SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 5.

Give credit to Chicago Fire for taking its usual Halloween episode and adding different layers to it. Season 14, Episode 5, “Ghosts” does really have a ghost in it, and the actual Halloween part is a bit of a reach. But what makes the NBC show work is when it uses the word “ghost” in a less literal sense. There’s a thematic connection that makes this hour a whole lot stronger.

The actual ghost story involves Joe Cruz, who spends the episode trying to locate a good samaritan who helped him during a fire at an apartment building. The elderly man informs Cruz that the woman in apartment K needs help, and Cruz is able to save her life. However, the man has disappeared into thin air. At the episode’s end, Violet Mikami tells Cruz that she responded to a call at that same building before it was renovated, and shows him a picture of one of the former tenants that matches Cruz’s mystery man. However, that gentleman passed away three years earlier—after living in apartment K. The implication is that Daniel Grady’s ghost gave Cruz a helping hand. It’s a heartwarming way to work in the Halloween angle, and certainly more effective than Chicago Med‘s haunted treatment room.

But “Ghosts” is even better when it looks at the proverbial ghosts of the past. There’s an important continuation of the Herrmann family’s story from “Mercy,” in which Christopher Herrmann is struggling with feeling too much like a victim. As devastating as the events of “Mercy” were, it would be unbelievable if that was not a subplot in this episode. David Eigenberg is still on point as Herrmann bristles at everyone and tries to articulate his feelings to wife Cindy (an also excellent Robyn Coffin). They are both still haunted by the loss of their home and everything it meant to their family, but just quickly buying another house isn’t the solution. As Cindy tells her chagrined husband, they can’t escape the heartache.

Elsewhere, the tragic story of Sal Vasquez comes to an ugly head. The audience finally learns what Vasquez’s father was asking (or more like telling) him to do: he wants Vasquez to approach the widower of the victim in the case that got him thrown in jail. The elder Vasquez’s reasoning is that if the victim’s widower shows him mercy by testifying at his parole hearing, he’ll be able to walk free. It’s a warped train of thought, and “Ghosts” shows emphatically how frustrating of a person Vasquez’s dad is. Anyone who’s still on the fence about Sal Vasquez is now able to understand how much crap he’s dealt with, because based on these conversations, there’s no way Sal wasn’t getting a ton of grief his whole childhood, too. The cheap shots and emotional manipulation didn’t just start after Dad’s arrest.

But Chicago Fire finally clarifies the Vasquez mystery from the Season 14 premiere: his father called in a favor to get him assigned to Firehouse 51. And so naturally, Dad believes that Vasquez owes him. The show also lets this information slip to Stella Kidd, who picks up the phone when Dad calls the firehouse—and then promptly passes what she’s learned Kelly Severide. Audiences knew that the truth about Vasquez was going to come out eventually, but the way it does is surprisingly subtle, and it’s great to see Stella just be supportive of Vasquez, even if he’s not ready to talk. On another show she might be asking questions or even demanding answers. But that’s not Firehouse 51 and that’s not Chicago Fire.

And Brandon Larracuente is aces here as well, going through Vasquez’s many different levels of anger and a good amount of self-loathing. It’s a genuinely saddening moment at the very end, when the audience sees that Vasquez has changed his mind and is going to do what his father asked after all. “Ghosts” establishes how much he’s letting himself down. It will be truly interesting to explore who Sal Vasquez is once he frees himself from all of this backstory, because he clearly has ideas of who he wants to be even if things (including himself) keep getting in the way.

There’s a brief scare in which Stella is knocked unconscious by some toxic gas at a manufacturing warehouse, but that’s not as weird as the terrible joke she makes near the beginning of the episode—that she’s still a kid because it’s in her name. Miranda Rae Mayo delivers that corny line well, and Taylor Kinney’s reaction is what makes that scene work.

The biggest criticism of “Ghosts” is that it does telegraph some of its punches. Mouch suggests a fundraising event for the Herrmann family, and Chicago Fire fans automatically know that will happen at the end of the episode, and that there will be a heartwarming speech in it. This show has always had plenty of epic speeches. The repeated mentions of Herrmann needing to pick up glasses from Molly’s are also hints that he’s going to hear said speech. And Lizzie Novak talking to Mouch about how Halloween is important “to some people” is an obvious excuse to get characters into Halloween costumes.

But even knowing all that, it doesn’t necessarily matter. Being aware that it’s coming doesn’t blunt the warm fuzzy feeling generated by Mouch’s monologue, because those kinds of family speeches are what Chicago Fire has always been about. Viewers want to see the moment of Herrmann listening in from the back room. And whether or not Cruz really saw a ghost, they want the good vibes of a total stranger helping him save a life. This episode has just about everything viewers could be looking for, and its more upbeat tone (save the Vasquez subplot) is welcome after how intense and sad “Mercy” was. This is Chicago Fire lifting everyone up.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.