‘Chicago Fire’ Recap: ‘Birds of Prey’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

CHICAGO FIRE -- "Birds of Prey" Episode 1306 -- Pictured: Dermot Mulroney as Chief Dom Pascal -- (Photo by: Peter Gordon/NBC)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 1306 of ‘Chicago Fire’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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For the most part, procedural shows that take the time to showcase a specific career field, rarely offer up long-standing mysteries and understandably so. Because it’s about the moment, the work that people do in the field the series showcases, and the big moments they encounter and their mpact upon them. So, there really isn’t room to do much else or room to have something big hanging over the story. But now and again, you run into a show that figures out a way to make that happen. Such as Chicago Fire on NBC. For this particular series has kept us guessing regarding the sordid past of one Chief Dom Pascal. Since we simply don’t know what drove him out of Miami and back to the Windy City.

But that all started to change last night. For ‘Birds of Prey’ started to give us some idea of what happened in Miami, and that all came about, courtesy of one ugly fire. One that hit a storage unit and one that had a single survivor and a surprise within its walls. In that, members of 51 discovered something quite unsettling. Specifically, ghost guns. Which are handguns that are 3-D printed, function fine but have no serial numbers, thus rendering them untraceable and thus making them highly illegal and well… while Severide was trying to figure out the source of the fire and perhaps how it related to those guns, Chicago State Police arrived and basically kicked his team out… since the weapons related to a case they were working on.

However, they took away all kinds of evidence in the process, evidence that could have proven what started the fire, and to make matters worse… the one person involved in the fire… was nowhere to be found. Which Severide called foul on since he realized the State Troopers were up to something here, and sadly, Chief Pascal let them take the lead. Which prompted Severide to dig deeper and uncover, that Pascal was involved in some messy moments in Miami. The kind that inferred he was involved with some dirty people out there. Which would indeed be good reason to leave if rot in a department spread far and wide and entangled him. But the good news, is that he was the good guy in that situation and brought those guys down instead of helping them out, and he has the same machinations to bring down corrupt individuals in Chicago.

Which while that isn’t a perfect answer to the question, it does get us going and it does begin to open the floodgates for this storyline, and it will be interesting to see what more we learn as this duo work to stop something illegal. But while we wait for that, we should talk about the other moments in the episode of note. Since Mouch ran afoul of a pigeon that was eager to protect her baby birds, which made for some fine comedy. Plus, Violet and Novak may have dealt with one of the boldest emergency calls to air on network television, courtesy of an intestinal surprise and Carver… had a wakeup call here. Well… a few. Because he was way too tired. Mainly because he was learning just how toxic his new relationship turned out to be.

All of which gave rise, to another engaging episode from this show. One that finally did offer up answers regarding Pascal, and that was lovely. Because we have been waiting patiently for those details and it does make us like the guy a little more. Since we couldn’t tell exactly which side of the fence he stood on. But it would seem he’s a straight arrow with some flaws, and that means he does fit in at Firehouse 51 no problem. But that aside, this was also just a vintage, day in the life episode, something we’ve grown to love when it comes to this series. Because it’s always amazing to watch the life and times of these incredible people, and truly, it will be interesting to see what lie ahead now that we know a hero is leading the charge and see what other everyday moments await us as this new season of storytelling continues along. Until next time.

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