As Chicago Fire season 14, episode 15 begins, Mouch arrives and finds that the heater is on the fritz again. He finds Herrmann on the phone and asks if he’s working on getting the heat fixed, but it turns out Herrmann is calling Uncle Larry, as he got a call saying he had urgent news. Herrmann is spinning out, worrying the settlement is falling through.
Elsewhere, Vasquez and Novak note it’s crazy to think that Chief Pascal is gone. Violet comes in to ask if they’ve met Lucy as they talk about Severide moving into Pascal’s office. Speaking of Lucy, she arrives and offers to help Kidd with some filing as she points out that Kidd is in command for the shift, which technically makes Lucy her assistant. As Kidd asks about Lucy’s future at the firehouse, a call comes through, and she has to head out with Truck 81 to respond.
On the scene, they find a car in fresh concrete. Vasquez notices the position of the car and footprints in the wet concrete, which suggests there is another victim. As they reach the driver, he assures them he was the only one in the car, but the scene says otherwise. Not only are there footprints that suggest someone else was on the scene, but the passenger airbag deployed, and there is a backpack in the passenger seat that seemingly belongs to someone else.
When they return from the call, Lucy has managed to get the heat fixed as Mouch questions what her secret is, and she jokes about learning some tricks while working for her family’s construction company. Shortly after they get back, Larry comes to the firehouse and asks Herrmann to appear in his latest commercial filming that afternoon. Herrmann is hesitant but eventually agrees.
There’s something about the call that doesn’t sit well with Kidd and Vasquez, and they begin looking into answers. They wonder if someone could have gotten out, as the passenger side was not obstructed. They question whether the victim could have a concussion, and Novak and Violet note memory loss is unlikely, as there would have been stronger confusion on the scene.
As Kidd and Vasquez head out to visit the victim, Novak’s sister arrives and makes a comment about Vasquez being the hottie Novak had a thing for. Novak points out it was just a crush, as Violet stands by awkwardly.
At Med, Kidd and Vasquez ask the driver, who we learn is a boy named Adam, how he ended up crashing, and he mentioned “we” saw a dog. Kidd and Vasquez pick up on this, but he quickly pivots to saying there were people on the street. They ask who was in the car, and he remains adamant no one was in the car with him. He says his head is fuzzy as he sends them away, but it’s clear to them both he was lying.
With Lucy’s help, they’re able to get the backpack from the car, and Kidd finds a student ID inside belonging to a girl named Claire.
Elsewhere, Novak and Violet are out between calls, and Novak reveals she’s been getting to hang out with her sister more lately, which has been nice. Violet asks about her feelings for Vasquez and whether it’s more than a crush, and Novak admits maybe it is. She says she thought there was a spark, but then something changed, and he’s not feeling it anymore. Violet quickly notes it’s not her and is probably just everything that’s gone on the last few weeks, but Novak says the shift happened months ago, so that can’t be it. Rather than coming clean about her own feelings and the night she shared with Vasquez, Violet changes the subject.
After tracking down the backpack, Kidd and Vasquez head to the school and locate Claire. She admits she was there and left the scene as she notes that the dog came out of nowhere and they were swerving out of control before crashing. Adam told her to get out and run, so she panicked and listened. She just got into West Point, and Adam was worried this could hurt her chances of admission. While they understand, they will have to report the truth.
As Herrmann struggles to learn his lines for the commercial, Kidd gets to work on the report, and Vasquez drops in and admits the situation is weighing on him. He confesses that he was where Claire is now. His whole life he wanted to be a cop like his dad, but a twist of fate threw everything away. He would have killed for a second chance, and maybe this is something Claire deserves.
Larry arrives at the firehouse, and Herrmann is shocked to see how big the crew is. He’s unsure if he can do this, but he ends up shooting his lines in one take.
While the commercial is being filmed outside, Kidd and Vasquez sit down with Adam, who comes to the firehouse to apologize for lying. He admits that it was his fault and that he didn’t want to ruin Claire’s shot. There’s just one problem: he’s still lying to them. Vasquez notices that Adam has a shoulder burn on the wrong side of his body, one he’d only have gotten if he had been the passenger. It turns out Claire was who crashed, which Kidd and Vasquez must report.
As Kidd and Vasquez speak, she suggests that this could lead Claire to a better place as she reminds him that it’s not too late if he wants to join the police academy. Kidd points out that he didn’t make a mistake, and the way he pieced together the evidence proves he has the skills to be a cop. Vasquez thanks her but notes he’s a firefighter and where he’s meant to be.
After shift, Kidd, Mouch, Violet, and Herrmann head to Molly’s and get to watch Larry’s commercial for the first time. As they watch, they discover that he cut most of Herrmann’s part, including the monologue he worked so hard to remember. He’s not disappointed, though. Instead, he’s thrilled that he got the tagline.
Elsewhere, Novak sits down with her sister, who apologizes for saying the thing about Vasquez in front of Violet. Novak brushes it off as she informs her sister that she found some old videos that she transferred to her phone from when they were younger. While Heidi is hesitant at first to watch them, they settle in on the couch to watch them together.
As for Vasquez? The episode ends with Vasquez at the shooting range. After firing off several rounds into the silhouette target, he packs up his gun and turns to leave. As he does, he sees a poster noting to follow your calling and join the police academy. Could he choose to walk away from the CFD to enter the police academy? That’s certainly seems to be a possibility.