‘Chicago Fire’: Why New Paramedic Lennox Is Really a Major Threat to Violet & 51
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago Fire Season 11 Episode 7 “Red Flag.”]
Listen, Firehouse 51 has had to deal with problems and people coming after them before. But there’s something about the latest threat on Chicago Fire that has us especially worried.
Following Kara Killmer‘s exit, no one was going to be able to fill Brett’s shoes on Ambulance 61. Even the new paramedic, Lennox (Wesam Keesh, who recurred on Law & Order: Organized Crime, technically linking him to One Chicago via all the crossovers already), acknowledged that and said he “would never even try.” But before he even showed up, we had reason to be concerned about who would be joining Paramedic in Charge Violet (Hanako Greeensmith), and every single part of the latest episode confirmed we were right to be.
Chief Robinson (Laura Allen) not only gave Violet zero input on her new partner or a heads up on who it is, she also didn’t reach out to Deputy District Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) to give him a name or any information. While he didn’t want to hold that against the person, he also made sure Violet knew, “You are the PIC. You call the shots at 61.” The problem? Lennox questioned Violet’s orders at every turn, starting with their very first call together. And when she spoke to him after, he claimed that he didn’t mean any offense and at his previous position, his PIC was cool with input. But his PIC was a man, and Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) admitted that was probably partly while he didn’t have problems taking orders from him.
Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC
Fortunately, Kidd could offer Violet some advice in managing male egos with her experience as a lieutenant on Truck. After she deferred to another lieutenant even though she should have been incident commander on a call, she realized she would never let that happen again. Show no insecurity, don’t let yourself get intimidated, and ditch the word sorry, Kidd recommended. Just bring the “Violet vibe full force.” But that’s easier said than done in this situation.
Chief Robinson then stopped by to check on how Lennox was doing and assured Boden that she did a thorough vetting job, he’s a highly-regarded medic with a clean record and no issues or complaints, and she hand-picked him for 61 because her goal was the best CFD possible. Lennox then clocked the firefighters letting a victim’s granddaughter spend the night at 51 and on the next call, undermined Violet yet again, calling her “the new PIC” in front of the victim and his wife, who then wanted him to confirm they were doing the right thing.
Violet called him out on that once back at 51, and while he tried to deny he was casting doubts on her abilities in front of the victim and his wife, she made it clear ” I can’t have my partner undermining me on every call. That’s not going to work.” He said he’d “make sure it never happened again.” Violet warned him he had two strikes. His next mistake came in trying to complain about Violet and 51 as a whole (Robinson told him they’re known for going out of bounds) to Carver (Jake Lockett), who, of course, defended her (and tried to essentially glare him out of the firehouse). Lennox said he had a feeling he’d never fit in at 51, which might be fine with him.
However, the episode ended with Boden telling Violet and Carver that a complaint had been filed against her, with the words “aggressive” and “disrespectful,” as well as another about the civilian who stayed the night. And after Carver brought up his conversation with Lennox, Violet realized Robinson and Lennox are not just going after her, but rather after all of 51.
But 51 has managed to put a stop to any threat to what makes this firehouse so great in the past—they’ve even been split up briefly and found their way back together—so why be worried about that this time? Well, while we have no doubt that this will end in 51’s favor, executive producer Andrea Newman did tell TV Insider ahead of the premiere, “the theme of this season is change and 51 having to cope with change, both people leaving and people coming. They’re handling a lot together. How they handle it is really sort of the theme of the season, the evolution of the house when there’s so much change.”
That makes us think that this is just going to get worse before it gets better. We already know that Lennox is still around in the March 27 episode, and something tells us that’s going to make for a tense firehouse, ambulance, and atmosphere during calls. And given that Robinson (using Lennox) is going after 51 as a whole, that’s sure to make some things trickier than usual. For example, everything that 51 does that it should be commended for (and makes it so great) will likely be under scrutiny, just like them letting the victim’s granddaughter stay. Will anyone start to question doing things like that as a result? Will Boden have to make some changes while they’re dealing with Robinson and Lennox?
For now, we’re going to hold on to something else that Newman told us, that “it’ll be a journey finding that person” who replaces Brett. That implies there’s someone coming after Lennox, and with the shortened season (13 episodes), that means he can’t be sticking around for too long … right?
Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC
