Chicago Fire season 13, episode 3 recap and review: Who was fired?

Firehouse 51 looked to be losing people, but would it be the Damon, Severide, Kidd, or someone else? Let’s take a look at the events of Chicago Fire season 13, episode 3.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Chicago Fire season 13, episode 3.

The promo for Chicago Fire season 13, episode 3 made it clear that someone was going to be fired from 51. Chief Dom Pascal is not happy that someone lied to him. Of course, there are a few people who have lied. Severide and Herrmann both come to mind, although Herrmann is on the lesser side—that was just over why he didn’t do the captain exam.

While all this went on, the firehouse worried about one of their own and Severide was pulled into OFI for a case.

What happened at the restaurant fire in Chicago Fire season 13, episode 3?

Firehouse 51 immediately got a call out to a restaurant fire. While out there, Pascal orders for everyone to move out but it’s not enough time for Ritter. He’s blasted out of a fire and into some bushes. As Herrmann said, it was only by the grace of God that he landed in the bushes. Those bushes saved his life.

When Van Meter calls Severide to help him with an investigation, Herrmann is angry to hear that PD won’t make the fire a top priority since nobody was seriously hurt. That gave us the updated we needed on Ritter. He’ll make it through! However, Herrmann knows that this could have gone terribly wrong.

When it came to the investigation, Severide already wondered if there was something fishy about the situation. Only one person was inside at the time, and the Chinese couple who own the restaurant explained that it was a former tenant.

Well, that tenant, Cory, went to OFI to have it out with Severide as the Chinese couple went after him at the hospital for arson. He didn’t do it, even though he was angry.

This did initially seem like a cut and dry case. It did look like Cody would do it out of revenge, but Chicago Fire is good at adding a twist. It turns out that the wife wanted to sell the business, but the husband didn’t. Then she realizes that there was an old rice cooker in the restaurant, and it may have caused the fire. Is it possible that the wife burned down the business to force a sale?

One thing that this storyline does mean is that we get to see more of Ritter and his cop boyfriend, Dwayne. This relationship is so adorable and I need to see more of it play out. I don’t want it to be superficial though, which can happen with some of the smaller characters. We need to see Ritter really get to Dwayne and see if there’s a life with him.

Sure enough, it was the rice cooker, but it didn’t just burn and start a fire. It exploded. See, Chicago Fire is good with its twists!

The twists continue. Paint thinner was put in the rice cooker to turn it into a bomb.

While the wife admits that it was her, Severide knows that it wasn’t her. She’s protecting her daughter. I honestly thought that it was going to be the wife, but the daughter makes sense. She found out her dad wanted to give her the restaurant so she burned down the building to avoid it. Mom knew all about it. It doesn’t help anything, though. Instead, the daughter is arrested for arson.

Violet and Novak get into vehicle trouble

I wish parents and guardians would put all their medication out of reach of children. Sure, many people need to take medications on a daily basis, and they need easy access to them. A child’s life is always going to take priority.

Violet and Novak head out to a call of a child who has overdosed on pills. This boy got his hands on a whole week’s intake of benzos, leading to the two paramedics having to work fast to save him. After hitting a pothole, the ambo loses power. Something dislodged under the hood, and Violet has to figure out how to fix it to be able to get the kid to the hospital.

I love that we get to see how Violet and Novak remain calm together. They both focus on the tasks at hand when the emergency doesn’t go to plan. Of course, their priority is their patient, but Violet needs to play mechanic and Novak doesn’t question anything. When it comes to explaining what happened on the call, Novak bigged Violet up, and this is the type of female friendship we need to see!

There looks to be some girl drama coming up, though. Carver brings his new girlfriend to Molly’s, and this girlfriend is clearly threatened by Violet. Even Novak can sense problems that are about to come up. Oh, and this girlfriend is the reason Violet hasn’t been getting his texts. I definitely know women like this—they’re the ones who peaked in high school.

Damon plays Pascal to his advantage

Chief Pascal has had it out for Kidd from the start. It’s clear that he is waiting for her to mess up enough to get her out, so when she goes to him with concerns about Damon, it kick starts a much bigger problem.

Pascal is unhappy that Kidd didn’t put the fact that Damon didn’t follow orders in her report. He’s annoyed that she hasn’t brought up a problem in the past, and now she wants more turnover when she promised that there wouldn’t be any more.

He wasn’t just going to take Kidd’s side of it, either. He called Damon into his office, who has found a way to stick with Firehouse 51 and get rid of Kidd, who he clearly sees as a problem for him and Severide. He found a way to make it sound like Kidd is a problematic leader who isn’t clear with her orders.

I don’t like that Pascal is doing this. Look, I know that we need to have problematic characters, but Pascal is going to be around for a while and we need to like him. This isn’t the way to like him. At the same time, he’s biased, and that doesn’t make a good chief.

Mouch is spotting things about the man, but it’s not enough to help at this point. Pascal is seeing something in Mouch as well, but this continues the idea that there’s some sort of bias going on. Pascal wants Mouch to take the lieutenant test to step up if he needs another lieutenant as 51. There may be a spot.

Look, Mouch is observant. He’s going to protect Kidd as much as he can, and I hope to see someone calls Pascal out of things soon. Fortunately, Mouch is brave and smart enough to bring it up with Kidd, which helps to alert Kidd to an issue. It also gives Kidd a chance to be honest with Mouch, and he always comes to the defense of those he loves in the firehouse. Mouch will make an excellent lieutenant when it happens!

Sure enough, it works! Pascal is able to see that Damon is the problem and he’s the one fired from Firehouse 51. He’s being put back into the floater pool. Damon doesn’t leave without getting a dig in on Severide, saying how Severide is Benny for abandoning him. This storyline is not over yet.

Let’s talk about a relationship that probably shouldn’t last, though. Pascal and his wife are clearly toxic. She likes that he went to hit someone because he was jealous. It’s going to be some great relationship drama, which will hopefully help to mean that Ritter and Dwayne will be great, but I just don’t care about them and I’m done with these types of toxic relationships.

Overall, the arson case was on the more predictable side, but I liked the message in it. So many parents will push their own dreams onto their children, and all it does is lead to resentful and unhappy children. It’s important to see what they want to do in their life and support them in that.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC. Catch up the follow day on Peacock.

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