TV Review: Chicago Fire Season 2 Episode 7 "No Regrets"

Wow. what an episode.

For the first time (at least from what I recall) Chicago Fire had only one "call" for the whole episode. However, boy was it a call.

What I admire about the show with this train derailment is they had the Firefighters and paramedics respond after the derailment. If they showed the actual accident, it would have involved a ton of CGI and it would have irked me to no end.

This strategy (besides obviously making sense that the Firefighters and paramedics would respond after the incident) helps bring a rawness to the situation.

If it's a train derailment, I want to actually see a real train derailed. Sell me on that and you won't have to show me it derailing in the first place.

They certainly milked everything they could out of it. There was the train itself - with sealed doors and injuries to the passengers from a contained space. There was the warehouse the train went through, trapping people including Boden and Mills later inside.

There was also the propane tanker that had tipped over, whose pressure valves were threatening to set off an explosion.

The show cranked the tension even higher by showing the effects of McLeod for the first time by having no firehouse near the incident able to respond.

It was also nice to see the firetrucks somewhat malfunctioning with their broken seals and water shortage - machines aren't immortal either.

There were two mini stories of some of the injured as well. One involved a combat medic who Clark (a marine from Iraq himself) identified with.

It was sad to watch him help all those people only to die himself from internal injuries.

The other story involved an injured man looking for his daughter. No Regrets did a nice job of diverting expectations with that - you get doubtful the kid will be found, then she's found - but the dad dies.

With an accident this size, we were introduced to the Chief of Trauma from Lakeshore hospital, played by Dylan Baker. It was interesting to see his dynamic with Dawson and Shay. He seemed to be the only one who was 100 objective, and had no emotional bias.

With Clark and the medic as well as Shay's issues she's been having seemed, they both to knock heads with Baker the most. It was interesting to see a situation that was more difficult than the paramedics normally deal with.

It really was almost a warlike situation - and they handled it well. I'm interested to see if either of them will call Baker's character after he gave them both his card.

Possibly the most important scenes came when Mills and Boden were trapped in the warehouse. Earlier in the episode, Boden had gone under an MRI to test for lung cancer. Being trapped finally slowed things down enough to reflect on the potential results. You ever watch a drama on TV and a character explains a feeling they have, or a situation that hits so close to home you get a chill? That's what I got when I was watching Boden tell Mills that he wants to stay in the rubble so he never has to find out the results of the test. If you (or someone you know/care about) have ever been tested for a deadly illness, you know this feeling all too well. It was also good to hear Mills explain why applied for the CPD and why he did another ride along.

It was also sweet to see that although Boden made him angry for dating his mother, he regretted feeling that way knowing Boden may not have much time left. I still would like to see Mills transfer to Chicago PD, however. I think that would be an interesting move.

We will see. I'm also glad that the results were negative, he didn't retire (not that I thought he would) and that he has waged war on McLeod.

It's great when you know which steps ahead a show has to take to really nail a story, and they do. I can't wait to see what happens next here - angry Boden is fun to watch.

Of course Boden taking back the house means getting rid of his replacement Benny. I think the show handled it quite well, revealing that he had another child (who is 21 now), who is Severide's half-sister. By the end of the episode Benny tells Severide he has to try and make it work with his latest wife, so he leaves.

I think that tracks well after Severide berated him for leaving people all the time. I hope the half-sister sticks around though. That's an interesting dynamic - hopefully they can bond over their similar yet separate upbringings.

No Regrets pulled at the audience's heartstrings quite a bit this episode. A side story included Heather Darden coming home early due to overcrowding. Now, it wasn't emotional because of Heather returning to her kids. It was Casey, who has become attached (even referring to himself as a father to a victim in the train derailment) having to give them up as Heather revealed she was moving to Florida. And also with Shay, who is continuing her dark path of being out late clubbing with her one night stand turned girlfriend, Devon.

The scene with Dawson asking to talk to Shay and Shay blowing her off and saying she's fine before running to her girlfriend's car was heartbreaking. So much was said by not saying anything.

The fact that she's blowing off her best friend who she normally is attached at the hip with was horrifying to watch.

Hopefully Dawson gets through to her. Like Boden's scene, this Dawson & Shay exchange hits home particularly hard if you've ever tried to help someone close you know needs it badly, and get rejected instead.

Amazing episode. Normally I have some little questionable things to mention, but I can't find any. This show is firing on all cylinders.

Photo Credit: NBC.com