Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 10 Wrapped Up Two Storylines Beautifully, Making Room for More

Critic’s Rating: 4.15 / 5.0

4.15

There is plenty of relationship drama on Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 10.

And we even got a couple of decent rescues, though brief and not requiring Engine, which is the test we need to see how things will work with Mouch gone.

Marriages, friendships, hookups, and father-son relationships were all on the table this time out.

Let’s start with the burgeoning affairs, because Stella may run a program with the name, but Violet and Novak are the girls on fire.

Good golly. Violet is making googly eyes at Vasquez, and Novak is running in late, hair totally mussed up, after a quick tussle with Frost.

Hey, nobody said you can’t have a personal life on the job, right?

Thankfully, they’re also still working on the rotating med program, but even that was used to shine more light on Novak and Frost.

But, still, when others in the firehouse are on high alert because of your personal exploits, you might want to keep your feelings tidied up and somewhat separate.

Violet was so wrapped up in her own thing with Vasquez that she didn’t even see the sparks flying between Novak and Dr. Frost.

How blind do you have to be to miss that?

And the return of Vasquez’s dad drove home that Violet is feeling more than just friendship for him.

Before this, I thought that the best thing that could happen for Vasquez was if his father either died or went back to prison, so he would stop dragging Vasquez back into his orbit.

Even when they weren’t in touch, people thought they were, and when dad went “missing,” they came to Vasquez to check on him.

The last thing Vasquez needed was for his dad to tantalize him with the “don’t go all Sherlock on me… and oh, by the way, it was nice knowing you, but it’s better this way” shtick. He always runs toward danger.

But Vasquez didn’t even need to follow trouble; it found him at home when whoever was after his dad broke into his apartment. To look for something? To send a message? I didn’t quite get the gist of it.

But as much as his dad said he didn’t want Vasquez involved, he really wanted him involved. The earlier visit was a giveaway. It was as if he were begging for his son to get involved while simultaneously telling him to steer clear. Mixed messages for the win, folks!

Of course, Vasquez called in his cop friends to assist, and in the process, he learned that his dad would do anything, including going back to prison or dying to protect him. Their relationship needs some work, but all’s well that ends well.

And while they were doling out happy endings, Stellaride got one, too.

Stella and Kelly’s morning was strained. Let my haters rush on over to Twitter and talk about what an awful person I am, but I saw Stella’s face. She was being somewhat facetious when she told Kelly she thought he’d be better off spending the day at Van Meter’s bedside.

She could barely look him in the eye, even while she was telling him he should ask Van Meter’s family if they mind that he sits with them.

They needed to stop circling each other and lay their cards on the table. They love each other, and they were pushing each other away because they weren’t being honest.

It hurts to think someone is too wrapped up in their own crap to recognize yours, and that’s what was happening. They were both hurt, not angry or purposefully pushing the other away.

Kelly wasn’t being honest about what he was really going through with Van Meter, and Stella wasn’t being truthful about the pain of losing Isaiah or about how it felt that Kelly wasn’t there for her.

As soon as it was revealed that the woman in the car accident was pregnant, I knew that it would affect Stella. Seeing that family pull through made her realize she was still suffering the loss of the baby, which is why she jumped into fostering.

On Kelly’s end, it was Van Meter’s family finally showing up that made him realize he had been pushing Stella aside.

When they finally came together in front of Molly’s, that was the couple I’ve come to love. The one that knows they are always there for each other and just had to remember they don’t need to be perfect, and, in fact, they’re better together because they’re not.

In other news, Herrmann was spiraling without Mouch, which is understandable in theory but not in practice, given how rarely we see them together these days. Their days of shooting the breeze in the breakroom are long over, sadly.

But it was a good opportunity for Herrmann’s wife make an appearance and to remind us they recently lost their home in a house fire.

And it also gave Cruz a chance to step up for Herrmann. Cruz has been lost ever since Otis died, so this could be good for both of them.

We haven’t heard any news that Christian Stolte is leaving the franchise, so I’m sure he’ll be back. But it was weird that he wasn’t at Molly’s. Then I remembered that he’d given his shares back to Herrmann, so he didn’t need to be there.

Maybe this plan was in motion for a while. Maybe Stolte will be more present on Chicago PD with Trudy. I have no idea, but maybe we’ll find out.

Chicago Fire Season 14 Episode 10 wrapped up two significant storylines, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

This was the best episode of the season so far because it moved the story along and allowed characters to be themselves again.

What storylines do you want to take center stage for the remainder of the season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.