Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 7 Review: Did Chief Pascal Do Something Unforgivable?

Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 7, “Untouchable” brings a very quick end to the story that started in Episode 6. It’s a little surprising, since the way that corrupt state policeman Bishop was hyped up in that episode, it seemed like he’d be the NBC show’s newest Big Bad. But that news is blown out of the water by what might or might not be a revelation about Chief Dom Pascal that either makes him more interesting or more evil, depending on how fans want to look at it.

“Untouchable” picks up with Pascal and Kelly Severide continuing to investigate the storage facility fire that they now believe Bishop started to cover up his corruption. Things escalate when Bishop threatens both of their families, leading to a massive twist in Pascal’s tale that audiences will debate for a good, long while. But that’s also what makes the episode stand out. It’s full of developments that will carry Season 13 through into its fall finale and beyond.

Did Chicago Fire Just Make Chief Pascal an Arsonist?

Season 13, Episode 7’s Ending is Vague, but Ominous

Given how much effort was put into establishing Bishop as a threat to Firehouse 51 and the fact that the fall finale is just around the corner, it’s a shock that Chicago Fire didn’t extend the Bishop story into one more episode. It would’ve provided the perfect level of drama for a midseason finale, but this episode mentions that the cops have plenty on Bishop and the fall finale synopsis doesn’t mention Bishop or Pascal, so it seems the plotline really was just a quick diversion. Unless it comes back around in the later half of Season 13, showrunner Andrea Newman and company just missed an opportunity to do something huge and completely bonkers.

At the end of “Untouchable,” just after Severide shares a cigar with Pascal outside the firehouse — important because that’s exactly what he used to do with his best friend Matthew Casey — it’s revealed that the fire at Bishop’s house was not set by his old informant, as the duo had suspected. It’s been proven that the informant was nowhere near Bishop’s garage at the time of the fire. Pascal makes an offhand comment about how Bishop will never be threaening their loved ones again, and that line plus the ominous music swell suggests that Pascal himself may have started the fire. It doesn’t seem like the audience will get a clear answer, since the fall finale has a different plot, but it’s a heck of a thing to just throw out for dramatic effect.

If true, it wrecks everything that the show just did to establish Pascal as more than the strange new Battalion Chief. He certainly has an understandable reason if he started the fire, but Wallace Boden would never condone such a thing — let alone do it himself. Pascal just got back to Chicago; is it worth jeopardizing his new position already? On the other hand, this does feel in character given Pascal’s previous behavior, like slugging his ex-colleague for talking to Pascal’s wife. And since viewers still don’t know when or if Pascal will move aside for Christopher Herrmann to get promoted, it’d be an insane exit storyline for Pascal to leave because he was exposed for committing arson. And he wouldn’t even be the first criminal firefighter on this show.

Chicago Fire Starts Clearing the Way for Carver and Violet

The Tori Storyline Ends in Episode 7, but What About Flynn?

“Untouchable” features one development that will definitely affect the rest of the season: his girlfriend Tori breaks up with him after realizing he’s re-committing to his work at Firehouse 51. After Tori’s unexpected arrival at the firehouse annoys Carver, he comes home to find that Tori has cleared almost all of her belongings out of the apartment. It’s hard to be too upset about this, because her character wasn’t ever interesting on her own, and it was clear that she was just a roadblock to the Violet and Carver storyline. But it’s probably not a coincidence that Tori and Carver are over in the same episode that Violet gets serious with her new love interest Flynn.

Violet worries that Flynn is more into her than she is into him when he invites her to a relative’s funeral — which is a pretty random plot point. Yet it serves the purpose of Violet actually connecting with Flynn, when she tells him about Evan Hawkins’ death. He takes this in stride and the two leave the event to go back to her place. So instead of Violet pining for Carver, it seems that the second half of Season 13 will be Carver chasing Violet. Hopefully the season ends with the two uncrossing all their wires — the show doesn’t need to get into another Casey and Brett situation, where the two took literal years to get together, then broke up when Casey left the show, and then reconnected. The “will they, won’t they” only works for so long before fans get frustrated.

But if nothing else, Tori being written out is good news for Carver’s character development. The character hasn’t done much other than brood and make bad choices all season, and that means actor Jake Lockett hasn’t been doing a lot either. With Carver determined to earn back the respect of his lieutenant, hopefully audiences will see more of him in the middle of the action, and more challenging material for the actor who plays him. Separate from his relationship with Violet, Carver is a far more interesting character than he’s been in Season 13.

Will Chicago Fire’s Fall Finale Include Another Surprise?

The Show Has Precedent for Big Endings

Everyone who’s even a semi-regular watcher of Chicago Fire knows that the series has a penchant for massive cliffhangers, both in its season finales and in its midseason finales. During the Derek Haas era, it was pretty much expected that someone (often Severide or Casey) would be in a life-threatening situation. But with the Bishop storyline on ice, it feels too darn quiet around Firehouse 51.

Unless Newman and her writers double back on the Pascal as a vigilante idea, there’s no apparent massive plot twist in the making, but there is also absolutely no way this will be an average Chicago Fire episode. The promo for Episode 8 didn’t give anything too shocking away either. It did feature a snippet of a conversation between Pascal and paramedic Lizzie Novak, so perhaps thie episode will feature something giant for Jocelyn Hudon’s character? (That would at least be better than going back to Novak’s crush on Pascal.) Mouch and Herrmann have their exams to take, but it’s an obvious choice to leave the results until the spring premiere. Could Carver, now so determined to show he still has what it takes, wind up risking his life and leaving Violet conflicted?

Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 7 is a solid hour that answers all the necessary questions, albeit perhaps too early. It’s most memorable for what it does with the Pascal character, but the lack of a definite explanation about the garage fire may frustrate some viewers. This is one hour that the show can build upon to do bigger and better things, even if it’s not so huge on its own.