Chicago Fire 12×03 “Trapped” is an episode about connections, new ones, and established ones. It’s also an episode about how we deal with fear — and in Firehouse 51, it seems like the answer is push through it and go literally do whatever scares you the most.
For Brett, that is be a badass and in the process save a woman, for Stella that is confront her fears about letting her husband return to OFI and for Violet that is face her growing attraction for Carver. All three literally go for it, and all three seem to get favorable results, though whether it all blows up in Violet’s face is still to be determined.
So let us talk about the Stella and Kelly and the Violet and Carver of it all as we discuss Chicago Fire 12×03 “Trapped”:
TRAPPED
Chicago Fire 12×03 “Trapped” finally uses OFI in a way that makes sense, because if Taylor Kinney couldn’t be in every episode this season, then the OFI does indeed give his character the perfect reason to take a few episodes off. And shows like NCIS: Los Angeles have proven that you don’t need every character in every episode. People can go to the doctor! They can have other appointments. It happens and it’s absolutely normal. As long as the characters can come together for the big moments, the show can work even with actors taking time off.
The show handles it well, though, by having Stella process her fears in her own time and having Kelly let Stella make the choice. And truly, for the Stellaride we know, the one we’ve followed up to this point, this could go no other way. The trust they’ve built might have been a little shaken by Severide’s actions, but the foundation still holds. And the way to move forward with the relationship Kelly and Stella want to have is not by holding on to what they have both done wrong, but by building on the good.
So Stella tells him to go. Do the thing he loves. Build the career he wants. For himself, yes, but also for the future he wants for the two of them, for the family they one day want to have. And there’s a little fear as she says “see you soon,” but there’s trust too. That he’ll be back, that this isn’t like last time. She once left and got a little lost and then learned her lesson, so Stella is trusting that just as she did, Severide can get a little lost, learn his own lesson, and then come back home to her.
THE MOMENT IT ALL CLICKS
Every ship has a moment where it all clicks. Chicago Fire has been clearly setting up Carver and Violet for a while, and this episode has what I would consider their first it moment ship-wise, aka their first kiss. But even before that, they had already given me the moment I needed as a viewer to ship it. That tiny moment when Carver asked Violet about what happened at the diner and then, as Mouch interrupted, Carver stopped him because he was talking to Violet and he wanted to continue talking to Violet? That was it. That was my moment.
It was when I knew this could work.
Will it? I can’t know that for sure yet. That’s up to the writing going forward. We got some really, really promising signs with how it began this episode. And of course, to Jake Lockett and Hanako Greensmith, who still have to continue to act it out. But now, I know that despite the fact that I will always mourn what Chicago Fire could have had with Hawkami and what they threw away way too fast, I can also invest in this. I could even before the kiss, even before they walked out of Molly’s together. After that, well …it’s fully steam ahead on this ship.
Things I think I think:
- “I’m not scowling,” says Herrmann as he scowls.
- Look, the new guy gives me good vibes.
- But Sylvie ordered Mouch a special cheese Danish
- Yes, I would also like to know what is the plan, Violet. Asking what the plan is feels like a sound question.
- Love how Boden is all help first, and questions second.
- I mean, but what does Cruz want? For Severide to tell him not to go?
- A bar of soap Mouch, really?
- But are we at some point going to see Stella and Kelly going to talk about how they got to this moment of tension in the first place? Not just Kelly leaving this last time, but Stella leaving before. Talk about EVERYTHING, and about their pasts and their fears and about what this brings up.
- “I never want you to feel trapped.”
- Violet’s fears are very valid, and I’m glad she got to vocalize them.
- An ambulance isn’t exactly an inconspicuous vehicle, are they just gonna stay there?
- Oh, no, it’s worse.
- Brett, you have a CHILD.
- Sylvie and Violet saving that woman is badass, though. Let’s give them that. And not give them hell at all. Give them a medal.
- Severide asking Cruz gave me feelings. But Kelly, your wife cannot keep telling you how to USE WORDS and WHAT FEELINGS ARE when it comes to everyone but her.
- Violet, are you okay, girl?
- I got TOO MUCH ROMANCE THIS EPISODE, I’M SCARED.
- “See you soon.”
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago Fire 12×03 “Trapped”? Share with us in the comments below!
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
