Chicago Fire Season 11 Episode 8 Review: A Beautiful Life

Blake Gallo suffers a shocking trauma on Chicago Fire Season 11 Episode 8, “A Beautiful Life,” which is the most exciting episode of the season so far.

It doesn’t start out that way, though. It starts out with Herrmann finding a new project to worry himself with (the stop sign), Severide doing Fire Cop things, and Carver and Gallo butting heads. Nothing much new on any of those fronts.

What happens between Carver and Gallo quickly turns out to be more complex. Carver has a chip on his shoulder that needs to go, but if you look at Gallo from his perspective, it’s easy to see why he’d judge Gallo to be a sort of carefree kid. 

Meanwhile, from Gallo’s perspective, Carver does seem like he’s getting special treatment — which makes it all the more upsetting when Carver acts like he has superiority over Gallo.

That all comes out over the course of the episode, with Stella trying to mitigate matters. It’s also a learning curve for her, and it’s a new dynamic to see her and Severide discussing their leadership styles. Severide’s certainly differs, and I think it’s clear Stella has made a small mistake in this instance. 

Then comes the trauma. Carver is clearly frustrated again when he sees how Gallo responds to the call of someone trapped on the roof, with another idea that seems too outlandish to work, but Kidd having faith that he can go for it. It’s doing something to his ego in moments like that too, obviously.

Then Gallo finds something different on that roof. Rather than someone being trapped, he finds someone who’s ready to jump. And he does his best to talk to man down, doing everything right, and with the kind of compassion that makes Gallo stand out. 

It seems as though he’s gotten through to the man, but instead, the man apologizes and then takes the leap, leaving Gallo feeling like a failure. 

And everything Gallo says to this man, the others hear through the radio. Including Carver, who previously had no idea what Gallo had been through in losing his entire family. 

Thanks to a comment from an otherwise noticeably absent Cruz, Carver reaches out to Gallo and invites him out to get “comfortably numb.” But it’s more than drinking a bit too much — they get a chance to bond, and Carver winds up being the person who helps Gallo through this the most. I think we can finally feel comfortable with Carver as a positive member of the team. 

And here’s the other thing — this is even more interesting development for Gallo. I just hope it’s something we continue to see him grapple with and that it doesn’t wind up being forgotten. 

Meanwhile, Severide, as I mentioned, is playing Fire Cop again. This time, it’s because Detective Pryma comes to him for help, but that help winds up being something completely different than he expected. 

That’s a good thing, first of all, because the stories of Severide doing this kind of work are starting to get a little tired. In this case, though, it winds up putting him in an impossible position, which is all related to the dirty cop who put his life and Stella’s in danger. 

Now, they’re given the choice to either sign off on his release — letting him go free, in order to put someone far more dangerous behind bars, or to leave the man locked up and risk something far worse to the community. 

It’s an impossible choice, but Severide is so fired up that it doesn’t seem difficult at all. He’s personally offended, and not to mention, he feels used. It’s also worth noting how Pryma puts the blame back on Severide at that moment, reminding him how he compromised several cases. 

That grey area should only become even more interesting to explore. Either way, I’m glad to see something of this much substance for Severide — especially since it affects Stella too.

Other thoughts:

• It’s cute to see Brett meet Evan’s friend and to see that they hit it off. I even enjoy the idea of her dating again. But can we please give Brett something more do to, particularly not involving her romantic life? It feels like she’s been on the sidelines a bit this season. 
• Herrmann and his stop sign! There’s something hilariously satisfying about the fact that Trudy starts working that area just in time to see Herrmann do exactly the thing he’d been complaining about. Plus, I always love a Trudy sighting on Chicago Fire. 

What did you think of this episode of Chicago Fire? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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