Our favorite “Chicago Fire” besties Violet and Novak are facing another crisis — but will the trauma bring them closer together? Or will it be strong enough to tear them apart?
Wednesday’s episode of the NBC drama sees the pair get lured into a subterranean bunker where they ultimately are held hostage by a deranged man who kidnapped his pregnant tenant. (He’s superintendent of her building and had been stalking her.) Held at gunpoint, the first responders try to treat the woman shackled to a basement bed; she’s in labor and, as a diabetic without insulin, is showing signs of hyperglycemia.
Though Novak and Violet do their best to get out, they can’t beat the deranged man and his gun, which he keeps fixed on their every move. In the end, it’s Vasquez who smells trouble when he discovers the pair’s rig left unintended on the street. He ultimately tracks them down, coming to their rescue before any lethal damage can be done, and everyone’s life is spared — including the woman and her newborn.
Jocelyn Hudon says Novak takes a ‘big step’ in sharing her feelings
Before the pair get trapped, however, Novak addresses some lingering tension with her friend. Last week, Violet finally admitted that she had hooked up with Vasquez. Though Novak initially said she was fine with her friend sleeping with her work crush, she now tells Violet that she is disappointed her friend hadn’t confided in her sooner. The conversation is interrupted by the deranged man’s calls for help, leaving Violet unable to respond to the feedback.
Due to the whole hostage situation, it still feels like Violet and Novak haven’t fully addressed the whole Vasquez thing. Will tension continue to linger for the “Chicago Fire” duo?
“She doesn’t really need a response, or a solution, or a conclusion,” Jocelyn Hudon, who plays Novak, tells TVLine. Instead, Hudon sees this week’s minor confrontation as a “big step” for Novak, who sometimes brushes things under the rug instead of communicating her feelings clearly.
“It shows, at the core of it, you can be disappointed, but you can still love someone,” Hanako Greensmith, who plays Violet, adds.
Hanako Greensmith says ‘there’s still more drama to entangle’ this season
Though the pair share a traumatic moment that would strengthen most friendships, things are ultimately muddied by the fact that it’s Vasquez who saves them; they each see their co-worker as a hero, which only adds “another layer of intensity” for the trio, Hanako Greensmith says.
“The two of us come out of this episode feeling incredibly grateful to Vasquez,” Greensmith adds. “And I think there’s a lot of room to admire him, too. He really does a heroic feat in saving us.”
Greensmith maintains, though, that the bottom line for Violet is that she survived a traumatic ordeal with the help of her best friend — she isn’t focusing on Vasquez at the moment.
“What really matters to her is that [she and Novak] almost died in a bunker together, and they shared this moment,” she says. “Despite whatever drama there could have been, at the end of the day, they knew what their priorities were.”
Though Jocelyn Hudon ultimately considers Episode 18 a sort of professional “rock bottom” for our two firefighters, Greensmith promises that “there’s still more drama to entangle” in Season 14.
What’s your take: Will Vasquez come between Novak and Violet? Or is the pair’s bond stronger than any lingering 51 flirtation? Sound off in the comments!