Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 6, “Birds of Prey” is not an episode fans are going to remember on its own — except for maybe Mouch being attacked by a bird. The value of the episode is that its main story, involving yet another suspicious fire in Chicago, sets up an ongoing subplot for Kelly Severide and Chief Dom Pascal. And in so doing, it gives Pascal some valuable character development.
“Birds of Prey” largely revolves around a fire that breaks out at a storage facility. Upon inspecting the affected storage units, Firehouse 51 finds several cases of 3D-printed guns — and stumbles into an Illinois State Police investigation. The usual territorial drama follows, but Taylor Kinney is always reliable in such stories, and Dermot Mulroney makes a more than capable wingman for him.
Chicago Fire Season 13 Finds Something Else for Pascal
The general beats of the A-story in “Birds of Prey” are familiar: someone at Firehouse 51 (usually Severide) disagrees with an outside group or agency about how something is handled, and Firehouse 51 turns out to be right, or at least on the right track. What makes this one work is the same thing that’s made previous stories of this type work — the conviction of Taylor Kinney. He always plays Severide with such determination and self-confidence that it’s impossible not to root for him against whoever is standing in his way. It seems strange at first to pair him with Chief Pascal, but Kinney and Mulroney mesh pretty well together.
The storyline is actually better for Pascal. The swerve of Severide suspecting him of being corrupt is old hat as far as procedurals go, but the plot as a whole gives Mulroney different things to do, from schmoozing the corrupt state police officer to pulling rank on his lieutenant. This is already likely a third to about halfway through Season 12 (previous seasons have had anywhere from 13 to 24 episodes), so the “getting to know you” period is over and it’s time to dig deeper. So far, Pascal’s biggest story has been the very complicated relationship he has with his wife, and that’s just not enough to sustain interest. Making him an ally to Severide here, and getting the chance to see how far he’ll actually go to back up his new firehouse, is a lot more intriguing and more worthwhile.
Kelly Severide: If he’s getting into something shady, I’m not just gonna stand on the sidelines.
It’s still hard to tell if Pascal will be sticking around. Audiences know that Christopher Herrmann is still planning to take the promotion exam, and having him miss it again would be groan-worthy. So unless the writers come up with a reason for Herrmann to fail it (which is possible because Herrmann can be unpredictable), Pascal might be a shorter-term character. If that’s the case, having him fall on some kind of sword to stand up for the right thing would be one heck of an arc, and very Wallace Boden-like of him. If he does continue on, this is the story that could get everyone totally on his side. Viewers certainly haven’t seen the full extent of Mulroney’s range yet.
The reference to Treat Williams’ still-missed Benny Severide is appreciated, though thankfully Chicago Fire doesn’t decide that Pascal also has a past with him. Instead, revealing that Pascal had a corrupt colleague in Miami is a way to make his professional history relevant — not just his personal one. It adds another layer to who the character is. Audiences know Firehouse 51 needed Pascal because there was a vacancy, but this storyline could be a path toward explaining what Pascal gets from being part of 51. He and Severide are both incredibly stubborn and both have tempers, so they should be a formidable pair, and everyone wins seeing a new dynamic flourish.
Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 6 Struggles to Find Subplots
Unfortunately, everything else in Season 13, Episode 6 doesn’t live up to the standard of its main story; the subplots come across as needing something for the other characters to do, but not knowing what that is. Writer Danielle Nicki previously penned Season 12, Episode 10, “The Wrong Guy,” which had a similar issue. There’s more of Sam Carver displaying erratic behavior; the big change is that he finally screws up on the job, leading Stella Kidd to send him home. But Jake Lockett has played brooding Carver for so long that it’s getting old. Violet Mikami at least goes on a date with her new love interest Flynn, yet Ambulance 61’s solo call is so brief that it’s resolved off-screen.
The main subplot involves Mouch being harangued by a bird that’s nesting on the apparatus floor at Firehouse 51. It’s the live-action equivalent of Bill Dauterive being attacked by a falcon on King of the Hill: hilarious, but pointless. Christian Stolte works up Mouch to an entertaining fever pitch… but he’s done that plenty of times before. There are quite a few subplots of Mouch or Herrmann getting indignant about something that’s either random or relatively insignificant. Thus, this just feels like a way to fill time, with the minor reveal that Tony is a bird enthusiast. After this many seasons, it’s not so easy to find comic relief to balance out serious fire investigations, but the show can do better, especially with the level of comedic talent in its supporting cast.
Darren Ritter: Man, that thing really hates you.
Even Stella has less to do than usual, although when she tells Carver that she’s going to find a floater to replace him, that creates a new batch of story questions. If Chicago Fire plays that out, then fans will get at least one short-lived new character, like the show has done before. That can occasionally be fun, depending on if the character is interesting or just there for comic effect. On the other hand, it would be a shame to just push Carver off-screen for a few episodes and have him come back magically fine. Lockett deserves to get to play his character’s whole arc, and after all the time the audience has been asked to invest in the Tori of it all, they deserve to see the moment when Carver tells her off. There’s the option that he listens to Tori and decides to go back to Texas — but that feels like a fake-out unless Lockett is taking a vacation. It would be terribly unsatisfying for Carver as a person, not to mention his unresolved dynamic with Violet, to just have him throw in the towel.
That’s what makes Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 6 ultimately a mixed bag. Taylor Kinney and Dermot Mulroney play well together, and this episode is clearly needed to lay the groundwork for the bigger storyline ahead, plus the existence of that storyline casts Pascal in a much more complex light. But past that, there’s not much to offer. In the big picture of Season 13, this episode is the start of something. On its own, it’s one strong story that doesn’t get completely supported.
