Chicago Fire Season 11 Episode 5 Review: Haunted House
A Halloween celebration brings some much-needed levity on Chicago Fire Season 11 Episode 5, “Haunted House.”
Boden announces at the top of the episode that Firehouse 51 will be hosting a Halloween Open House — an effort to offer teenagers a safe activity and keep them from getting into trouble.
But because it’s a last-minute effort, and because Cruz, Mouch, Capp, and Tony give Brett a hard time about her ideas (costume contest, bobbing for apples) they wind up struggling to create good quality Haunted maze.
This leads the way for some silly antics that are fun to watch, despite being just a little over the top. Their bad costumes are probably my favorite part, until we get a chance to see what Boden’s love of Halloween really looks like.
He takes over the project and manages to get Halloween decorations from his former firehouse. And these decorations? They are the stuff of horror films, my friends. I enjoy seeing this side of Boden, and even hearing him say his classic, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” but in a softer tone with a bit of laughter.
Chicago Fire gets chances to have this kind of levity more than Chicago P.D. or Chicago Med, which makes that comedic element feel even more important. A lighthearted episode is also needed after the loss of Chief Hawkins, which Violet is still dealing with.
The series has done a good job showing her struggle, and that continues with this episode when she has to call out Gallo and Ritter for tiptoeing around her too much. They have some nice friendship moments, including her offering advice that, unfortunately, goes badly for both of them, and then them yelling at her over it (in a friendly way, of course).
Their friendship has developed in a great way, which is especially important because of the history between Violet and Gallo. I do worry about two things, however.
Chicago Fire has a habit of moving past trauma far too quickly, and I’m concerned that the same is going to happen with Violet now that she’s had this conversation with Gallo and Ritter. Second, I’m worried that this will all lead to something romantic between Violet and Gallo again.
Elsewhere on the episode, Kidd and Severide wind up devoting a lot of time to helping a teenager named Jenny, who is struggling with her relationship with mother. It winds up being a really engaging and endearing storyline, even though much of what it does feels a bit like old hat. We’ve seen similar stories on Chicago Fire before.
This one does wind up being different in that Jenny reconciles with her mother, who always had her best interests at heart.
This is also a special story because it draws a direct connection to Severide’s past. He recalls having a physical fight like the one she has with his own father, only he never felt he could go back home. That’s when he moved in with April’s family, and his relationship with Benny was never the same after that.
It hits home for him in a big way, especially when he and Stella drop Jenny off at her mother’s house. It’s subtle, but that emotion is there.
And Stella, of course, winds up being the MVP of the episode once again for the way she goes above and beyond to help. It’s a regular occurrence for the Firehouse 51 crew to do this kind of thing, but that doesn’t make it any less endearing to watch Stella do it here.
She also proves, once again, how good she is with teenage girls, just like we saw with her Girls on Fire program.
Other thoughts:
- A fire at a funeral home is a new one, and it’s certainly unsettling. It would have been fun to spend more time on that part of the episode.
- Poor Gallo. I’m glad Carver is willing to help him get that video off of Herrmann’s phone. But I don’t see this secret lasting much longer.
- Brett’s fear of clowns is very serious! It’s such a laugh-out-loud moment when those children show up all dressed and clowns and she has to run away.
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Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.