The Chicago Fire season 12 season premiere featured the return of several familiar faces and the departure of a beloved character, so lets dive right into a recap of Chicago Fire season 12 episode 1, "Barely There."
After a quick summary of what happened last season fades into the sound of fire crackling, the crackling turns into the sound of water running in the shower, where we find Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) being interrupted by Severide (Taylor Kinney). He's back from his secretive ATF case and making up for lost time.
Lt. Herrmann (David Eigenberg) chastises a member of the 17 after he peels off Mouch's name from his locker. That name will never be removed, Herrmann says. Which is good timing because Mouch (Christian Stolte) is back in action. Six months have passed since he was shot and he's been doing plenty of rehab to get back into shape. Everyone is thrilled to see him even though they've been hanging out regularly outside of the station.
Mouch asks Herrmann about the "crowd" in the locker room. They're temporarily sharing Station 51 after their own firehouse had a fire. Mouch takes notice of some of the changes, noting Ritter (Daniel Kyri) is on truck duty since Gallo (Alberto Rosende) is leaving for Detroit. In fact, he's stopping by later to say goodbye. When a call comes in, Brett's (Kara Kilmer) engagement ring gets stuck in her locker and she can't move until Kidd helps her to free it.
Heating things up
The first call of the new season is for a delivery truck that caught on fire under a bridge. Severide rushes in when a bystander notes the driver is still inside. He pries the door open and the man jumps out, engulfed in flames. Brett and the team care for him but he’s very badly burned.
Mouch uses the firetruck to pull the flaming delivery truck out from under the bridge before it causes a collapse. They manage to get the fire under control. Station 17 pulls up, having spotted the purple flames. Severide thinks the purple smoke is from chemicals inside the truck, but there's no evidence of what triggered the explosion.
Back at the firehouse, Mouch joins Brett and Mikami (Hanako Greensmith) as they look at wedding dresses. Brett tells Mouch the wedding is in a month, invitations are forthcoming… and she's moving to Oregon afterwards to be with her new husband. Needless to say, Mouch is surprised and saddened by her early departure.
One of the Station 17 guys finds Severide trying to clean the soot from his suit. He says it smells the same way their firehouse did when it was on fire. The other fireman says they also had purple smoke. Later, the two of them sit down with Kidd to recount the story of what happened when their firehouse caught fire. Initially they'd thought they left the oven on, but now he's not so sure.
After the other fireman leaves, Severide says he'd like to look into the case but Kidd wonders if he's going to lose himself in another arson case again. Severide doesn't want to leave it for the arson team because he has more experience than they do, and he gets the impression that there are lives at stake. "Go solve it then," Kidd says.
The science project
Carver (Jake Lockett) and Cruz (Joe Minoso) find Severide outside with a bunch of cleaning supplies. He tells them they're all the standard supplies given to fire stations by the city. Station 17 had just gotten a shipment of cleaning supplies and it had been in their kitchen prior to the fire, but he doesn't think that's what was in the box. Using his vast knowledge of chemicals, he mixes a concoction that produces the same purple smoke. If his theory is correct, someone sent the package and made it look like cleaning supplies, but it was meant to cause an explosion.
Boden (Eamonn Walker) meets with Mouch. Mouch is struggling with all of the changes at the station, including all of the arrivals and departures. Severide interrupts, saying he needs to talk to them.
Mikami and Ritter are making sauce, lamenting that their sauce won't be anywhere near as good as Gallo's. Herrmann offers to help but Kidd steps in, warning Herrmann that Ritter needs to make an informed and unbiased decision about working on the truck or the engine. From there, she finds Brett talking to Mikami about her wedding and wants the scoop. Carver walks by and Brett suggests he go with Mikami if they're both available. Carver isn't opposed to it, but Mikami won't be his "pity date."
Severide meets with Van Meter (Tim Hopper) at the Office of Fire Investigation and tells him about his suspicions. As they look at the delivery truck, Van Meter asks why he took his name off the ATF program, advising Severide not to waste an opportunity. Severide finds a piece of a rat trap from the van, which matches the one at the firehouse. It looks like someone made a timer. Boden and Severide meet with the two firehouse teams and tell them that someone is targeting firehouses.
The long goodbye
While Kidd supervises Mouch, Ritter and Carver doing drills, Gallo (Alberto Rosende) sneaks in to say goodbye. He's going to miss everyone but he's looking forward to having a family. Ritter and Mikami struggle to contain their emotions as they bid their friend goodbye, but the touching moment is interrupted by a call.
The team arrives on the scene of a rollover crash, but the driver is nowhere to be found. Brett and Mikami find him several yards from the crash. He shouldn't be alive — his brain is coming through a gash in his head — but somehow he survived. They get him stabilized and take him to the hospital.
Back at the station, Boden and Herrmann discuss the arson situation. Neither one can believe the firehouses are under attack. Boden asks whether Ritter is going to stay on truck or go back to engine, which would mean he'll need another person to fill the spot.
Severide is at Firehouse 105 talking to the crew. They think the old man across the street could have a grudge, but when another ambulance pulls in Severide asks where they came from. It turns out that they were from Station 17, which means the attacker is targeting people from Station 17. That means he'll be on the way to 51 because they have 17's engine. He calls ahead to let them know the arsonist could be on his way there.
Boden and Herrmann run outside in time for Herrmann to find a box wedged in the doorway. He also sees a man who had been at the delivery truck fire. Boden apprehends the man while Herrmann carries the package away from the building. It blows up just as the fire trucks are pulling up. He's knocked to the ground but he's ok, just shaken up.
Later, Boden and Severide reveal the arsonist was someone with a grudge who had been cut from the Station 17 team seven years prior. While the delivery driver died, they're glad no one else was hurt.
Kidd tells Ritter she's going to find another truck person, so he tells Herrmann he's coming back to the engine team. Ritter notices Herrmann is still shaken up from the blast but insists he's fine. Severide tells Kidd he wants to keep arson in his life somehow. She admits that his departure left a big hole in her heart, but they'll figure it out.
Boden closes the episode by talking about the rough shift, but they're all part of a brotherhood and sisterhood of firefighters. That said, Station 51 is special and though people are leaving, they will always be part of the family.
Chicago Fire season 12 airs Wednesdays at 9 pm ET/PT on NBC, with new episodes available to stream the following day on Peacock.
