gabby being everywhere isn't worse than being a sick-kick.

 

My point about the chief's fiancee is that, to me Network Prime Time TV doesn't seem to have problems featuring darker skinned black men as love interests, but for some reason TV has an issue with darker skinned black women as love interests, save Scandal of course.

[SnarkySheep]

Personally, I think they should just write Gabby the way they do all the men on the show - black, white and Hispanic. They are just humans, normal men, with good hearts, who occasionally act or say the wrong things, yet keep going best they can. Basically, the long and the short of it is that TPTB focus on them overall as characters, and race/ethnicity really doesn't come into play.

 

The same happens with Chicago PD; Gabby's brother Antonio is just one of the guys. He is no better or worse, not the center but not the side. Why can't they do that for Gabby as well?

[Cee23]

I agree. And I like Gabby, and you know what, I like her and Casey together. They were cute together taking care of the Darden boys. I guess...I hope they give her more depth next season, or something. The story lines so far are "Gabby wants this and she gets it." It makes people think of her as a Mary Sue. The character deserves better

[Chas411]

Only Gabby Sue would manage to finish top of her class even when she had failed a major part of the test. Only Gabby Sue would deliver a baby and then have the Chicago Fire Department drop her off at the test.. I like Gabby and last episode was one of her more likeable episodes but jesus, the show needs to take their heads out of her ass. It's at ridiculous levels. All the fire department huddled together working out a plan to get her to the test, not to mention the "she'd never leave a victim without backup" prop. It's ridiculous. She just shouldn't be the centre of everyones world. It's not normal.

 

The worst part is that I do think Gabby is a good character. It's just the way the show fawns all over that makes me seriously dislike her.

[t7686]

Only Gabby Sue would manage to finish top of her class even when she had failed a major part of the test. Only Gabby Sue would deliver a baby and then have the Chicago Fire Department drop her off at the test.. I like Gabby and last episode was one of her more likeable episodes but jesus, the show needs to take their heads out of her ass. It's at ridiculous levels. All the fire department huddled together working out a plan to get her to the test, not to mention the "she'd never leave a victim without backup" prop. It's ridiculous. She just shouldn't be the centre of everyones world. It's not normal.

 

The worst part is that I do think Gabby is a good character. It's just the way the show fawns all over that makes me seriously dislike her.

Right? The whole time I kept thinking...so is anyone else going to get a storyline? We did see a bit with the Chief (which was adorable) but it was basically all Gaby. The baby thing just confirmed for me that I like her better as a paramedic. She's beleiveably great at it while not so much as a firefighter. I hope next season Chase and Shay get more to do than be her cheerleaders. Especially ChaseCasey. (Edited: I didn't even watch "House" that much"! Whoops.) He had some great stories in him, his crazy mom, the head trama, the kids and for some reason The Powers that Be took that all away. I also hope Katie comes back. I liked the drama (and adorableness) she brought.

 

That said, I'm so happy that Edwin Hodge from "Jack & Bobby" is on this show! Now if only poor Matt Long could get some work...

Edited May 13, 2014 by t7686

[SnarkySheep]

Who is Chase? Do you mean Casey?

 

I too wish they'd bring Katie back. IMO it was a cop-out, having her leave like that. Yeah, I get that she needed to heal, but, A, simply moving to another state isn't going to erase your memories of the terrible things that happened to you, and B, would the entire FAMILY just up and move like that? In today's economy, without jobs, with two younger kids to support, etc? Not only was that not very realistic, but it robbed viewers of the follow-up of the storyline. TPTB could have done a lot with Katie still, rather than reduce her aftermath to Lindsay asking Severide about her as a passing line.

[millahnna]

Yeah, I get that she needed to heal, but, A, simply moving to another state isn't going to erase your memories of the terrible things that happened to you, and B, would the entire FAMILY just up and move like that?

 

Her whole family moved?  Somehow I missed that.  I thought it was just her since she was 21 and all.  Being so young, I can see how she'd think the complete change of scenery would help but I do wish they'd kept her around.  I liked the ties she was developing.  But the soap opera drama parts of this show move at breakneck speed and often with abrupt conclusions so I just roll with it.  Too bad; I like the show but it could be better if they dealt with that problem.

[SnarkySheep]

No, Severide had specifically mentioned that the whole family had moved...

 

Otherwise, if it had been just Katie, she would probably have gone to NY. IIRC, there had been a possibility of her moving there with someone she knew who was planning to start a restaurant and wanted her help in getting it established, once she had graduated the culinary program.