S07.E03: Thirty Percent Sleight of Hand

[Jaded]

Quote

Severide investigates a victim's motives after rescuing him and his child from a car accident; Boden clashes with Gorsch over appointing a new lieutenant; Mouch reaches out to a fellow firefighter; Cruz discovers he has a new admirer.

[mommalib]

Yo I love Boden.

[mxc90]

How fast was the car going to make that damage on the overpass? Looked like a missle hit it.

Severide and Kidd will be in a spinoff: "Chicago Car Crash Investigation". Seriously! How did the police miss the deer (it's in their report)?

What's with the unsolved Rubik's cube on the table? The great Severide would have solved it blindfolded.

Should Boden have said "big ass" with children in the audience? Nice speech though.

I hope Gorsch's sister doesn't look like him. I so, Trey Jennings doesn't deserve 51 with that poor decision making skill.

Chloe is cute. When coworkers are staring at them, is that a red flag? I wonder what's in her past. The writers are probably going to give her a strange personality.

Edited October 11, 2018 by mxc90

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, mommalib said:

Yo I love Boden.

Me, too! The Chief is the man! Hermann deserved that promotion. Gorsch is a weasel. His first task after the announcement by the Chief was to go tattle to Grissom. The BIL seemed like a competent guy. Too bad he got put in the middle.

Everyone in that office taking a peak at Cruz was funny. Hope this romance works out. 

No mention of Gabby! ??

[Reality police]

48 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Me, too! The Chief is the man! Hermann deserved that promotion. Gorsch is a weasel. His first task after the announcement by the Chief was to go tattle to Grissom. The BIL seemed like a competent guy. Too bad he got put in the middle.

Everyone in that office taking a peak at Cruz was funny. Hope this romance works out. 

No mention of Gabby! ??

The office scene with Cruz reminded me of the office mercat commercial about the couple breaking up.

[Dowel Jones]

About that beard, Gorsch.  Either grow it out or shave it off. 

A four point buck wanders through Chicago and nobody notices it?

[Chick2Chic]

That ep was on the bland side. 

Good to see Stella back at the house plus I enjoy Stellaride so their scenes were entertaining.  

Gorsch is a toad and I'm glad Boden promoted Hermann to Lieutenant instead of letting Gorsch bully him to give it to his brother-in-law. I know Boden will pay for it in some way soon. 

12 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

No mention of Gabby! ??

Almost. Emily mentioned raiding Dawson's supplies. 

[iMonrey]

I don't understand in what capacity Herrmann is serving as Lieutenant. The older guy who retired is someone we've never seen before so I would assume he's the Lt. on another shift. Does that mean Herrmann is moving to another shift? Casey is already the Lt. in charge of this shift. 

While I'm glad they didn't drag the whole custody thing out, I thought the Mom was convinced a little too quickly about the deer. Severide could have gotten that photo anywhere, it didn't really prove anything in and of itself. Could have been a stock photo for all she knew. 

Gorsch is just so tiresome. We have some iteration of this asshole every season and I'm sick of it. Besides, Steven Moyers needs to go back to doing comedies.

[rhys]

16 hours ago, mxc90 said:

 

I hope Gorsch's sister doesn't look like him. I so, Trey Jennings doesn't deserve 51 with that poor decision making skill.

 

Could be Gorsch's wife. IOW, Trey & Mrs Hirsch are sibs.

[Waterston Fan]

I liked this episode and I admit, I liked Trey Jennings but I did feel bad he was put in the middle and I wonder if he found out how his name was put in the list. I'm happy for Hermann. 

I think Ritter might be done with the fire department but I bet we will have a storyline with him cause Mouch seems to want to help but then, not sure you'd want someone freezing like that. 

I thought the Cruz thing was funny and does anyone think she was just being nice or did she want him to visit her? 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Waterston Fan
I forgot Casey is the Captian.

[Chick2Chic]

I assumed Hermann getting promoted is him stepping into Casey's old LT spot and that Casey has been pulling double duty since his promotion to Captain. 

[Waterston Fan]

4 minutes ago, Chick2Chic said:

I assumed Hermann getting promoted is him stepping into Casey's old LT spot and that Casey has been pulling double duty since his promotion to Captain. 

That would make sense as I totally forgot, Casey isn't Lt. anymore... 

[LittleIggy]

16 hours ago, Reality police said:

The office scene with Cruz reminded me of the office mercat commercial about the couple breaking up.

Me too! ?

[mxc90]

2 hours ago, rhys said:

Could be Gorsch's wife. IOW, Trey & Mrs Hirsch are sibs.

In that's the case: Trey Jennings didn't prevent his sister from marrying this jerk.  He doesn't deserve 51 with that poor leadership skill.

[Mikita]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't understand in what capacity Herrmann is serving as Lieutenant. The older guy who retired is someone we've never seen before so I would assume he's the Lt. on another shift. Does that mean Herrmann is moving to another shift? Casey is already the Lt. in charge of this shift. 

If I'm not mistaken, same shift just on truck 51. The truck with the water. This would have been the group of guys that were manning the hose during that tower fire the previous week. They called for relief and Hermann and Stella showed up. That's when Stella ran out of air. Truck 51 is called during lot's of their calls since season 1. They just never had actors for it. They focused the show on 81 and Squad 3. From what I recall, they have 51 on scene using real firefighters? I could be remembering wrong though.

[iMonrey]

The issue remains the same . . . Herrmann is replacing someone we've never seen before. Am I to understand that this guy who's retiring is supposed to be someone that's been working that shift all along, but I've never noticed him in six years?

[NJRadioGuy]

We don't generally see Engine personnel. They're based in the house, but the show focuses on the ambulance, squad and ladder companies. Engine 51 is there as a background set piece, and usually staffed by actual firefighters playing as extras.

But here's the thing. The retiring LT was from the Engine company. Forget what shift he's on, he has a completely different set of skills than the members of Ladder 51. At fire calls, engine companies are in charge of water, basically. Connecting to the hydrant, laying hose, advancing attack lines and extinguishing the fire. These are skills honed over a career if you're a retiring lieutenant. You've got to know how to attack any particular fire, and it's not just spray-and-pray. 

Ladder companies have their own skills. Ventilating, opening up the roof, light rescue duties usually, and overhauling after the main fire has been extinguished (overhauling means pulling down ceilings and walls, looking for hotspots that the enginemen put out). Hermann's spent how long on Truck vs how much time on Engine?

The kicker is that in a real department the Batallion Chief wouldn't be making personnel decisions, and the Ass. Deputy Chief likely would. ADC Toadie should have been making that call, quite frankly, because that's what HQ does. Assigns personnel where they're needed. The LT from E111 looked competent enough.

[Jpxfactor]

They need to stop stupid romance and do fire and rescue.  That’s why I stopped watching grey anatomy..

[WinJet0819]

8 hours ago, Jpxfactor said:

They need to stop stupid romance and do fire and rescue.  That’s why I stopped watching grey anatomy..

I would say it wouldn't be so bad if some of the characters found love outside of the firehouse, like most real firefighters do. This is why I really hated the whole Dawsey relationship and wish Hallie wasn't killed off. That's why I hope Joe and Chloe build something together going forward, instead of him going for in-house Sylvie. As well as keep Lily in the mix for Otis. I hope the show hasn't just disregarded that relationship. And the beauty of those types of relationships is that, most of the time, they can be off-screen.

[Guildford]

Do Severide, Stella and April have some sleazy three way going on? Why would he be picking her up to take her to a firefighter's picnic? It made even less sense because she wasn't even in the episode (or I may have blanked out...I've been known to so that with this show).

Perhaps if she had been in the episode and they mentioned it maybe I could have forgiven the stupidity of it but then again how else would we have seen the epic reunion of the wayward family.

Considering they make him out to be this superhero god like figure he really is pretty dumb sometimes isn't he? Firstly he decides and announces to the cops in front of the mother that the Dad was on a suicide mission and trying to kill her kid, then the lawyer shows up at the fireplace and he starts chatting away, there is not a chance in hell they are not told to say nothing to lawyers, especially one who is recording the conversation and then takes it upon himself to inform the wife that it was a deer and of course because he's in his studly t-shirt she promptly falls weeping at his feet thanking him for personally stopping her from harpooning her ex.

Tone it down writers.

Edited October 13, 2018 by Guildford
forgot something

[athelyna]

So, of course Stella is ready for full duty (according to her doctors) just a within a short enough time that the high rise victim lady is coming by with cake pops.  What even was the point of injuring Stella during crossover?

9 minutes ago, Guildford said:

Do Severide, Stella and April have some sleazy three way going on? Why would he be picking her up to take her to a firefighter's picnic? It made even less sense because she wasn't even in the episode (or I may have blanked out...I've been known to so that with this show).

The showrunners seem to assume we will all remember that Severide and April were best buddies back in high school, even though we almost never actually see them talk or interact or mention each other.  I think the crossover last week was the first time we actually saw them interacting since they introduced April in the Med back door pilot time.

 

16 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

But here's the thing. The retiring LT was from the Engine company. Forget what shift he's on, he has a completely different set of skills than the members of Ladder 51. At fire calls, engine companies are in charge of water, basically. Connecting to the hydrant, laying hose, advancing attack lines and extinguishing the fire. These are skills honed over a career if you're a retiring lieutenant. You've got to know how to attack any particular fire, and it's not just spray-and-pray. 

But this is Firehouse 51, home to the bestest firefighters in the world who can jump between job positions no problem.  Surely learning engine can't be harder than flip-flopping between paramedic and firefighter (see Gabby and Peter Mills) or being better arson investigators than the actual arson investigators (Severide and Gabby again) /s.  They'll probably handwave it next week with some line about Herrmann having assisted with the engine at some point we didn't see or he's been taking extra shifts and/or training on his off days.

I assume they're promoting Herrmann so he can move over to Engine and leave a convenient opening on the truck for Mouch's new rookie friend.

I'm on the side of preferring the actual rescue and fire work over romance, but I did enjoy new girl trying to catch up on all the gossip and learning about crazy in house relationships from over the last few years.

[Waterston Fan]

32 minutes ago, athelyna said:

So, of course Stella is ready for full duty (according to her doctors) just a within a short enough time that the high rise victim lady is coming by with cake pops.  What even was the point of injuring Stella during crossover?

The showrunners seem to assume we will all remember that Severide and April were best buddies back in high school, even though we almost never actually see them talk or interact or mention each other.  I think the crossover last week was the first time we actually saw them interacting since they introduced April in the Med back door pilot time.

 

But this is Firehouse 51, home to the bestest firefighters in the world who can jump between job positions no problem.  Surely learning engine can't be harder than flip-flopping between paramedic and firefighter (see Gabby and Peter Mills) or being better arson investigators than the actual arson investigators (Severide and Gabby again) /s.  They'll probably handwave it next week with some line about Herrmann having assisted with the engine at some point we didn't see or he's been taking extra shifts and/or training on his off days.

I assume they're promoting Herrmann so he can move over to Engine and leave a convenient opening on the truck for Mouch's new rookie friend.

I'm on the side of preferring the actual rescue and fire work over romance, but I did enjoy new girl trying to catch up on all the gossip and learning about crazy in house relationships from over the last few years.

I'm not sure that Ritter would be allowed back to a firehouse though. He seemed like he liked what he was doing and he didn't show up at that picnic either. I think he might just be too embarrassed. 

[NJRadioGuy]

8 hours ago, athelyna said:

I assume they're promoting Herrmann so he can move over to Engine and leave a convenient opening on the truck for Mouch's new rookie friend.

That's my guess too. If I'd been in the writers' room I'd have pushed for the Candidate to get assigned to T81 under Mouch's tutelage, as just an extra hand rather than displacing Hermann. Then put Toadie's brother in law from 111 as the new LT on 51. That would set up the story line of him being the Good Guy and and turning his BIL, Gorsh away from the Dark Side, the two of them teaming up against Ritter when they see just how good Our Heroes are. That would be some good storytelling right there.

It's going to be interesting with Hermann now on Engine, since that apparatus has never played a part in the story we see. He's going to be in command of a bunch of no-lines with hose-lines? How's that gonna work? If they had brains (and the budget), start giving E51 some stories, speaking parts to the crew, etc. And hey, maybe Hermann can finally instruct them that you've gotta get water on the damned fire, FFS. It would make my little cynic's brain explode if there was an engine crew with a charged line accompanying the truckees when they kick in a door to effect a rescue. If you've got a victim in a room that's got live fire in it, but the door is closed, opening up that door gives the fire some oxygen, and it'll flash over and ruin everyone's day in short order. 

[Dowel Jones]

Nah, they're going to go the cheap route.  All the fires will happen on Hermann's days off, so the usual crowd will traipse into Molly's after shift and regale Hermann (behind the bar) of the day's exploits.

[WinJet0819]

15 hours ago, athelyna said:

So, of course Stella is ready for full duty (according to her doctors) just a within a short enough time that the high rise victim lady is coming by with cake pops.  What even was the point of injuring Stella during crossover?

The showrunners seem to assume we will all remember that Severide and April were best buddies back in high school, even though we almost never actually see them talk or interact or mention each other.  I think the crossover last week was the first time we actually saw them interacting since they introduced April in the Med back door pilot time.

 

But this is Firehouse 51, home to the bestest firefighters in the world who can jump between job positions no problem.  Surely learning engine can't be harder than flip-flopping between paramedic and firefighter (see Gabby and Peter Mills) or being better arson investigators than the actual arson investigators (Severide and Gabby again) /s.  They'll probably handwave it next week with some line about Herrmann having assisted with the engine at some point we didn't see or he's been taking extra shifts and/or training on his off days.

I assume they're promoting Herrmann so he can move over to Engine and leave a convenient opening on the truck for Mouch's new rookie friend.

I'm on the side of preferring the actual rescue and fire work over romance, but I did enjoy new girl trying to catch up on all the gossip and learning about crazy in house relationships from over the last few years.

Well, it seems, with the exception of Otis, these firefighters make fast recoveries. Remember how fast Hermann came back after being stabbed? Or Casey's recovery from his head injury?

[Guildford]

2 hours ago, WinJet0819 said:

Well, it seems, with the exception of Otis, these firefighters make fast recoveries. Remember how fast Hermann came back after being stabbed? Or Casey's recovery from his head injury?

Although they barely managed to make Otis's injury last more than three weeks so it's no surprise is it? I was kinda surprised she wasn't running into a burning building sans mask on her first shift back like nothing happened. 

[belletane]

On 12/10/2018 at 9:05 PM, iMonrey said:

The issue remains the same . . . Herrmann is replacing someone we've never seen before. Am I to understand that this guy who's retiring is supposed to be someone that's been working that shift all along, but I've never noticed him in six years?

Looks like it. To be honest, we find that we increasingly have to suspend knowledge and common sense while watching Chicago Fire. They don't seem to do much research or if they do, they just ignore or twist facts to suit their writing level. 

[Court]

Eamon Walker was hot in that picnic scene. *swoon*

[Guildford]

Hope Hermann treats his crew better than he treated the guy who took over from Otis for a while....or to that end, anyone who has set foot in that firestation in the past.

[SnarkySheep]

On 10/14/2018 at 4:07 AM, Guildford said:

Although they barely managed to make Otis's injury last more than three weeks so it's no surprise is it? I was kinda surprised she wasn't running into a burning building sans mask on her first shift back like nothing happened. 

Exactly! As a person with muscle damage and mobility issues, I took real offense with the idea they projected, that if you work REALLY hard at PT, you can recover from serious injury in just a few weeks. And Otis doesn't even limp or show ANY difficulty whatsoever now.

As for Stella, I still maintain that having a portion of lung removed would keep her on a desk job permanently, but hey, TV.

[belletane]

2 hours ago, SnarkySheep said:

Exactly! As a person with muscle damage and mobility issues, I took real offense with the idea they projected, that if you work REALLY hard at PT, you can recover from serious injury in just a few weeks. And Otis doesn't even limp or show ANY difficulty whatsoever now.

As for Stella, I still maintain that having a portion of lung removed would keep her on a desk job permanently, but hey, TV.

CF writers aren't very big on realism in any shape of form these days! It's almost as if they have just given up! Sad for the show because the actors give 110% so it's a shame the writers don't seem capable of doing the same.

[FnkyChkn34]

How do we know that there wasn't a time jump?  Maybe they are skipping over "the summer" and more time elapsed than we realized?  I don't know, just a thought.

[Waterston Fan]

12 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

How do we know that there wasn't a time jump?  Maybe they are skipping over "the summer" and more time elapsed than we realized?  I don't know, just a thought.

Only time we'd know if there was a time jump is if they mentioned when the incident happened. It did seem like maybe a week?