If there was a more shocking moment in Chicago Fire‘s history, I can’t think of one in recent memory. The look of horror on Dawson’s face as she recognized a stabbing victim as her own father was horrifying, and definitely a worthy winter cliffhanger. As we pick up in the new year and check in on Ramon Dawson, his injuries spark an interesting conversation. Ramon made a split-second decision to put himself between strangers and a knife. This was after a really terrible year where pretty much his entire family turned their backs on him. I won’t keep you in suspense. Ramon did make it, in large part thanks to Brett. He is branded a hero, but are these few moments really his legacy?
Back in the land of the awkward for a minute, Kidd avoids Severide like a plague. She feels ridiculous for hitting on him when she was drunk, and his response is to act normal if/when Kidd wants to talk about it. (I try to stay gender neutral on these topics, but that statement was way too much of a “Men Are From Mars, Women are From Venus” moment for me not to balk.) The only thing more worthy of an eye roll than this is Antonio’s lame excuse to reunite with Brett. We knew that was coming, but the man could have at least brought over a jacket that didn’t have his son’s name on the tag.
In its broad conception, Molly’s North is not a bad idea. Otis’s original pitch proved that he was passionate about a project that had major potential. If only he wasn’t also highly motivated by a girl. In a rare turn of events, Herrmann lets Otis take the lead on the project. Of course, catastrophe ensues and 51 has to bail Otis out of a few tight spots. Otis’s heart really is in the right place on this project, which he proves when he tells Herrmann that he wants the North location to be about family, just like its original. Molly’s is a legacy worth preserving and expanding.
Boden thinks a lot about a man’s legacy when he meets one his musical idols on a call. He is disappointed to find that his Blues idol Stoke Porter is now an old, lonely, broke man trying to survive on the mercy of humidifiers because he doesn’t have health insurance. It puts Boden in a bit of an existential crisis. Boden’s reaction makes more sense once he tells the story of how Stoke’s music brought him and his own father together. Whatever this man went through in his life, Stoke Porter did something extraordinary for Boden.
There are a lot of people who think Ramon is pretty extraordinary for putting himself in harm’s way. He has a flurry of reporters in his room while his daughter covers for a young addict who went back into a fire to get pills. Dawson doesn’t get her name in the paper, and who knows if her actions will help that girl in the long run. The point is that she made the effort to be there for a girl who needed someone to see she was in trouble. Ramon has changed. He knows that when his 15 minutes are up, all those people who admire what he did will disappear. He doesn’t need the world to think he’s a hero. He doesn’t even need his children to think he’s a hero. His kids are his heroes.
We have several questions for where Chicago Fire is going in 2018. Will Kidd and Severide get together? Will Ramon ever get his own place? Is Molly’s North going to have the same success as its predecessor? Will Dawson and Casey ever try for another child?
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