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“Chicago Fire ” recap (1.11): “It’s not too late to switch teams.”

So this is it: We find out if we have another lesbian cut down in her prime by a television writer wielding a vehicle or if Shay will live to quip another day.

We start where the last episode ended with our favorite EMTs in the back of a badly battered ambulance, gauze and other supplies strewn everywhere and Dawson is lying on her back, blood all over her face. She moves and calls out for Shay before getting up and finding Shay unconscious on the floor of the rig. Dawson says “Shay, sweetie, you’ve got to be okay,” before catching herself and saying “you’re going to be okay.” She’s struggling to keep it together as she’s checking Shay’s eyes and her vision swims a bit as another ambulance shows up.

They cut to Casey and his mom in the prison visitor’s room and they’re talking about her upcoming hearing and she wants Casey’s sister to lighten up so she can get out. He reminds her that, you know, she should have thought about how sucky prison would be before she killed their dad. She storms off all “How dare you be mad because I killed your father!” But sadly it’s not quite the same as Niki Wade getting all indignant and storming out. Sigh, I miss Niki. When Casey gets his phone back he gets the message about Shay and Dawson and pulls on his superhero cape and dashes out the door. OK, he doesn’t have a cape, just some Superman underoos but man they make him feel like a superhero.

Shay is being wheeled into the hospital and Dawson is limping along, chirping about her vitals and worrying like crazy. The doctors ask if Shay is allergic to any meds and Dawson says “no” because that’s something you know for your girlfriend just like you know that she likes to eat yogurt after sex and has eyes for which technicolor was invented. I think the name is Pantone Holy Shit I Forgot What I Was Saying – Sooooo Blue. As soon as they take Shay back and Dawson sees the Chief she loses it. The Chief hugs her and sends her off to get checked out too because of the blood all over her face.

Severide blows through the doors choking back tears and telling the Chief he wants to see Shay. The Chief holds Severide back and tells him they don’t know how bad it is.

By the time Casey gets there, the other firefighters are in the waiting room. The Chief tells Casey Shay has a traumatic brain injury. Casey asks how Dawson is doing and frankly I thought he was asking how she was in light of her girlfriend being in surgery, but then it dawned on me that he might be asking because she was hurt too. Whatever, Casey totally ships Shawson.

Back at the firehouse Severide asks Dawson how Shay is, because who else are you going to ask but her girlfriend? Dawson says that Shay’s improving and that the doctors think she’s out of the woods. The Chief announces that Shay will be out for a while and that Peter Mills will be taking Shay’s spot alongside Dawson in the rig. I smell a set up. I like Peter Mills, at least more than I like Casey, but come on you can’t fill Shay’s spot with that dude.

Severide tracks Dawson down and asks her what the doctor said about Shay. I know they are pretty loose with the HIPAA rules on this show but seriously, we’re supposed to pretend that they would tell Dawson anything about Shay’s condition if she weren’t her partner partner, not just EMT partner? When Dawson tells him that she saw Shay he gets really pissed because the doctors told him she couldn’t have visitors. Kelly Severide, I’m going to walk you through this one slowly, you are not Shay’s girlfriend Dawson is, deal with it. Of course Dawson tells him she was there to get treated and to stop having a fit about it. Then he tries some song and dance about how he wants to take care of Shay and Dawson looks at him like he has fourteen heads and reminds him that Shay is moving in with her and it’s up to Shay to decide where she wants to go after the hospital.

Severide heads for the locker room and takes some more pills because that’s been working so well lately.

Leon arrives and is excited that Flaco is dead and poor big brother Cruz is being eaten up by guilt. Leon guesses what Joe did for him and Joe confirms it with a subtle nod. His brother hugs him and tells him they will take the secret to the grave.

Apparently, big brother is iffy on the meaning of the grave because he goes to Casey and starts to confess before Casey tells him to stop talking. Casey gives Cruz the chance to think it over because if he confesses Casey will have to take Cruz to the police.

The team is called out to save a woman at the bottom of a sink hole in the sidewalk. It’s terrifying to watch her as they try to stop the hole from collapsing as the dirt covers more and more of her body. It’s a nice metaphor for Severide’s life which is also crushing him as it collapses around him. They save the woman and get out of the hole a moment before it all caves in. Severide, did you get it, it’s time to get help before it all falls in.

Dawson is walking the halls of the hospital chatting with the doctor like a Grey’s Anatomy regular. When she walks in the room, Shay is awake and chats with Dawson. Dawson sits down on the bed, strokes Shay’s face, and says “You really scared me, girl. Don’t do it again.”

Dawson can’t help the terrified expression leaking through the relief on her face as she talks to Shay.

Now if this were another show like As the Days of our General Hospital Turns, Shay would wake up from the head injury with amnesia, split personalities, or straight. But this is Chicago Fire so she wakes up full of sarcasm and spunk. Shay asks Dawson about the date with Casey and when Dawson tells her it was a disaster in which he planted a kiss on her cheek, Shay tells her that “it’s not too late to switch teams.” Every Shawson shipper in the land’s heart just stopped for a second. Did she just say that? Without skipping a beat Dawson responded with “You already moved in, let’s take it slow.” It was a little flirty and completely adorable.

This show gets friendships right. The writing reflects how people actually talk to their friends. Sometimes it’s flirty, inappropriate, hilarious banter. Sometimes it’s really heartfelt, but the writers have a great ear for the way that these friendships sound.

Of course, right in the middle of our Shawson proposition in walks Severide, killer of lesbian moments and third wheel extraordinaire. He brings Shay flowers and tries to get her to agree to come back to their apartment. Again, despite having a traumatic brain injury, she remembers that she’s moving in with Dawson and by the look she gives him she can remember why.

When they leave the room, Dawson asks him if he high. He blusters but doesn’t answer her question before swaggering away from her. You can’t hide anything from the lesbians dude, we always know!

Dawson and Casey are hanging out at their special spot, inside the locker room. She’s checking out the gash in her leg when he walks in and tells her she should take a few days off. She points out that he wouldn’t have, and right there is why these two don’t work for me as a couple. She has too much of a “I look up to you” kind of crush. It doesn’t feel sexy to say “you’re a really stand up guy that it makes me want to have your babies.” The spark is lame, if not absent. Anyway he gives some half assed reason for why he was a dork and kissed her on the cheek at the party but before he can explain all the reasons why he’s an idiot they get called out.

Dawson gives Mills crap for all the call-outs being his fault before they get in the truck. Mills takes Shay’s spot in the driver seat and I am starting to wonder if Dawson either really likes being driven around by other people or she doesn’t know how to drive in the same way she doesn’t know how to tell Shay that she loves her and wants to have her lady babies. When they arrive they can’t get in but they see a lady passed out on the floor so they break in and are about to help her when a German shepherd starts barking at them and then chases them into a bathroom. Mills injects some sort of sedative into a cereal bar and chucks it to the dog. He makes some awkward comment about the bathroom smelling nice and Dawson has to admit it’s her lotion and every feels all itchy like it’s a seventh grade dance or something. Thankfully the dog passed out so they can leave the bathroom of awkwardness.

Casey is at his sister’s house and we learn that he’s ready to ask for parole for their mom. We also learn that he was at home while his dad was abusing his mom while big sister was away at college. As a result, he has more empathy for their mom’s decision to kill their dad.

Back on the lighter side of town, Severide and Royce are doing some post coital snuggling on her couch. She’s just returned from a week in Madrid and tells him that she’s going to take the promotion she was offered to move the Espana.

They’ve only had a few dates but, like a couple of lesbians, they are totally in love and have picked out a kitten at the shelter and they’re going to name it Shane. But they don’t want the cat to grow up moving between houses so they cry a little and decide to hold off. Severide is really bummed out about Royce moving away and looks like he might cry. When he agrees he’ll come visit her she relaxes and they decide to celebrate. Sorry Fluffy, you’re not getting rescued after all.

Severide is so sad because all the hot ladies in his life are leaving him so he stares out the window in his dark, lonely apartment and I feel bad for him. The next day he interrupts Dawson and Mills recounting their adventure with the dog the day before and Severide asks to talk to Dawson. They walk outside and he tells Dawson “I need help.” and she tell him “you got it.” Obviously, no matter what kind of jerk he’s been Dawson is going to help her girlfriend’s best bro. It’s all in the code.

Their moment is cut short by a call to a car accident. A driver plowed into a crowd and the crowd is getting angry and threatening the driver and those helping him. Dawson, smart cookie that she is, realizes the driver isn’t drunk but is having a stroke and tries to get him out of the pissed off crowd. One guy isn’t having any of it and confronts the crew for helping the driver. Severide goes all macho and threatens to remove the guy but Casey remembers all about dealing with toddlers from his I-can’t-wait-to-have-a-kid parenting classes and gets the big dude to help out. Suddenly, no one’s mad anymore and off they go to the hospital. Man, those Batman underoos sure pulled through this time.

Shay is being wheeled out of the hospital and bitching about it the whole way. When she gets to the doors Dawson and Severide are waiting for her with a new plan. Dawson is all dolled up and looks ready for a date. We have seen her done up for dates, parties, and now for Leslie Elizabeth Shay’s release from the hospital. But they’re just friends. Right.

Next thing we know Dawson is telling Mills that she made the meal just for Shay but then Shay cancelled. She tells him he’s the only friend she has that would appreciate the work she put into the meal. Who you make braised short ribs for? The girl you want to sleep with, not the girl who is crashing at your place! Sigh.

So Mills is enjoying date night dinner with Dawson instead. Come on! If Shay gets pissed about Severide snaking her post-coital yogurt I can only imagine her reaction when she finds out Mills ate her whole date night dinner. There’s no dessert because, Dawson obviously had other plans for Shay, plans not involving food but Peter Mills is handy and offers to make her something. As much as it pains me to say the Dawson-Mills relationship is growing on me. It’s not Shawson but they have a better dynamic, I think, than the Dawson-Casey clusterf@#k.

Casey is about to have dinner at his sister’s house but tells her that he is going to recommend parole for mommy murderer and the sister hands him the picture she was going to give him after dinner and closes the door in his face. Whoops.

Shay and Severide are hanging out. He bought her Deadliest Catch and mint chip ice cream and they tell each other how much they love each other and then they make out. Just kidding. Severide tells Shay that he’s going to meet with a surgeon about his neck and that Dawson helped him find a program that will help him with his drug problem if he needs it.

He tells Shay he doesn’t know what he would do if he lost her and she tells him that’s how she feels about him too. She says she’s proud of him and that if she were straight she’d “throw the biggest hump into” him. But because these writers know that lesbians don’t sleep with dudes, no matter how pretty they are, she doesn’t. Bros to the end, these two.

Dawson and Mills are playing a game of “name that bone” and I feel a little icky about it but they get busy with the sexy times just as Casey starts calling Dawson’s phone. Take a note or two Casey and next time don’t kiss her on the cheek.

Apparently Shawson isn’t happening, at least not soon. So I am nominating some ladies for the Leslie Shay dating Olympics. I nominate Bonnie Somerville because I kind of love her and thought she was hilarious, awkward, and just so pretty on Cashmere Mafia. Come to think of it, maybe Tyra and Hot Molly from Emily Owens, M.D. can get a transfer to Chicago and Chicago Fire could turn into the place for gay ladies from cancelled shows. Cue the Sarah McLachlan song and voiceover: “Lesbians from cancelled shows are fictional people, too, and they need a home. Donate to help relocate these poor ladies to Chicago so they can pitch a little woo at Leslie Shay.” Who do you want to see romancing our Shay?

From the preview for the next episode, it looks like there will be some awkward moments in the Dawson-Mills-Casey triangle next week as well as a potentially career ending surgery for Severide.

Finally, it has been pointed out that perhaps we need an AfterEllen specific hashtag for those who like to play along with the episodes on Twitter. Nominate your favorite in the comments and we’ll pick one to use.

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