Rear View Mirror

Air date

November 14, 2012

Runtime

42 minutes

Production information

Directed by

Joe Chappelle

Written by

Thania St. John

Series information
Previous	Next
Hanging On	Two Families

Rear View Mirror is the sixth episode of the first season and the 6th overall episode of Chicago Fire.

Summary[]

Facing suspension, Dawson gets a hand from the same girl she saved through the procedures that landed her in front of the disciplinary board. Lieutenant Casey finds his fuse shortening as Detective Hank Voight stops at nothing to get him to retract his statement. However, when Casey lays his life on the line during an apartment fire, he may have unknowingly caught the break he was needing.

Plot[]

A shaky, worried Hallie meets Dawson for a cup of coffee downtown. As her eyes fill with tears, Hallie asks Dawson to convince Matt not to testify against Detective Voight's son, since she knows they're close and he'd listen to her. Hallie's tried to tell him herself, but to no avail. She can sense danger ahead, and she cares more for Matt's safety than Matt's righteousness. Elsewhere in Chicago, the guys are gathered around an industrial building, with Severide riding in the snorkel basket trying to help a graffiti artist named Zito get down from his ladder. An unmarked cop car pulls up and out comes Voight, a menacing partner in tow. As Severide and the men hold Casey back, Voight asks Casey if his fiancee will be at the deposition with him tomorrow. At the mention of Hallie, Casey loses it and goes after Voight, but the guys hold him back. Tensions escalate as the crew heads back to the trucks, Voight looking after them with a signature glint in his eye.

At the firehouse, the Chief reminds Casey that regardless of what else is going on in his life, he cannot take his eye off his job even for a second. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Herrmann's all riled up about graffiti being considered an art form, and these clowns who inflict it upon society get $3,000 a pop while he's scrounging up side jobs for $20 an hour. The rest of the crew cannot suppress their giggles at his unprecedented outburst as Dawson heads over to talk to Mouch. He's helping represent her for the hearing, but the news isn't good: she's looking at some hefty suspension time. As he goes into strenuous detail about how Dawson has to make sure to keep her cool and keep a smile on her face during the hearing, she notices Casey walk by and follows him out, leaving Mouch to trail off on his valuable advice.

In the locker room, Dawson carefully asks an exhausted looking Casey if he's thought about retracting his statement. "Would you?" he asks her. Dawson is silent but looks pained. "Why would you advise me to do something you wouldn't?" Casey presses, but before she can answer, they're interrupted by the shriek of a siren. Arriving on the scene, Dawson and Shay rush onto a parked bus and begin working on a gunshot victim who looks to be seconds away from death. They're forced to make a call that's not approved in the field, a surgical cric (intubation through the throat) to keep the victim alive, and Shay takes over the procedure so that Dawson, who's already under fire, won't have to take the hit. As Herrmann is directing the flow of traffic, a car almost collides with Casey, who's crossing the scene. Casey lets his temper get to the best of him and snaps at the driver. The Chief, upon seeing this, immediately ends Casey's shift for the day. Casey's furious, but the Chief's already warned him: when you let personal emotions interfere with your work, you belong at home.

At the firehouse, Dawson, who's frustrated that Shay took over the procedure back at the scene, lashes out at her, sarcastically saying that apparently all she's good for is driving and inventory. Though she's under a lot of pressure with a possible suspension looming over her, that's not all Dawson is worried about, and Shay knows it. She assures her that Casey will be all right. Meanwhile Cruz is fed up with just sitting around while Casey gets pushed and shoved by Voight. He nudges the guys to start bringing the heat back to Voight. Herrmann refuses; he's got a family that he won't be able to take care of if he's fired or locked up. Otis is too much of a goof for the task, but a stern faced Mills is on board. Outside the house, Dawson meets with her brother Antonio, who assures her that he and his team are doing everything they can to bring down Voight. Antonio asks Dawson to have a little faith in her own brother, but she looks sick with nerves.

Back at their apartment, Hallie begs Casey to take some time off. They have plenty of vacation hours stacked up; they could go somewhere! If they just give themselves time to regroup, maybe the cops will stop Voight. Just then, two police officers carrying search warrants knock on their door, informing Casey that they've received word that he's in possession of cocaine. Overhearing this from the hallway, Hallie drops to her knees and begins frantically looking around their home for any signs of drugs, sure that they've been set up. Sure enough she finds a parcel of coke taped under their counter, and she hides it just in time. Casey's furious at the accusation, explaining to the cops that he's a firefighter and his fiancee is a doctor. They're hardly the notorious drug types. The cops refuse to back down, so Casey uses his last lifeline and begs them to call Antonio for clarification. They do, and reaching the detective, they wearily leave the house. Seconds later Casey orders Hallie to flush the drugs down the toilet and he's out the door.

Casey's forcefully knocking on an unfamiliar door and as soon as it opens, he clocks an unsuspecting Voight right in the face. They collapse into the living room, with Casey continuing to throw punches, eyes blazing, hands shaking with fear and anger. Lying on the ground, Voight pulls out a loaded gun and points it straight at Casey. Moments of tense silence pass, and then he slides it across the floor towards Casey. "Go ahead, use it," Voight says slowly. The way he see's it, Casey's only got two choices: retracting his statement or shooting Voight right then and there, because those are the only two things that will stop Voight from going after Casey and Hallie. The two men glare at one another, neither knowing what the other will do. Looking around the spacious living room and seeing photographs of Voight's family, Casey flees. At the firehouse, Mouch continues to prep Dawson for her hearing. He preaches the importance of a welcoming and innocent smile to top it all off, but Dawon, her face pulled into some sort of odd grimace, fails miserably.

Casey steps into the Chief's office to apologize for what happened earlier that day, his green eyes bloodshot. He's ready to work. The following day all the guys are overjoyed to have Casey back in the office, so to speak, but before anyone can rejoice too loudly, the entire house is called to a building fire. An unattended to dumpster fire has caused flames to go up the elevator shaft, and now the entire top half of the eight story building is on fire. Dawson begins to set up triage as Severide and Vargas make their way up the stairs of the building, searching for tenants, with Casey and Cruz at their heels. The firefighters uncover a group of mobile tenants and send them down to the ambulances. Chief Boden heads up to the eighth floor to join Casey, who's coming down the hallway with two tenants. The Chief, reading the pressure, desperately shouts at Casey to retreat, which he does, and seconds later flames race out of the elevator shaft like a blowtorch. There's no way out: they're going to have to get a ladder up to the eighth floor from the outside.

Inside, Casey braces himself against the apartment door, trying to keep the flames from barreling in, as the young man, Curtis, puts the oxygen mask on his mother and climbs to open the window. Outside, the guys quickly maneuver the ladder up to the window as Severide helps the woman climb out of the building, followed by her son. He beckons Casey over but Casey refuses to nudge from the door until the victims are safely out of the building. Severide refuses to climb any further down the ladder until Casey's safe, so Casey removes himself from the door as flames rush wildly into the apartment. Fighting to stay alive, Casey leaps out of the window, barely latching onto the ladder on his way down. He hangs on, gripping the underside of the rung with his right hand as his feet swing wildly. From up top, Severide, with all his might, pulls Casey to safety. It was a close call; Casey nearly succumbed to the same fate as the fallen Darden.

A worried Dawson hands Casey his hat, the top of which has been burned to a crisp. Mills comes over to remind Dawson not be late for her hearing, assuring her he'll take over the scene since he's a certified EMT. Relieved, Dawson gives him a hug and runs off. The Chief, giving the scene a final survey, notices a young boy riding away on a bicycle, the same one who's been closely watching the firefighters the entire time. Meanwhile, Curtis, seeing Casey's name across his jacket, approaches Casey and quietly tells him he's heard about the issues he's having with Voight. He offers to help. Back at the firehouse, Antonio informs Casey and the Chief that Curtis, wired with hidden microphones, has already put in a call to meet up with Voight and that police cars will be on the scene to nab him once they get the evidence. Casey tells Antonio he wants to be there when it goes down, and Antonio reluctantly agrees.

At the courthouse, Dawson's clearly out of her element with her hair down and dressed in a conservative suit. Mouch, in a corduroy jacket, looks no better. As one of the panel members begin to read off Dawson's serious charges, she notices Mouch is texting away, and she can no longer keep her cool like they practiced, telling the panel that she was trained in the procedure and did what she had to do to save a human life, which isn't a crime. Mouch tries to alleviate things by asking the panel for a short break. In the hallway, Madeline, the girl who Dawson saved, embraces Dawson. Madeline and her parents are here to act as witnesses on Dawson's behalf.

In a dark alleyway, Curtis stands deceptively alone, waiting on Voight. Antonio, Casey and a tech cop are hiding out in a van, watching the scene unfold thanks to a hidden camera. When Voight arrives, Curtis, having worked with Voight before, tells him he wants in on a rumored firefighter Voight's trying to bring down. Voight tells him he'll give him two grand if he stops Casey... for good. With the incriminating magic words recorded, Antonio clears a trio of cop cars to surround and cuff Voight. Voight's surprised at the sting operation but stays calm, and when he spots Casey in the distance, he tells him to "enjoy it while you can." As he's forced into the cop car, Voight keeps his gaze on Casey, threatening as ever.

At the firehouse, Otis gets off the phone and informs Cruz that Dawson got a three-shift suspension, which means she'll be losing about two grand. The guys decide to throw her a suspension shindig the following night and all pitch in $20, but Herrmann reluctantly suggests a better idea. Him, Cruz and Otis retrieve Zito's graffiti from the billboard, and after Otis works a little magic, he's able to sell it to an art collector for $1,000. The next night, the party is in full gear, hosted by Mills at the diner his family owns. Casey and Antonio roll through, and although Dawson barely thanks Antonio, she cannot keep her eyes off Casey. Across the bar, Dawson watches a tearful Hallie embrace Casey. Although the party is being thrown in her honor and she's supposed to be celebrating, Dawson can't help but feel her heart break a little as she watches the two of them, so in love.^[1]

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Randy Flagler as Firefighter Harold Capp
William Smillie as Firefighter Kevin Hadley
Sam Porretta as Paramedic Field Chief Karl Hatcher
Teri Reeves as Dr. Hallie Thomas
Cody Sullivan as Ernie
Jason Beghe as Detective Hank Voight
Jon Seda as Detective Antonio Dawson

Guest Cast[]

Patrick Mulvey as Officer Bell
Elizabeth Ledo as Officer Madden
Emma Gordon as Madeline
Dan Flannery as Callahan
Roosevelt Booker as Curtis
Patrick Andrews as Zito
Brett Elam as Reade
Rebekah Ward as Madeline's Mother
Lindsey Whiting as Waitress
Derin Adesida as Woman
Denise Hughes as CTA Driver

Notes and Trivia[]

Promo[]

References[]

↑ Chicago Fire - Episode Guide - Rear View Mirror

[1] Chicago Fire - Episode Guide - Rear View Mirror

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