Chicago Fire Season 13 Episode "Down the Rabbit Hole" Review
We start this week’s episode with Carver and Tori stumbling in after a long night out. Carver says he has to shower and go. Tori says he just needs something to look forward to and tga5 she bought tickets to a concert for them to a group they loved in Florida. Carver is very excited and kisses Tori deeply. We go straight to the Severide’s where we find them in a very intimate situation. Stella talks about getting dressed and never leaving the house. Kelly says Pascal likes it when his lieutenants are early. Stella says that makes her not want to leave the house at all.
At the fifty one Novak approaches Pascal. She lets him know that the team will be going to Molly’s to celebrate Violet's birthday and wants to make him aware. Pascal looks slightly uncomfortable and responds by saying that he will check with his wife and let her know. Ritter speaks to Novak complaining that he still hasn’t gotten a chance to speak to Pascal and he really wants to. Ritter says he has his ice breaker. Ritter says he found out the6 went to the same elementary school and he will use that angle to start a conversation.
Kylie joins the team on the engine and comes into fifty one to a very warm welcome. Someone wants to know how this is going to work. They respond saying Ritter is going to be on Truck, while Kylie is going to be on engine, very simple. A call comes through for all squads. On the scene it looks like two tractor trailers collided pinning the one driver in his cab. Pascal gives out instructions and the team gets to work. Kelly surveys the trailer and notices it’s leaking gasoline. Pascal asks if he can be pulled free. Kelly says it’s tight and then a flare up happens. The engine works to put the flare up out. Pascal says if one spark hits the gas he will get incinerated. The gas is still leaking and Kelly says to Cruz that he is going to try to get in on the passenger side, Cruz asks if he is sure Kelly says yes just cover me. The team are trying to cut the driver out with the jaws of life while Kelly tries to get into the passenger side. Kelly is trying to help the driver move around slowly when there is another flare up. They are able to cut the door open, but need to get the fare up out first. They now have the driver out and on the stretcher. Kelly is halfway out when the flare up gets bigger. Just as Kelly jumps from the cab it explodes and Kelly makes it out just barely. The team works on getting the fire out now. A man approaches the scene and Jelly tells him to get back. The man is belligerent and says that’s his truck. Kelly says he doesn’t care to get back. The man isn’t listening. Stella approaches and again asks the man to step back. He says he has another truck coming to complete the hall. She tells him that she doesn’t care and to step back. The man is very nasty and decides to leave while screaming at the woman driver that was in the accident. Kelly asks if the logo on the pick up truck of the rude man looks familiar and she says it does.
Back at the fifty one Violet lets it be known that she doesn’t want Happy Birthday while at the bar. Carver says that he can’t make it to her party because he has some things he has to do. Violet says it’s cool you can make the next one, very unbothered. Clearly Carver seems very bothered by Violet’s response and sulks at the table eating. Herman is complaining about the equipment and is determined to go to facilities and get better radios.
Stella goes to Kelly and says she knows why the logo looks familiar. Six months ago a truck flipped and landed on a minivan, check the logo J. R. Maddox trucking. Another file is given and it shows that two months ago another truck t-boned a sedan and the logo is J. R. Maddox trucking. Kelly says he remembers this one the driver died. Stella and Kelly take their findings to Pascal, they let him know one accident by a trucking company is a lot, but three in the last six months is odd. They say it’s the training, bad equipment, faulty trucks, or something else. Stella points that they may not even know to look to see if the accidents are related. Pascal says to take it to the department of transportation so they can move the needle on the case. Ritter comes in to try to get to know the new chief. Pascal says the CFD facilitates just got there. Pascal says it shouldn’t be long so hang tight. Ritter takes in Pascal many awards. While admiring one of them he picks it up looking at it. Novak comes in and says what are you doing. The award drops and breaks. They both panic and try to fix the award. Novak places the award back and gently places the head back on its body. They agree to come in early to glue it back together and never speak about it again.
While the team is leaving Mouch says he is gonna wear a tux to Molly’s. Violet asks why, he says because his wife made him rent a tux for a family function and he has two more days with it. Violet says the best birthday ever. Tori pulls up and picks up Carver and he lies to her and says he was assigned overtime and can’t get out of it. He tells her to have fun.
Stella and Kelly are waiting at the department of transportation. A woman approaches them and says if you would have told me you were talking about Maddox trucking I would have saved you the trip. Stella says you don’t think three accidents in six months is a problem. She says there is nothing they can do and they did investigate the qualifications, driver logs, and inspections. Everything came back clean. Kelly asks that it’s not a red flag for the three accidents. She says you can’t shut down a cop that is following the rules, she apologizes and walks away. Stella says they are talking to the wrong people; they need someone inside the company. Kelly asks how they are going to get someone to talk. Stella walks away confidently saying maybe they already have someone.
At Molly’s everyone is celebrating Violet’s birthday. Carver shows up and Violet is surprised to see him. Carver says he moved something’s around. Cruz asks where Tori is and Carver lies again and says she is working. Herman tries to recruit Kylie in his radio crusade. Ritter lets Kylie know she is gonna have to draw a line when it comes to Herman or he will have you doing some weird things. Ritter says he just wanted to give her a bp heads up. Violet asks Novak why is so jumpy, are you waiting for someone she says no, Violet asks then why are you looking at the door. Novak then says she invited Pascal and she is just keeping her eye out for him. Just then Cruz says to Carver I thought Tori couldn’t make it. Tori looks hurt at the door and Carver just looks irritated. Carver runs after her and they argue. Tori says that she went to bring him food and they told he4 he was at Molly’s. Carver said it was a work thing. Tori pushes harder and then he admits it was a birthday party for Violet. Tori says Violet is manipulating him, he responds that she isn’t. Tori says she got what she wanted and if she isn’t manipulating him then how did she ge5 him to come to the party. Carver is silent and Tori speeds off.
Stella arrives at Lisa’s home and is greeted by her son. He asks if she is one of the firefighters that helped his mom, she says yes. Lisa comes to the door and asks about the other driver and is he okay? Stella tells her he is, but other Maddox drivers have not been so lucky, why is that? Lisa immediately says she can’t help her. Stella asks why not and Lisa says she has bills to pay, no help at all. She says the only help her son's father gives her is a place for him to sleep when she has a haul that she is currently late doing. Lisa leaves with the door open and Stella standing there. Stella catches up to Lisa and gives her the business card she gets in her car. Lisa’s son Michael says she is a ghost and Stella gives him a card as well. Back in Pascal’s office Stella explains what happened at Lisa’s home. She goes on to say she researched what Michael meant by saying she was a ghost. It's how truckers log hauls. The old shows two people working one shift for the haul to comply with regulations, but it’s actually just one person. The other person on the log doesn’t exist. Pascal says you think you can get her to cooperate. Stella says no because this is how she pays her bills. Pascal points out if she is involved she will lose her commercial license. Stella says this is her only way of loving. Pascal looks to be at a loss. Kelly asks where does that leave us? Stella confesses she doesn’t know. Stella receives a phone call and it’s the twenty first district
Novak comes to Ritter in the lockers and says they can’t fix the statue because Pascal moved it. Novak goes on an entire tirade that Pascal must know who broke it and is trying to flush out the culprit and punish him. Ritter says he will go in and confess. Novak offers to take the blame. Ritter says no, but Novak says she has had time to get to know Pascal, so maybe he will take it easy on her. Novak says once you get the facetime with Pascal don’t waste it. She takes a deep breath then walks off.
At facilities Kylie and Herman are shut down immediately. They are told that the money has to come from fifty one's budget and they just don’t have it. Kylie offers to look at the budget because she has done it at the other firehouse. Herman says if there was money in the budget they would have the new radios by now. He says they are done and they prepare to leave.
Back at fifty one Carver walks in not noticing Violet, but she notices him. She finally decides to speak to him. She asks if he is okay because Tori looked upset. Carver says it’s complicated. Violet finally tells him she may be upset about a text she sent. He asks if she sent a text to Tori? Violet says I sent the text to you. A call comes in, and Violet says I can understand why she is pissed then gets ready for the call. Carver is looking on as she leaves. Novak and Violet are at the park and approached by a man that says a biker ran into a food truck and they exchanged words. The man says he went to break it up but the biker took off and the food truck owner was left with a knife in his chest. They go to work on him and the man says he has a sec cut on his leg that he tied off. They stabilize Ali and the onlooker talks about how people just walked past no one would help him. Ali thanks the man profusely as they load him into the ambulance. Novak says are we gonna talk about how hot the bystander was. Novak asks Tori about her conversation with Carver earlier. Violet says she told him about the text message she sent. She says she was trying to help him with Tori, but she thinks she made it worse. Violet says she is not trying to cause problems and that she and Carver promised to tell each other their truth. Novak says the truth can be tricky sometimes.
Stella is at twenty first and thanks Trudy for calling her. Stella says she doesn’t know what this is about. Trudy pulls out a backpack and says do you know what this is. Stella says should she? Trudy says that they got a call from a landlord that had one of his empty apartments that was broken into. They found the backpack and her business card. When Stella opens the bag she can tell it’s Michael’s bag. Back at the firehouse Stella is telling Kelly that she talked to Lisa and she can’t get a hold of Michael. His phone seems dead. They have the police looking out for him on the streets. Kelly asks if Lisa knows what he was doing at the abandoned apartment. Stella said that Lisa sounded confused because when she gave her the address Lisa said it was his fathers address or at least maybe it used to be his apartment. Lisa says she is on a haul, but is turning around and will be back in a couple of hours. Kelly asks what’s this kid up to. Stella says she doesn’t know, but he was really worried about his mom.
Novak goes into Pascal's office to confess. She turns herself in and Pascal says she is coming forward when she doesn't have to show’s character and she should keep up the good work. Novak leaves and runs into Ritter. He asks how it went and why she is smiling. Novak says that Pascal says she has character, so it worked out great for her, while she is smiling and walking away. Ritter yells after her and says he has character as well.
Herman is working on making the radios better for the firehouse. While the guys are giving him a hard time Kylie comes to Herman and says that she found it. Herman asks what she found. Kylie says she went over the budget and found that they are overspending on some nonessential items and if we change some things they can get the new radios. Herman asks if she spent all day working on this, she admits that she did. Herman says she didn’t have to do that. Kylie says she did because they are in this together. Herman says okay Wall Street let’s look at the budget and move some funds around.
Carver approaches Ritter and asks if there is any way to get back old deleted text messages. Ritter says yes as long as it hasn’t been thirty days. It’s implied that Ritter shows Carver how to retrieve the messages. Carver goes to the sleep quarters where it’s quiet and looks at the messages. There are sixty four messages from Violet. When Carver reads the messages he is visibly upset and angry and a call comes in that he must respond to.
On the scene they ask for medics right away. Stella gets closer and looks down to see Michael on the ground with a severe cut on his wrist with a bloody face. Carver asks what happened. The owner of the trucking company comes up and says he got what he deserved. Michael says he got the wind knocked out of him when he fell. The owner says when he came up to the building Michael was beating on the building. The officer chimes in and says that he shoved the kid. Stella approaches Maddox and asks if he touched Michael. Again, he says he got what he deserved very conditionally. The officer asks Stella if she knows the kid, she says she does because he and his mother are her friends. Michael says he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, he just wants them to leave his mother alone. They load Michael on the stretcher to take him to MED. Maddox says why are you taking him to the hospital he needs to be in custody. Stella goes up to Maddox, Mouch gets in between and tells him that Michael is going to the hospital. Stella tells him he is going to be charged for assault because Michael is a child. At MED Trudy is there and says because Michael has no priors she can get him into a program that will keep his juvenile record clean, but he needs to stay on the straight and narrow no more crowbars. Lisa runs into the ED looking and screaming for Michael. Stella gets Lisa and lets her know that he needs stitches, but he will be fine. Lisa says he has never been destructive. Stella says she believes her. Lisa says his father just abandoned him. Stella says that Michael told her that his dad went to Flagstaff with his girlfriend, he has the key and didn’t want to worry her while she was working. Stella says he was just angry and really worried about her. Lisa says she is his mother and should protect him. Lisa says whatever she needs from her she will do it because she is never going back to that company.
Back at the house Kylie comes in with the new radios. Herman shows Squad and they are all shocked and envious since they have been making fun at Herman for the last several days. Ritter says to Kylie that she didn’t draw the line with Herman did she. She replies that she didn’t and followed him straight down the rabbit hole. Ritter admits he always did the same as well because Herman is the type of man you would follow anywhere.
In Pascal’s office Kelly is filling the chief in on all of the details of what’s going on. Since Lisa will talk to the department of transportation is willing to waive all of her violations, so she will keep her license and be able to work at another trucking company. Pascal says she can work for a legitimate company. He asks if the Maddox trucks are off the road. Kelly confirms that all of them are off the road. Pascal says Stella can be a pain in the ass, but she never backs down. Kelly says she does not.
Novak and Violet are leaving work and approached by the nice looking guy that helped Ali, the food truck owner. He asks if Violet can talk. Novak says yes she can and leaves. He introduces himself as Flynn and engages in flirty banter. Flynn asks how he can learn more about helping people because he clearly got some body parts wrong. Violet tells him of a class she belongs to and says she can text him the details. She also says she will not embarrass him in class and if he wants to go for a drink after that would be great. Flynn says he definitely wants to go for a drink.
Carver goes home to a messy apartment with beer bottles and take-out food everywhere. Tori comes out of the room and says that she will not be mad about what he did because she knows that Violet is just manipulating him and trying to mess with his head. Carver asks what exactly was she doing when she deleted Violet's messages? Tori says she was protecting him because she knows what Violets trying to do, but she is glad that he saw the messages because now he knows she was right. Tori says she is protecting what they have and she knows him better than anyone else and she always has. Carver doesn’t speak and when Tori is done speaking he just kisses her. Talk about manipulation, and playing with someone’s head Tori is the epitome of manipulation. Carver needs to wake up fast!
Maybe seeing Violet with Flynn will wake him up. We will just have to tune in and find out.
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