Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 2 ‘Primary Search‘ moves the plot forward, but it cannot escape the issues the Season 14 premiere set up. The hour gives Stella and Kelly a foster kid, and it has Stella basically needing to parent Vasquez to try to get him to fall in line, but it never even attempts to address the loss she and Kelly suffered last episode. It also gives Ritter a goodbye that makes sense on paper, but that feels hollow considering what we knew of his relationship with Dwayne.
Right now, that’s the problem with Chicago Fire as Season 14 gets underway. A lot has been set up. But the show is being very casual with exploring the ramifications of what characters are going through. Things are happening, but we’re not getting enough of a sense of what the characters are feeling as these things happen. And even when they’re resolved, they’re resolved very quickly, without exploring the emotions this show has always explored.
The thing is, we’re not here for the emergencies, we’re really not. We’re here for the way the characters. And if we’re not getting enough of that, then what’s the point?
MORE: If you need a reminder of what happened in the Season 14 premiere, here’s our review!
THIS ISN’T STELLA’S JOB
Stella and Kelly choose to take on Isaiah in Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 2 ‘Primary Search’, but it feels like all Stella is doing this episode is educating kids all over. And at least one of them is an actual teenager who needs help, because the other one is acting just like one, and that really isn’t Stella’s job. But once again, that’s the position the show has put Stella Kidd in, the position Pascal has put her in. She’s gotta educate a teenager, a grown adult, and then—and this is perhaps the worst part—she’s gotta let them go.
Fostering is a big decision, and it’s not really one for everyone. But on paper, Stella and Kelly are great for it. They want to help, they have the tools to do it, and Stella is so good with teenagers. We’ve always known she’d be a great mom, but she’s especially good with older kids. She does, after all, have a lot of experience, not just with Girls on Fire but in her personal life.
But the emotional toll of taking on a kid right after losing one isn’t something the show explores enough, and that’s the problem. In any normal scenario, this would be really hard for someone, but this isn’t a normal scenario. And the show cannot, should not, pretend that fostering a kid for a bit in any way, shape, or form makes up for the loss Stella suffered.
Sure, this might be a way for the show to build up to Stella considering how much she really wants to expand her family. But I’d argue that, despite her earlier misgivings, the show hasn’t actually shown us Stella ever doubting. It hasn’t shown us Stella being anything but sad and disappointed that she’s not pregnant. We can’t fill in the blanks with interviews. Show, don’t tell. And right now, Chicago Fire is trying to tell us a lot of things, but showing us very little. Well, other than Stella and Kelly are a really well-oiled machine. But we already knew that.
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WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT SAL VASQUEZ?
It’s only been two episodes, but not even Brandon Larracuente’s charisma is enough for me to really feel invested in Sal Vasquez right now. The character feels like someone reheated Carver and Damon’s nachos, and reheated food is always worse. Sure, the cocky firefighter is a good trope, and it works for a reason, but the problem is we’ve seen it enough times before that, right now, there’s nothing really differentiating him from the guys that came before, and that we already got attached to. Not even his self-sacrificing streak.
Vasquez is also suffering from our general feeling of “why should I get attached?” because at this point, it feels like there’s no reason to. We’ll just lose characters anyway. Best to continue caring about the ones we already care about and not really spend any time investing in new ones. This is more or less what is still happening to us with Pascal, and even though he seems to be staying, it’s still hard to trust it.
But Pascal is, at least, a very defined character that isn’t really trying to be Boden as he fills his position. In fact, Pascal seems interested in being the anti-Boden, in almost all ways. We can’t say the same about Vasquez, even with the hints of a backstory we’ve gotten. And until we get something that feels real for him, or a moment of connection that sticks, it doesn’t matter how many heroics he pulls. We’re just not going to care.
MORE: Remember the last One Chicago crossover? Here’s our review!
Things I think I think:
- Why is family a sore subject for Vasquez?
- Stella is so good with teenagers. She’s so good with kids.
- “Are we the right people to take him in?”
- I like how Stella and Kelly talk, because they’re partners. They don’t talk over each other or try to convince each other. They just talk about the issue, their feelings about it, and come to a decision together. It’s so mature and one of the things the show does better. This is what real communication in a marriage looks like.
- So, someone in his family is… in jail? No nepo baby? Just someone with a death wish?
- Why are they still giving him chances, then?
- Nice heroics and all, but have you ever heard of listening to your Lieutenant?
- Vasquez is more of a kid than the kid Stella and Kelly are taking in.
- Kelly’s like “let me not look at Vasquez” as Stella is doing his thing.
- “Not yet, anyway.”
- I’m so glad Kelly is asking Joe for advice.
- LOL at Kelly taking the chair from Vasquez.
- “The risk of me dying was worth saving everyone there.”
- Kelly and Stella are suuuch a good team.
- I mean, I get Ritter feeling guilty. It makes no sense, but I get it.
- I like Violet being a good friend to Ritter. But my issues with this Ritter storyline remain what they are. It came out of nowhere, he didn’t even care about Dwanye for sooo long and now here we are. And it’s not really explained. There’s no weight to it.
- Kelly not knowing about the bulbs doesn’t surprise me. He’s a man.
- This poor kid has no idea what to do with male authority figures, right?
- Okay, Vasquez’s dad.
- “Extended fourlogh” right. Sounds like goodbye to us.
- Of course Violet has issues with all her friends leaving her!
- No one thought about the fact that Herrmann was taking a financial hit by dropping rank? Or is it just one of those abstract ideas that only affected Herrmann, so no one really gave it much thought?
- Aww, Mouch giving up Molly’s. I kinda get it. It is a bad deal, though.
- I love Novak, I do.
- Can’t say I love how Stella has had to adjust to this new dude.
- Kelly is gonna be such a good dad.
- “What your dad did is on him, not you.” Okay, the idea is interesting. But I need more.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 2 ‘Primary Search’? Share with us in the comments below! And if you have your own opinion on the show, leave a review/rating on our Chicago Fire hub!
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
