Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 3, “All Kinds of Crazy” is the episode where fans of the NBC show can finally relax. While there was some panic that actor Taylor Kinney was leaving again, this episode reaffirms that not only is Kinney staying, but that the series needs his character Kelly Severide. This is the hour where Severide soars — and Jack Damon takes a good, hard fall right on his face.
“All Kinds of Crazy” deals with the Damon situation that’s been percolating since the end of Season 12, and does so in a way that adds a little more depth to new Battalion Chief Dom Pascal. If only the writers could handle Pascal and Sam Carver’s strange romantic subplots with the same efficiency. However, those are two of the only weak spots in an episode that cleans things up so the season can move forward.
Is Jack Damon Actually Leaving Chicago Fire?
Season 13, Episode 3 Shows Damon the Firehouse Door
The most important thing that Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 3 does is be done with Jack Damon, who is transferred out of Firehouse 51 before the end of the hour. Damon emphatically wore out his welcome with the boat incident in Season 13, Episode 2, “Ride the Blade,” and since that episode ended with Severide giving him an ultimatum, the writers had no choice but to get rid of him. “All Kinds of Crazy” picks up where “Ride the Blade” left off in more ways than one. Now that Damon’s manipulative ways have been revealed, actor Michael Bradway continues to make his character as creepy as possible. Damon is so fake-earnest with Chief Pascal that it hurts — and in his last scene with Severide, looks like he’s doing his best serial killer glare.
Dom Pascal: You’ve broken the trust with your lieutenant, and there’s no getting it back. Dismissing you from this firehouse is the only option.
Damon’s arc over the opening of Season 13 definitely supports showrunner Andrea Newman telling CBR that there was going to be “crazy in the firehouse.” The way that Bradway plays him, he’s not just angry or jealous; he seems mentally unstable. Whatever he is, there’s no doubt that he’s gone. Pascal tells Stella that “Damon’s done at 51” and that there’s already a floater taking his place. It’s possible that Damon could pop back up on a revenge tour like Emma Jacobs did, but what would be the point in that? Even his insistence that Severide is just like his father falls completely flat, because the audience not only doesn’t trust him, they outright dislike him. There’s no reason to take anything he says seriously.
One smart move that the episode makes is to use the negative of the Damon situation to create a much-needed positive for Pascal. So far, Dermot Mulroney’s character hasn’t endeared himself to audiences, because the only other side of him they’ve seen is his odd personal life. But in “All Kinds of Crazy,” when handed a literal pile of evidence by Mouch, Pascal does a 180 on his opinion of Stella Kidd and kicks Damon to the curb. Pascal needed some credibility with viewers, some reason for them to care about him, and seeing sense stops him from being just an antagonist — especially when that epiphany leads him to getting rid of an actual antagonist. He gets a lot of brownie points in this episode, but he’s not out of the woods yet.
Chicago Fire’s Romantic Tension Continues to Fizzle
Pascal and Carver’s Subplots Still Need Work
“Ride the Blade’ was a flop because it tilted Chicago Fire‘s balance too far toward personal drama, and the personal stories felt like they were just too much. Though Damon is gone, the show still has Pascal and Carver’s messy personal lives to deal with. Pascal’s relationship with his wife Monica continues to be just plain bizarre; her response to finding out he assaulted his old friend out of jealousy is to make out with him. It’s still not clear exactly what their deal is… but at this point it almost seems better not to know. Despite the efforts of Dermot Mulroney and KaDee Strickland, this pairing isn’t at all entertaining to watch.
The apparent love triangle between Carver, Violet Mikami and Carver’s new girlfriend Tori isn’t disturbing, but it’s also not interesting. It seemed like the series might resolve things by having Violet text Carver… and then this episode reveals that Tori deleted the text when she gives Violet a smarmy speech about how she’s not going to lose Carver again. There have been romantic rivals for the main characters before, yet Tori is about as charismatic as Hope Jacquinot and with less dimension. At least Hope had her backstory with Kara Killmer’s character Sylvie Brett and eventually got a character arc. Tori is basically just a human road block between Violet and Carver. If the creative team really wants to keep Carver and Violet apart, it was more meaningful when the problem came out of their own inability to see eye to eye.
There’s always going to be some form of romantic drama on Chicago Fire. Part of the popularity of the entire One Chicago franchise is that every show has multiple “ships” to keep fans coming back. With Severide and Stella Kidd now happily married, somebody else has to be that “will they, won’t they” couple. But this show has done that better before. At least one pairing gets some good news — Christopher Herrmann takes a moment to point out how great Darren Ritter and his boyfriend Dwayne are together. That’s a duo that’s worth rooting for, especially since Ritter had already gone through his fair share of tough times before he got blown out of a second-story window.
Chicago Fire Gets Back to Fighting Fires
Severide Returns to What He Does Best
“All Kinds of Crazy” also serves up a pretty big fire scene, and throwing Ritter out the window isn’t the only interesting thing that comes out of it. This is another episode where Severide gets to play arson investigator — or “fire cop” as he puts it — and there’s a reason that he once thought about permanently moving to that kind of role. Not only is he good at it, but the writers clearly have a lot of fun doing these stories. They show a whole different side of Severide’s personality and skill set, and even more of Taylor Kinney’s range. This time it’s a fire that starts in the kitchen of a restaurant and engulfs the apartments above. There’s no way that any viewer had “paint thinner in the rice cooker” on their Chicago Fire bingo card.
While the fans know there has to be some kind of twist coming, it’s a plot that links up perfectly with the rest of the episode. Severide and the ever-reliable Captain Van Meter deduce that the restaurant owners’ daughter tried to burn the place down. Her parents could retire when they collected the insurance money, and she would be free to pursue her own dreams instead of feeling obligated to take over their business. When Severide calls out the mother for trying to take the fall, it’s clear that he’s not only talking about her, but also talking about himself.
Kelly Severide: I get wanting to protect your family, believe me. But you can’t save them from themselves.
“All Kinds of Crazy” paces the arson plot well enough that the audience can follow along and have fun guessing what the big reveal is going to be. Between that, a final and proper resolution to the Damon situation, and getting at least one reason to care about Pascal, the episode scores a lot of points not only on its own, but for moving the entirety of Season 13 forward. The personal drama is mostly resolved, there’s an exciting fire to keep that part of the show going, and the new chief is seen in his best light yet. Firehouse 51 is now free to go on to bigger and better things.
