When audiences met KaDee Strickland’s Monica Pascal, she was arguing with Dom through an open window after he discovered that the locks on the front door had been changed in Chicago Fire’s Season 13, Episode 1, “A Monster in the Field.” It was the last thing he needed after his long shift, but Monica wasn’t going to let him just walk into the house. At first, it seemed like Monica was going to leave Dom outside, but then he told her he wanted to fight for their marriage, and she quickly changed her mind. The final scene in “A Monster in the Field” is Monica and Dom in a passionate kiss that feels both out of left field and uncomfortable. But they seemed to be okay with it, considering Season 13, Episode 2, “Ride the Blade,” began with the characters in bed together.
The further along viewers got into “Ride the Blade,” the more they learned about Monica and Dom — sort of. Monica arrived at Firehouse 51 during the shift to give Dom a new key and was dressed in a bright pink maxi dress that certainly looked like it fit in Miami but stood out in Chicago. That’s when viewers learned that Dom’s old colleague, Lieutenant Stephen Vale (Phil Donlon), who showed up to see Pascal at the firehouse in “A Monster in the Field,” had already been in touch with Monica — seemingly as soon as he heard through the grapevine that Monica and Dom might be on the rocks. Considering that Dom’s response to the news that Vale had reached out to Monica was to arrive at his home and present him with a punch to the gut, it’s clear that there is more going on in the Pascal marriage than has been revealed to audiences so far.
What audiences didn’t get much of in the first two episodes of Season 13 is actual insight into Monica. In Season 13, Episode 1, “Monster in the Field,” she seemed a little like a jilted housewife who returned to Chicago just to spite her husband and was using his paycheck — or perhaps a divorce settlement — to do it. Viewers quickly learned that the Pascals are still married, and in Season 13, Episode 2, “Ride the Blade,” Monica referenced having a client waiting on her when she stopped by the firehouse. In the coming episodes, it will be interesting to learn more about what Monica does for work, what role Stephen Vale might have previously played in their lives, and what happened in Miami that brought them back to Chicago and potentially tore them apart.
