‘Chicago Fire’ Season 8 Finale Features a Harrowing Injury and an Awkward Romance

Wednesday night’s episode of Chicago Fire wasn’t filmed to be the season finale, but that’s what happened. Like more than 30 NBC productions, along with dozens of others, the firefighter procedural had to go on temporary hiatus in order to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Warning: there are mild spoilers for the most recent episode, entitled “51’s Original Bell,” to follow.

Luckily, the latest installment featured plenty of action, including Harold Capp (Randy Flagler) getting seriously injured when the squad was answering a call at a metal recycling plant. After getting knocked back with a fateful of chlorine gas, he was admitted to the hospital. Despite his condition and the advice of the doctors, however, he soon checked himself out. Capp’s condition ended up rubbing some other members of the squad the wrong way. Namely, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), who ends up almost starting fights almost started with the plant owner as well as some leaning on the office responsible for doling out fines.

In the end, things seemed to work out, as Capp ended up returning to the firehouse. True to his character, he showed up and attempted to tell his fellow squad members that the injuries were serious to the point he’d no longer be able to be a firefighter. Although, the rest of the gang can see straight through his joke, and welcome him back to the firehouse with open arms — even though Capp has a few more treatments to go through before he’ll be back.

“51’s Original Bell” also touched on the on-again/off-again romance between Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) and Violet (Hanako Greensmith). After a casual fling between the two, Blake decided that it would be best if the two started seeing other people. However, violet took him up on the offer, which left Blake both frustrated and jealous. Things took a turn for the worse after he decided to propose to her while at the firehouse, which is sure to make their workplace a slightly more awkward place in the upcoming ninth season.

Chicago Fire, along with companion shows Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med, was also part of creator Dick Wolf’s mammoth deal to secure exclusive rights to stream the shows on NBC‘s platform, Peacock. The service launched today, albeit only for Comcast subscribers, but will be available to all subscribers starting in July. In the meantime, you can catch the most recent episode of all three shows on NBC.com.