Chicago Fire returned from its Olympic break with a packed episode where Severide returned to investigating fires. Seems a little copy and paste.

A fire at the home of a young woman Courtney and her half-sister Julia sparked the investigation. The fire nearly killed Gallo in the process, as he thought he heard someone trapped in the fire, but it was a “smart speaker,” probably because they couldn’t say “Alexa.” Police suspected that Julia lit the house on fire because there had been frequent disturbance calls made for noise and domestic disturbances. At the crime scene is none other than Seager, Severide’s occasional partner when they were paired up on big arson cases. There was even some flirtation going on there as well before Stella came back.

The two talked to Courtney about her sister, who thought that Julia was acting out, due to her mother passing away, being left in the care of her sister. Severide, still believing that Julia is innocent, continued to seek out the person who started the fire, as he thinks that the way Julia acted during the incident doesn’t seem like the way an arsonist would act. Julia was involved with a stabbing in her holding cell, and was rushed to Med.

Julia gave her alibi, which seemed to work out. She explained she was listening to music on the smart speaker, before leaving to go look for jobs. They used the smart speaker’s system to listen to the system’s recordings to see for sure if it was her.

A rash on Courtney’s neck gave Severide the discovery of how the fire started. Julia had an alcohol based gel in her hair from a shower, and then laid in bed on sheets that had too much bleach on it. As the gel evaporated, it caused an auto-ignition of the sheets, causing the fire.

Stella teamed up with former student of Girls on Fire, Kylie, to run an event for the program. At the program, one of the long-term students committed to applying for the CFD test, making it Stella’s first official recruit. Kylie then suggested to take over the program for Stella, so that she can seek a lieutenant job.

Our comedic side-plot of the week focused around Pelham taking a new office. The same office that Herrmann tried to occupy, as well as the same space that was taken over by Goursch, and the same one that Stella tried to turn into a lounge. They called it the “cursed office.” The curse returned for Pelham, as a small animal was trapped inside the wall of the office. Boden took an axe to the walls, and when they thought it was an animal, it turns out it was the rattling of the heating system in the office. And Pelham immediately moved out, making the office curse continue.

I kid you not, there was even a tiny moment where the Firehouse was called to save a cat from a tree. Yeah. Cat in the tree joke. I think it’s been 10 seasons, and they never did this joke once.

The plot that is alluded to, but will have a part later on for the rest of the season, was the fact that Violet and Chief Hawkins shared a very steamy evening after the Department Gala, with Violet nervous to start a relationship with her boss. Even going as far as asking Stella what it’s like to be engaged to Severide. And Violet even stormed into Hawkins’ office to make out with him.

Look, I don’t mind these arcs where Severide investigates arson fires. But if that’s all they’re going to do with him, can’t they just make that his full time job? He turned down the position before, but he keeps doing it, so at this point, just let him do the job, since he’s so good at it! It could give someone like Cruz the chance to step into a leadership role, and open some stories there.

The Hawkins and Violet plot is going to only lead to trouble, since it’s being followed around with the “is dating your boss good or bad” morality line. This could also lead to an escalation to the relationship between Violet and Gallo, as they are so on-again, off-again in pretty much every aspect of the show. I think that will be fun to see grow as the rest of the season airs.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Leave a comment below!