Last week’s episode was a story divided into two parts, one focused on Lieutenant Casey (Jesse Spencer) and the other on Lieutenant Severide (Taylor Kinney). With it, we got a closer look at each of these characters, both professionally and personally, and how each of them reacts in the face of tragedy.

With tonight’s episode, we continue on that journey and with the same two characters. However, this time we get to explore how each handles adversity and big decisions regarding honesty, integrity and doing the right thing. As we know since the Pilot, Severide had been injured in the fire that killed his friend and fellow firefighter, Andy Darden, and has been hooked on painkillers ever since then. At the end of the last episode, Leslie Shay (Lauren German) gives Severide an ultimatum and refuses to be his drug supplier any longer. Her recommendation instead is get a consultation “off the books” so that they can find the source of the pain and do something about it. Severide does go through with it, but the results aren’t that pretty.

Basically Severide has been walking around with a fractured neck since the fire, and the bone has been pressing several nerves.   Surgery can correct it but would require a six to twelve month leave of absence. Such a long disability leave could cause the department to find someone else and let him go. Severide’s entire life is about being firefighter, and so, that option really isn’t an option for him. The only alternative is to live with the injury, which over time, will cause loss of motor skills and possibly paralysis. No matter what decision he makes, it could mean the end of his career as a firefighter.

Lieutenant Casey’s day isn’t much better after the squad is called to the scene of an accident, with a couple and their son pinned in a car. All of them survive the crash, but the boy is paralyzed from the waist down.   However, the worst part is the driver of the other car who caused the accident was clearly drunk, and because his father, Detective Voight (Jason Beghe), is high up in the food chain, he is able to clean up the scene and whisk his son away before any real cops arrive.

Lt. Casey is clearly torn as to what to do, but the deciding factor is what comes next. Not only does Voight attempt to cover up his son’s wrongdoing, he gets another police officer to write up a report saying the couple ran a red light and caused the accident. At that point, Casey fills the Chief in on the details of what really happened that night, and an official report is filed. Casey is clearly warned by Gabriela’s brother, who is also on the police force, that he is “dealing with a stick of dynamite” by messing with Voight, but Casey is determined to do the right thing.   He is even more convinced after Voight pays him a visit and practically tells him that if he doesn’t retract that report, his career will be over. Casey is obviously a man of integrity and one who cannot be bought or sold, no matter how high the price.

Dick Wolf with his Law and Order series put very little emphasis on the characters. Instead, the concentration has mostly been on the case and its details.   Granted, after 14 seasons of Law & Order: SVU, we finally do know a good deal about the characters.   But, that is after 14 years and only after having been given a breadcrumb or two in each episode. I like the different direction Wolf has taken with this series. We still get new cases each week, but they are interwoven with the main storylines of the characters, which together make the series all the more compelling and interesting.

If the writers had stopped right here, the episode would have been excellent, just like last week’s “Mon Amour”. But, instead, the last five minutes are filled with some very cheesy scenes that detracted from the outstanding quality of the rest of the episode. First, the squad had raised some money to buy a new TV to watch a ballgame at the firehouse, but Casey has some better ideas for the money. There is no big screen TV this year, and instead they use the money to buy the supplies to build a ramp for the boy who had been paralyzed in the accident. Yes, yes, this does show how noble Casey is, but it is corny and in some ways unnatural regardless.

All in all, this was another very good episode, with only a few objections towards the end. Another good thing is I think we got a glimpse of what one of the major storylines for the remainder of the season is going to be: this vendetta between Detective Voight and Casey.   There are plenty of rumors that Voight is dangerous and always gets what he wants, but I don’t think that fully set in until Casey sees Voight drive by, making sure Casey knows that he is being watched. We’ve got our first real bad guy, which should make the remainder of the season quite interesting.

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