Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 9, “A Favor” is pretty low-key by the standards of the NBC show. It has an action-packed storyline featuring Joe Cruz, but compared to the utter chaos that’s happened in other Chicago Fire episodes — particularly premieres, midseason premieres and finales — it’s almost calm. In some ways that works really well, and in other ways, the audience might be a little restless.
“A Favor” primarily centers on Cruz, who has to deal with Junior’s threat to end his career over a tragic event in the show’s early years. The other storyline concerns Mouch’s first shift as a lieutenant, and the way he tries to turn up for a man no one else seems to remember. Almost all the remaining characters have little to do, but that’s less noticeable when these two storylines hold the audience’s attention.
Chicago Fire Does Well by Cruz, Even at His Worst
Season 13, Episode 9 Gives Joe Minoso the Spotlight
It’s been a real pleasure watching the growth of Joe Cruz over the last few Chicago Fire seasons. Seeing Cruz get married and become an adoptive father, and getting slice of life scenes like Cruz and his wife Chloe helping Javi with his homework, has not only been heartwarming but it’s also one heck of a journey. He’s gone from a character who was mostly used for comic relief to delving into more serious storylines. What happens in “A Favor” threatens to undo all that, but luckily the show sticks to its guns and doesn’t undo all of Cruz’s growth just for dramatic effect.
Junior attempts to reveal what happened to Flaco, calling the Office of Fire Investigation and getting them to potentially re-open the case. He wants Cruz to help him recover $100,000 stolen by his rival Moreno, since being a firefighter, Cruz can get into Moreno’s paint shop without arousing suspicion. It’s the kind of storyline that could easily spin out of character on another TV series. Cruz could just give into the pressure, help with the theft, and then spend episodes wracked with guilt over it. But that’s the easy way out. Instead, while Cruz does come close to making that bad decision, he ultimately decides to maintain his honor and tell Junior to take a hike. It’s refreshing that Cruz is given the opportunity to do what he should do, what the audience is pleading for him to do, rather than what’s more exciting.
But Chicago Fire fulfills its need for action by having Junior pull a gun on Cruz, which forces him to participate in the heist anyway. It goes predictably wrong, Junior is killed and Cruz is injured, ending the episode dealing with a wound while missing a call from Chloe. It’s kind of the best of both worlds: the writers get the angst of Cruz having to deal with Junior’s death, but they also have kept Cruz true to himself. And Joe Minoso deserves his flowers for turning in another memorable performance. There are a few too many shots of Cruz looking angsty than are actually needed, yet when it comes time to actually have those big moments, Minoso is positively wonderful.
Chicago Fire Season 13 Does Addition by Subtraction
Stella Kidd Is Missed, but That Gives Mouch an Opportunity
Chicago Fire fans will lament Miranda Rae Mayo’s absence from this episode, as Stella Kidd is said to be in Maryland setting up another Girls on Fire program. In any other episode, it’d be strange not to have the show’s female lead. But in “A Favor,” a negative becomes a positive due to the fact that Stella’s absence requires Randy “Mouch” McHolland to take charge of Truck. It’s no surprise that both Mouch and Christopher Herrmann passed the promotion exams they took in Episode 8, so Stella’s trip allows audiences to see how Lieutenant McHolland functions. And like Minoso, actor Christian Stolte shines when given a meaty storyline.
The fire of the week is pretty unremarkable compared to other fire scenes on the show: a blaze breaks out at an extended-stay motel, and Mouch rescues a man named George Thompson, only to learn that George had actually died by cardiac arrest days earlier. Disturbed by the fact that no one had noticed, Mouch sets off on a quest to find George’s next of kin. This is a classic Chicago Fire story; it’s not uncommon for the members of Firehouse 51 to go out of their way for someone in the community. But it’s different to then combine that with Mouch’s first day on the new job; putting those two things together makes it more poignant. The script also does a fine job of practically making George a guest character, as Mouch finds out more about who the man was.
Mouch (of his first call as lieutenant): I thought it’d go a bit differently.
There’s only one way to end this story, and that’s with a feel-good emotional moment of some kind. While the episode doesn’t go fully there by allowing Mouch to find some surprise relative of George, it does still deliver the payoff by having Mouch write a perfect obituary for the other man. As Herrmann and Darren Ritter point out, Mouch has become the person who knows and can remember George, even if the two of them never technically met. This subplot is a way for Mouch to learn and grow, and provides the emotional element of the episode.
Chicago Fire Episode 9 Doesn’t Effectively Use All Its Characters
Most of Firehouse 51 Takes a Back Seat to Cruz and Mouch
Given that “A Favor” is the midseason premiere, it’s a bit awkward that it doesn’t make use of everyone in the Chicago Fire cast. Aside from Stella being completely out of the episode, pretty much everyone other than Cruz and Mouch doesn’t have a whole lot to do. Kelly Severide gets the C-story as he’s drafted to teach a fire investigation course and that piques the interest of Chief Dom Pascal. However, that story feels like it’s there to generate forced conflict for future episodes. Severide hasn’t done anything to demonstrate that he can’t handle taking on extra work, so Pascal suddenly being annoyed — then trying to downplay how annoyed he is later — doesn’t make much sense. It just seems petty and territorial.
Everybody else essentially rides the bench in Season 13, Episode 9. Herrmann and Ritter help Mouch with the search for George’s family, while Violet Mikami and Lizzie Novak just plan a promotion party, which doesn’t offer anything different than when Violet was helping to plan for Sylvie Brett and Matthew Casey’s wedding. This subplot is meant to put Violet and Sam Carver alone together, to continue to remind viewers of all the unresolved feelings between them, but it doesn’t really advance those feelings either. “A Favor” just slots the other characters in around the two plotlines for Mouch and Cruz, which may disappoint fans. But those same fans have also seen how episodes with too many storylines can be a mess, so it’s better to have a few good plots than force stories — and characters — in just for the sake of having them. Chicago Fire Season 10 returns relatively quietly, yet this time, that’s for the better.