SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 11.

Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 11 sits squarely in the middle of the road. That’s because “Frostbite Blue” has two excellent story ideas: the return of Sam Carver and making Tom Van Meter’s recovery an ongoing subplot. However, by episode’s end, a lot of that momentum disappears into thin air.

The most prominent storyline for One Chicago fans is the one involving Carver, given how much of a disappointment it was when actor Jake Lockett’s exit was announced after Season 13 (and how underwhelming Carver’s final storyline was, too). It’s wonderful to see Carver again and to hear that the character is doing well, since the on-screen reason for his exit was that he was in the middle of a downward spiral. However, as this plot goes on, it feels like Carver is only present in “Frostbite Blue” so that Fire can move Violet past him and into her obvious pairing with Carver’s literal replacement, Sal Vasquez. The scenes between Violet and Carver are great, as Lockett and Hanako Greensmith clearly are enjoying working together again—but it feels like there should be more meat on those bones.

And Carver and Violet’s goodbye deserves its own space, instead of happening in the same episode where Violet finally kisses Vasquez. Having her move on within hours of being upset about Carver leaving, especially when she’s spoken all episode about being anxious about him returning, just feels too quick. Chicago Fire has the perfect way to tell this story when Violet tells Vasquez that she’s in a “bad headspace” that night. Honor that and get to the Vasquez hookup in the next episode. But to moments later have her change her mind undercuts that emotional beat. And especially when Sal makes a point of telling Violet that “I’m not Carver,” it feels like an unintentional dig at Carver—and anyone who loved the Violet and Carver pairing.

The other really interesting idea is Kelly Severide discovering that his boss and friend Van Meter is still having difficulties after coming home from the hospital. Van Meter asks Severide to finish one of his cases, not remembering that he had already closed it himself. Many TV shows don’t play out long-term effects of traumatic incidents, simply because it’s easier to take the immediate drama and then move on to the next idea. Giving screen time to Van Meter’s challenges, and to have both Severide and his replacement come up with a solution, is a lovely turn of events. It would have also been easier to do a simplistic plotline in which Van Meter’s replacement was incompetent and Severide brought her to justice. But that isn’t as interesting, nor would it have any real emotional impact. (It would also be cool to see Wendy Seager make a return appearance, since she’d be perfectly qualified to pitch in, but that would require getting Andy Allo back for an episode or two.)

The third plotline in “Frostbite Blue” involves Christopher Herrmann’s house fire, which is combined with Mouch’s forced transfer. It’s another good idea that winds up with rough execution. The scene in which Mouch finally admits how terrible things are at Firehouse 40 is one more example of how great actors Christian Stolte and David Eigenberg are together. And Herrmann getting a massive settlement to rebuild his family’s house is the happy ending that every Chicago Fire fan wants. But it also feels very deus ex machina. Herrmann meets a lawyer that he positively despises, changes his mind in one scene, and then off-screen the lawyer negotiates a favorable payout? It’s too quick and too easy. It’s forgiveable because the audience cares so much about the Herrmann family, but it could have been done better.

A lot of “Frostbite Blue” is like that. Audiences can see exactly what the show wanted to do, and the ideas in general are worth doing. But those ideas just don’t make it to the screen in the best way. Particularly with both Violet and Herrmann, the plots wind up feeling like quick means to an end so that they can be pushed forward into the next thing. If there was a little more space, and a little slowing things down, this could have been a great one. As it is, there’s a lot of “what could have been,” and not just in that last look Violet gave Carver.

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

Article content is (c)2020-2026 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.