Chicago Fire Season 13 Episode 8 Review: Quicksand

The past comes back to haunt Joe Cruz on Chicago Fire Season 13 Episode 8, “Quicksand.”

What happens on this episode revisits events from Season 1 in a way that makes perfect sense, and it’s the mark of good writing for a long-running show to be able to go back to a storyline that’s more than a decade old. 

Sure, Joe’s brother Leon and his past involvement with Flaco’s gang has been referenced over the years, but the effects of what Joe did — leaving Flaco to die in a fire — haven’t really been touched upon. Bringing that back up now, with Flaco’s cousin out of prison and seemingly ready to get revenge, is a powerful full-circle moment. 

It’s also pretty chilling. Before Cruz knows that Flaco’s cousin is even out of prison, and before he gets a visit from Leon, he starts finding oddly shaped pendants — one in his locker, one hanging from his rearview mirror. 

You can tell right away that’s he’s uneasy at finding them — they look like bullets, and it would clearly be an odd prank for someone to pull. It’s not until after he finds out Junior is free that he looks further into what they could mean. He visits a lab and learns these are pendant urns with cremated remains inside.

Flaco’s cousin finds him in a church not long afterward, leaving us with an unsettling cliffhanger. 

As tense as this is, it’s also a great thing for Joe’s character. It was time for him to get a serious, more significant storyline again, and this feels like just the beginning for this one.

Meanwhile, we’re continuing to learn more about the newest characters on the show. Pascal and his wife Monica are at odds again after the situation with Captain Bishop, which had Pascal sending his wife away for safety reasons. It wasn’t the first time, and she’s frustrated by the pattern and the lack of communication about what’s happening.

Monica is clearly a force to be reckoned with. She’s confident, clear on her decisions, and unwilling to be a victim. There’s also obviously a lot of love between her and Pascal, though from everything we’ve seen so far, it also feels like a relationship that has some unhealthy patterns — and could blow up at any minute. 

Their dynamic makes me interested in both characters, though, all while Pascal becomes a more and more seamless member of 51.

Pascal and Novak bond a bit over what it means to be a part of 51 on this episode as well. They’re both still new to the firehouse, and they’ve both noted the unique way everyone operates. It’s a family, there are no secrets, and everyone is in everyone else’s business, for better or worse.

Usually, that’s for the better, but both Pascal and Novak bond over being hesitant to join such a connected group.

Ultimately, though, Lizzy makes a step to lean into that group by going to Violet for comfort. 

Lizzy is clearly shaken from a call where they save a man who tried to commit suicide early in the episode. Once they save him, she loses it on him and takes the whole thing personally, asking how he could do that to them.

Without knowing much else, it’s clear she’s been affected by suicide at some point in her life. Later, she visits her childhood home, and when a woman who lives there now asks what she needs, she asks if she’s “one of the Novak kids.”

There’s some backstory there that could explain a lot about Novak’s character in the coming episodes.

On the lighter side of this episode, Herrmann and Mouch are both preparing to take their officer exams — for captain and lieutenant, respectively. They explain to Violet and Lizzy their plan to stay at 51 and both be promoted, eventually. It would involve Herrmann moving up to captain first, then chief, ultimately pushing out Pascal. 

That could be years in the making, but the forward movement is nice to see. Even better is seeing Mouch and Herrmann support each other the way they do. It’s genuine and endearing. Honestly, it would be satisfying to see both of them move up in rank at some point in the near future.

The Certs bit is funny, too. I’m of the group that remembers Certs and didn’t realize they were no longer being made…

Carver is back to his old self, mostly, and it’s about time. Tori having left has made an impact on how he acts, though the heartbreak he’s suffering is definitely having an affect.

His connection with the world’s most loyal dog is especially sweet and goes a long way toward redeeming his character from past actions.

He meets the dog, Fridge, of course, during a call where its owner is gruesomely injured while trying to build a fence. The dog is so loyal to its owner that it breaks free of its leash and chases after the ambulance — a tearjerking moment for softies like me.

Carver quickly grows attached, and also suggests he might like to get a dog of his own. It’s that moment when he reveals to Stella and Violet that Tori has left. 

The dog also provides a chance to remind everyone about Tuesday, and there’s a suggestion that the firehouse could use a dog again. That would actually be really nice to see.

Stella has some extra free time to help Carver in his efforts to build a fence since Severide is gone on this episode. It’s a small detail, but it’s one that worries me just a little. Severide is, of course, just randomly doing some fire inspection thing in Michigan, which we learn about thanks to a couple of offhand comments.

One of the issues this season has is that every episode is missing a cast member for some reason or other. This is obviously for reasons that go beyond the writing, but it does change the dynamic of the show. If things feel off here and there, I think that’s why.  

It’s believable, sure, but it seems to affect the energy. Chicago Fire works best when everyone is together, and while this episode is a solid one, the overall pattern of missing characters certainly does take away from it.

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

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Chicago Fire returns January 8th to NBC.

Follow us on X and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!