Warning: spoilers are ahead for the fifth episode of Chicago Fire Season 14, called “Ghosts” and streaming next dady with a Peacock subscription.
Brandon Larracuente switched shows in the Dick Wolf TV universe in the fall of the 2025 TV schedule following the cancellation of Prime Video’s On Call, and Vasquez‘s story in Chicago Fire is already complicated. After going back and forth on how he wants to approach his dad’s efforts to get himself out of jail, a call from Ray Vasquez from the clink to the firehouse motivated Sal to visit his dad and confront him. Unfortunately for the younger Vasquez, his dad dropped a bombshell about a tie between the CFD and CPD. Fortunately for fans, however, I can imagine how it could lead to a crossover.
Sal seemed to finally be standing up for himself against his dad, but that didn’t last long in their climactic face-to-face meeting in “Ghosts.” It was a great sequence, both for setting up the next stages of the firefighter’s story and for really showing that even if Ray isn’t a cold-blooded murderer, he’s still a pretty bad dad. Motivated by Ray calling the firehouse and talking to Kidd, Sal accused his dad of first “screwing up” his dreams of becoming a cop and now tanking his chances of success as a firefighter. Ray responded:
I’m not the reason you’re against the ropes at the CFD. The truth is, I’m the only reason you still have the job… I’ve always looked out for you, ever since you were a kid. You think I’d stop because I’m locked in a cage? It’s not a big deal. Your commissioner and I have a mutual friend in PD. You told me you wanted to be a firefighter. I gave him a call, cashed in on a favor he owed me.
Am I reading too closely to think that there’s potentially a big story behind this mutual friend within CPD? Perhaps, and possibly only fueled by Commander Devlin (introduced in Chicago P.D.‘s Season 13 premiere) appearing in the P.D. episode that aired directly after “Ghosts” on October 29. But I think it’s notable that Ray claimed that “He’s the kind of guy with enough reach to get you into the best firehouse in the city” when Sal asked him to name the man, with his dad going on to claim that he’s “just making sure things go well” for him.
Is the mutual friend actually Commander Devlin, a P.D. character who could reach over to Fire in the 2025-2026 TV season, and therefore warrant a two-parter like what used to be an annual tradition for the two original One Chicago shows? We can’t 100% rule it out at this point, and it’s fun to speculate when there are more questions than answers. I can say that this is the most invested I’ve been in Vasquez’s story all season, which is saying something since “Ghosts” was directly in the wake of Herrmann‘s tragic loss.
Whatever the future holds for the increasingly complicated Sal/CFD/Ray/CPD storyline, the next episode seems to be veering away from it. Called “Broken Things,” Violet and Novak will be stuck in a traffic jam with a patient in their rig, while Severide shadowing Pascal means the return of Dylan McDermott. Kidd will do something for Isaiah as well. Check out the promo below:
New episodes of Chicago Fire will continue airing on NBC Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET, between Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. All three shows are also available streaming on Peacock, if you need a refresher on Vasquez’s storyline so far.
