Chicago Fire Season 12 Episode 11 Review: Inside Man

Kelly Severide is taken for a dangerous ride on Chicago Fire Season 12 Episode 11, “Inside Man.” 

The Severide-centric episode is easily the best episode of the season. It’s a high-stakes, suspenseful hour that allows Taylor Kinney to shine.

Shortly after having a conversation with Jack Damon that only makes Damon seem more suspicious than he did before, Severide is working alone when he notices a strange man enter the firehouse.

Behind him are two more men with guns. Severide stays hidden instead of making a scene, slinking around the Truck 81 to stay out of view, and eventually climbing on top of it — all, notably, without his cell phone on him. 

Every step he takes from there shows his skill as both a firefighter and an arson investigator. The latter, I say, is based on his ability to observe and assess the situation he’s in.

He’s smart enough to stay hidden but pays close attention to everything these men are doing, noting in particular where they’re going and how they change the truck with new decals.

Then when they’re stopped with only the driver overseeing the truck and a stolen ambulance, he takes every opportunity he can. He tries the radio, but when that fails, he knows enough to tap wires underneath the truck to communicate with the firehouse. He also manages to swipe a cell phone.

He could take off in a more reckless way, but his every move is methodical and right in line with his character.  

His one mistake is allowing his heroism to become his downfall, but it has to be that way. Kelly Severide wouldn’t leave a man to die when he could help him, especially as he realizes the man he’s shot isn’t the one with the bad intentions. He’s been hired to do a job. 

Yes, it’s frustrating that he sticks around when he could save himself in that moment, but leaving him behind would tarnish his character in a way that would be difficult to come back from. He has to be a hero, plain and simple.

The criminals realize they can use Severide, though, especially once they kill their original driver. Severide uses that flip phone to get information to Stella, yelling out questions about their plans to turn the truck into a bomb once he’s dialed her number, and later on the truck, leaving it open to be tracked. 

Because as much of Severide’s skill is what saves him, it’s equally important that his firehouse knows him so well. It’s the tapping signal that Cruz catches and the phone calls with Stella that lead everyone to him, and all of that relies on them knowing Severide deeply — and vice versa. 

In fact, it’s how well Stella knows her husband that gets help moving so quickly in the first place. She knows he wouldn’t leave without saying anything, and everyone knows he wouldn’t leave without his phone.

Those clues lead them to figure out pretty immediately that Severide is on the missing truck, which has obviously been stolen.

Stella’s reactions are important, too. She’s upset, of course, but she stays firm in her leadership role and maintains her composure, while still allowing us to see her vulnerability.

She does start to break this a little, though, when it becomes clear that Jack Damon could have been the inside man for this whole thing. The newcomer who had been fawning over Severide and who lied about being in Severide’s class is also, as it turns out, the last person to see Severide before he goes missing.

Ritter tells Stella about that suspicious phone call he heard Jack make on Chicago Fire Season 12 Episode 10, and it all starts to come together. 

The focus shifts away from this when the cops, and the rest of the firehouse, take off to get Severide after tracking the phone. 

Back in the truck, Severide is now driving while being held at gunpoint, but he remains savvy enough to not only have that phone open down at his feet, but to use a lighter to fake engine trouble.

And when the thief next to him demands he pull over, Severide uses that opportunity to wreck the truck and evidently pull off a feat of superhuman strength by ripping the steering wheel that he’s handcuffed to right off the truck, escaping the truck altogether before it explodes.

It’s actually too bad we don’t see that moment, but what we get instead is seeing Kelly appear through the smoke as he heads toward a worried Stella Kidd. 

He’s injured and visibly shaken, but not enough for us to be concerned about him much further. The truck, on the other hand, has been blown to pieces, and engine has suffered a few bullet holes as well.

If I have one complaint about this episode, it’s that yet again, there’s a perfect opportunity to involve characters from Chicago P.D., but instead, other cops are a part of it. For such an emotional episode in particular, this should have had some crossover as far as that was concerned. 

One of the cops does have connection, which is that he’s Ritter’s secret boyfriend — a secret that feels thin, though, and that doesn’t add much to the episode. Including literally anyone from Chicago P.D. could have made this all more powerful.

It’s also important to pay attention to Jack Damon at the end of the episode. Ritter tries to apologize for pointing the blame at Damon, but Damon only seems more suspicious — and angry — once he does. 

I’m not sure if we’re to believe that Damon may still have been the inside man for the theft. That part isn’t clarified, though Ritter treats it as though it is. Regardless, there’s clearly something more going on with this guy. 

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

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