Chicago Fire Season 13 Fall Finale Review: A Surprising Episode With One Huge Omission

Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 8, “Quicksand” is a fine episode of the NBC show, but it’s not a great fall finale. Some of the best Chicago Fire episodes have been the jaw-dropping midseason or season finales that feature deep emotion, incredible action and big surprises. While this episode tries to surprise and move viewers, it feels more like an episode that could’ve taken place at any other time. It’s just not dramatic enough to be a finale.

“Quicksand” has a main storyline that calls back all the way to Chicago Fire Season 1, which puts Joe Cruz understandably on edge. There’s also a subplot that hints at — but doesn’t explain — tragedy in Lizzie Novak’s past. And there’s an adorable dog, but that’s not enough to make up for the fact that this episode is not on the epic level that the show has gotten fans used to. It does the job, yet there’s no doubt something is missing.

Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 8 Returns to Joe Cruz’s Past

One Chicago Fans Get a Deep Cut History Lesson

The main story in “Quicksand” belongs to Joe Cruz, who finds a bullet-shaped pendant in his locker and another in his locker. He assumes that this is a morbid prank, but in fact it’s an equally morbid callback to Chicago Fire Season 1. Joe’s brother Leon was previously in a gang known as the Insane Kings, and Joe left the Kings’ leader Flaco to die in a fire in Season 1, Episode 10, “Merry Christmas, Etc.” Many years later Leon tells Cruz that Flaco’s cousin Junior has earned an early release from prison — so naturally he’s coming after Cruz to get revenge. This plot is slow to develop, as audiences don’t learn what’s going on until a little later in the finale, but it is interesting to have the show pull a Season 13 storyline from something back in Season 1.

Joe Minoso does his best with this idea, and it’s lovely to see Jeff Lima return as Leon Cruz, too. Yet this whole saga never quite feels dramatic enough for a fall finale, since nothing serious happens to Cruz until the very end of the episode, when Junior confronts him in church. He discovers that there are human ashes inside one of the pendants, and has a minor meltdown wondering who at the firehouse knew anything about it getting placed in his locker. But his standing in a lab is not as dynamic as Firehouse 51 racing into a giant fire, or one of the characters getting into a fight with the latest Chicago Fire villain, or even a stolen fire truck. Obviously the storyline will continue into Episode 9, so perhaps that’s when the real action will occur.

Where is Severide in Chicago Fire’s Fall Finale?

Taylor Kinney Doesn’t Appear in the Episode

The biggest problem with the Chicago Fire fall finale is the complete absence of Taylor Kinney’s character Kelly Severide. It’s not the first time there’s been an episode without him; Kinney took a much-publicized leave of absence that prompted him to miss a fair part of Season 11. But in that case, fans at least understood there was a reason for the lack of Severide. There’s no such context for “Quicksand,” which offers only a quick explanation that Severide is on fire investigation business in Michigan. And that excuse, while plausible given Severide’s skill set, feels tired because it’s the same general reason that was given for his being gone in Season 11.

This is an ensemble show that has plenty of characters to work with, but if anyone would be considered the lead out of that group, it’s Severide. He’s one of the two main characters left from the first season (the other is Christopher Herrmann) and he drives so much of the action. In fact he’s been at the center of some of the biggest finale storylines. Plus, he just went through a pretty significant story where he helped take down a corrupt cop. Severide absolutely should have been in this episode and the fact that he isn’t takes the excitement down a few notches. Fans can’t help but wonder why the character is missing, while Stella Kidd doesn’t get much to do either and there’s nobody to do something bold or even crazy. The episode needs someone to punch it up, and that’s what Severide usually does.

This Chicago Fire Finale Isn’t Quite Big Enough

Viewers Are Used to Many More Surprises

With the slow burn of Cruz’s storyline and the absence of Severide, Chicago Fire Season 10, Episode 8 is relatively quiet compared to previous finales. The “B” story in the episode belongs to Lizzie Novak but is one of those plots that is intentionally vague. Novak is the first character that audiences see in “Quicksand,” and the opening sequence is her morning routine, including lingering on a family photo. Between that and Novak making a stop at her childhood home, it seems fairly clear that Novak’s freakout over a man who attempted to take his own life has something to do with a tragedy in her family.

Yet because the show wants to keep viewers guessing, there aren’t enough details to invest in the subplot. Jocelyn Hudon gets to show the more serious side of Novak, and it’s kind of nice that the scene where she opens up happens with Pascal, given that the dynamic between those two characters has typically been played for laughs. But as the two newest arrivals to Firehouse 51, they do have something in common — and it’s a change of pace to have Novak see the closeness of 51 as something to be anxious about. The “found family” aspect is at the core of the show and the entire franchise, so to have a protagonist who isn’t comfortable with that is an interesting story idea. But at the same time, Novak not opening up (and the show not opening up to the audience) means the plotline doesn’t reach its full potential.

The handful of other stories don’t much move the needle either. Mouch and Herrmann finally take their promotion exams, which is expected given how much the previous seven episodes have talked about it. Darren Ritter provides comic relief wandering in and out worrying about moving in with his boyfriend, but that conversation isn’t seen either. There is a beat about Monica Pascal wanting to take shooting lessons that’s only relevant to the viewers who care about Monica and Chief Pascal. And Sam Carver winds up with custody of a man’s dog after it’s so loyal to its owner that it chases down Ambulance 61. Fridge is adorable and it’s wonderful to see Carver do more than angst, but the most story relevance that has is that Violet Mikami learns Carver is single again.

Chicago Fire Season 10, Episode 8 would have been fine if it happened anywhere else during the season, as an hour to build momentum for some of these plotlines and get to something bigger. Especially for network TV shows, sometimes there are episodes that just have to move the plot. But those episodes usually aren’t the midseason finale — and that goes double for this series, which has spent twelve-plus seasons scaring the daylights out of its audience with different surprises. “Quicksand” doesn’t have that big moment or that fantastic emotional high. It feels more like the start of a journey than a crescendo for the first half of the season.