Right now on Chicago Fire, Van Meter’s (Tim Hopper) fate is in limbo after he and Severide (Taylor Kinney) got caught up in a fire during an arson investigation. And the longer he’s in the medically induced coma, the worse it is. But also uncertain? Severide and Kidd’s (Miranda Rae Mayo) relationship, with some tension between them still lingering after Severide’s divided focus between the arson investigation and their foster son Isaiah’s (Hero Hunter) departure to stay with a family friend. Does the Wednesday, January 21, episode offer any major developments in either?
Well, when it comes to Van Meter’s fate, Severide has been stepping back from visiting him in the hospital since his daughter, Carrie, came to town. He doesn’t want to invade her space, but Kidd doesn’t think she’d mind — and she’s right. Carrie stops by 51 to find out why Severide hasn’t been by in the last couple days. He admits why he hasn’t been, and she encourages him to come back. He agrees. She also talks about her parents’ relationship; they divorced when she was a teen, but Van Meter keeps their wedding photo on his desk and she’s certain he’s still carrying a torch for his ex-wife.
Severide does join Carrie at the hospital, and she tells him about her dad making her school lunches, with drawings. (The latter were good, the former not so much.) When she leaves to get coffee, however, Van Meter begins to wake and extubates himself! He’s stable and things are definitely looking up. Van Meter lives! (If he’d died, it would’ve been devastating for Severide.)
Meanwhile, things continue to be tense between Severide and Kidd, both at home — he wakes alone to find her heading out early for Girls on Fire drills, and it’s not the warmest goodbye when she leaves — and at work. When she brings up going to the hospital to check on a victim, he tells her they’re too busy. Novak (Jocelyn Hudon) even asks Violet (Hanako Greensmith) if everything’s OK between them; the paramedic-in-charge doesn’t know.
But Kidd then opens up to Violet, admitting, “It just feels like we have been on two different planets ever since Van Meter got hurt. He has shut me out again, and usually I fight my way back in, but this time, since Isaiah moved back to Cleveland, I just feel like I got no fight left in me.”
It’s clear, however, that the two need to talk. Kidd gets emotional watching victim with her newborn baby and family, obviously thinking about her and Severide’s own challenges.
Then comes the good news we needed for Stellaride: They finally talk things out. After a friend texts Violet the update on Van Meter, Kidd hurries out of Molly’s to go join Severide at the hospital, only to run into him on the street. Van Meter’s good, he tells her, and seeing him and his daughter together made him want to be with his family. “That’s you,” he says. Kidd then opens up about going to see the victim and being unable to enter the room. She just wanted to run when she saw how happy the family was
“Maybe I rushed into fostering so fast because I just thought it would make all of the feelings about losing the baby go away, and it didn’t,” Kidd reveals. “It was so hard. It hurt so much to watch Isaiah go. It felt like everything all at once, but you seemed so OK with it and I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Severide assures her, “There’s nothing wrong with you, and I’m not OK, not by a long shot.” She tells him he can show her that, adding, “I really think the only way that we are going to be OK is if we can be not OK together, you know?” He agrees, and they kiss and hold each other. And with that, we breathe a sigh of relief because it does feel like they will be OK.
Elsewhere, Herrmann (David Eigenberg) struggles to accept that Mouch (Christian Stolte) and engine won’t be back at 51 as quickly as he’d hope. (We’re with him.)
What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
