‘Chicago Fire’ Season 11 Finale: Hope for Brettsey, Plus Will [Spoiler] Die? (RECAP)

Kara Killmer and Jesse Spencer in 'Chicago Fire'
Spoiler Alert
Lori Allen/NBC

Chicago Fire

Red Waterfall

Season 11 • Episode 22

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chicago Fire Season 11 finale “Red Waterfall.”]

Welcome back to Chicago Fire (again), Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer). We just hope there’s not going to be a funeral while you’re in town!

A possible lead in the Homeland Security case brings Casey back to Chicago — and into Brett’s (Kara Killmer) life as she’s trying to adopt Amber’s baby; she’s just waiting for the teen to decide if she’ll reclaim custody long enough to make the paramedic the baby’s legal guardian. Oh, and things are going well with Dylan, Brett tells Kidd.

However, when she tells Casey what she’s hoping to do and he asks if Dylan’s part of it, she’s quick to say “no,” that though he is supportive, it’s all her. And when Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), Violet (Hanako Greensmith), and Mouch (Christian Stolte) plan to go see Amber so they can tell her all about Brett, Casey tags along, to talk about “the most amazing, caring person I know.”

And what do you know: Dylan breaks up with Brett. They’re at different places in their lives (he wants a family someday), and he remembers how she went MIA last time Casey was in town. “He’s here for work, not for me,” she says. But Dylan knows she never got over him. Needless to say, Casey’s clearly interested when Violet casually brings up the breakup.

And so after Amber agrees to Brett’s plan — time to celebrate the paramedic (eventually) adopting the baby, whom she’s named Julia — Casey goes to see her. “Our first kiss was right here,” he says as he stands in her doorway. “I got something about a year and a half ago and I wanted to give it to you before I go back to Portland.” He gets down on one knee. “Sylvie Brett, we were meant to be. Will you make me and three kids the luckiest family in the world and marry me?” She stares at him, and we’ll have to wait until Season 12 for her answer.

As for the threat to the energy grid that brings Casey back to Chicago initially, he and Kidd start keeping track of all calls, and when there’s smoke at a substation, 51 responds. They come under fire from a sniper, and while Casey, Kidd, Gallo (Alberto Rosende), and Carver (Jake Lockett) go to take him down — they do secure one of two suspects, while the other flees — and they’re able to put out the fire, Mouch suddenly collapses: He was shot?!

Is this what the “psychic” Herrmann (David Eigenberg) saved meant when she warned him he would “experience great pain very soon”? That’s what he thinks (“only way to describe how I’m feeling right now”), but it turns out it was just shrapnel, and the doctors are able to remove it. They think Mouch is in the clear, but when Herrmann’s visiting him, his side starts bleeding and he falls unconscious. Herrmann immediately calls for a doctor. Uh-oh!

Meanwhile, Kidd has talked to Severide (Taylor Kinney, on a leave of absence) about his change of plans. “It was fine, I guess,” she tells Brett and Violet. “I asked him about why he didn’t tell me about the new job detail. He told me it came up too suddenly. He kept telling me it was no big deal and not to worry,” but “he was just so vague about everything, and not just what exactly he’s up to but also how it affects when he comes home. He said that’s a little up in the air right now. I don’t know what’s going on with him.”

She then asks Boden (Eamonn Walker) for his take on Benny Severide. He “was a wanderer,” the chief says. “He never stayed anywhere for very long and it caused him as much pain as it caused the people he loved, even though he never showed it.” And it’s that same descriptor possibly fitting Severide — “wanderer” — that keeps Kidd up at night. She can’t help but wonder if that’s who he is “at heart” and “now that we’ve been apart for a while, he’s slipping right back to that. We’re losing our connection no matter how hard I try.” Brett tries to assure her that once they’re together again, the complications will fade and everything they feel for each other will come rushing back.

And as the episode ends, with “you give it everything you have” for the people you love in mind (relating back to how they all went to see Amber for Brett), Kidd takes a few shifts off. “I’m going to get my husband and bring him back to Chicago,” she tells Carver. (Sorry, Carver?)

Will Mouch survive? Will Brett say yes? Season 12 can’t come soon enough!

Chicago Fire, Season 12, TBA, NBC