Chicago Fire 12×04 “The Little Things” is an episode about trying, and about how sometimes trying is not enough, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop doing so. Life is made up of that trying. The moment we don’t do that, we might as well not live.
In a way, it feels like what Boden did, what Stella did, isn’t anywhere near enough. Just like it felt like what Violet lost made loving not worth it, or that Severide leaving made Stellaride irrevocably broken. But life is not black and white and we are not just our worst moments. Violet might not be completely healed, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Stellaride might not be perfect, but Severide is coming home and they are indeed closer to understanding each other.
And Boden might not have fixed everything with his son, but he is trying. He took that first step, he opened the door to his house. Sometimes that’s all you can do at the moment, take that first step and make sure you keep taking steps afterward.
Every once in a while we lose sight of the fact that life is, cannot ever be, perfection. We live in the middle ground, in moving from the good and the bad, and it’s how we move from one side of the spectrum to the other that matters. Well, that and the lessons that we learn along the way that help us.
the future that we want…
For Stella, the lesson of this episode is perhaps, that there is no black and white. And I don’t think that lesson has quite sunk in yet, we don’t just learn life lessons as easily as flicking a switch. But there is a greater awareness that Severide’s “side,” if there has ever been sides in this thing with them is valid.
He didn’t go about it the right way, of course. It would have been better if he had communicated. He retreated when he could have told his wife “Hey, this is what I want and I don’t just want it for me, I want it for us, for our future, so maybe we can one day have a family.”
She sees it now, though. And more than that, I think she’s starting to want it. There’s fear too. Fear of Severide not being there every day when she has a bad shift, but I think that will be different when he’s not there at the Firehouse but he is there in Chicago, there at their house. So it’s an adjustment, yes. As I said before, that’s life, and that’s love. But I think Stella is starting to see that it’s one she might want to make with Severide.
the present that we fear…
Violet is in that zone that we saw before with Evan, the zone where she isn’t thinking. It’s a beautiful zone, and she’s, of course, going to regret it when she lets her brain engage because, by the time she blinks, she’ll be too deep in to back out. And I’m willing to bet so will Carver. He already seems a lot more committed to it than Violet, though honestly, he has from the beginning. Then, we’ll get the pain because you know, traumas! The moment Carver gets somewhat hurt in front of Violet, her fears will come out.
I could write this script myself.
That doesn’t make this a bad storyline, mostly because the way it’s being acted really works. There’s a reason why people keep going back to the same AO3 tags. If the trope works, the trope works. Why try to reinvent the wheel? I had my doubts at the beginning, and this is being set up a tad too much like Hawkami to start with, except without the boss/subordinate dynamic, but the personalities are different and the actors are making it work, so I’m happy to let it play out.
Things I think I think:
- LOL at Ritter just catching on RIGHT AWAY.
- Sure, sure. One time hookup. Sure, Violet. Not even you believe it.
- Man, Carver is giving me leading man energy now, how is this even a thing?
- Good on you to ask about Severide, Violet. I want girl talk!
- HOW IS JULIA SO BIG? AND SO CUTE?
- Lol, the stories about Herrmann and his kids.
- Okay, Chicago Fire, are you being obvious about Stella and kids for a good reason or…?
- Boden has to be part of every Chicago Fire wedding. It’s a rule!
- Surely the invitation is just misplaced, Joe. COME ON. This is one of those moments where the show is milking silly drama for the sake of it.
- Carver trying and Violet pulling back is a dynamic I actually kinda …like. It’s gonna be interesting if/when it happens.
- Also, Stella, have you got the OFI bug now?
- Jokes aside, I think this might be helpful in understanding Severide and in sort of setting a baseline for where they are going forward as a couple.
- “You have kids, Stella?”
- My heart breaks for Boden, I swear.
- HOME A WEEK FROM TOMORROW.
- Was I crying by the end? Maaaybe.
- Boden’s apology is so important because he was right to tell his kid the truth, but he was also absent and it was important to recognize that if he wants to move forward.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago Fire 12×04 “The Little Things”? Share with us in the comments below!
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.