Chicago Fire New Couple Alert! Is Violet Moving On With [Spoiler] in Fall Finale? — Plus, Someone’s Out of a Job

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Earlier this season, Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman teased to Soaps.com that Violet’s “not looking to fall in love. But sometimes that’s exactly when it happens!” And following this Wednesday’s fall finale, we have a major clue about who might unexpectedly be capturing the paramedic’s heart.

Plus, Pascal received troubling news about 51’s future, and Severide’s latest OFI case led to a treacherous cliffhanger. Read on as we recap the episode’s biggest twists.

Violet and Vasquez Go For a Ride

Now that Novak is getting her flirt on with Med’s Dr. John Frost, it appears that Vasquez has set his sights on another paramedic at 51. The firefighter was assigned to a ride-along with Violet this week, and at first, it was all business as she trained him on how to start an IV. When Vasquez busted open a door to save an unconscious woman and successfully inserted an IV, Violet was suitably impressed. But the tide really started to turn after Vasquez’s paroled father showed up at the firehouse, and Violet witnessed the tense exchange. She gave Vasquez a ride home and encouraged him to come to Molly’s that evening. She was just about to leave the bar but decided to stay when Vasquez showed up. They ended up talking until closing, and Violet agreed to extend the night and head to another bar after Vasquez admitted that he didn’t want to go home after the shift he had.

More: Chicago Med’s Jessy Schram Talks Hannah’s Pregnancy ‘Anxiety’ and Her (Romantic?) Future With Dean: I’m ‘On the Edge of My Seat’

Novak Confronts Her Sister

The series finally gave us some more pieces of the mysterious puzzle that is Lizzie Novak’s family history. The medic got a call that her sister Heidi was in the hospital and suspected that it was an overdose. Heidi insisted that she just mistakenly took a sleeping pill with grapefruit juice and wasn’t like their mother. On their strained ride home, Heidi started to unleash all her feelings about her sis. She told Lizzie that it’s easy to show up in a crisis because you get to feel like a good person, and she’s sick of pretending they have a normal sibling relationship when they don’t even talk or hangout anymore. “When was the last time you talked to Will, by the way?” Heidi asked, to which Novak fired back with the same question for Heidi about their brother.

At Molly’s, Novak opened up to Violet about her past and her fraught relationship with her siblings, describing it as like playing Taboo because of the words they’re not allowed to say. After their mom died, things got complicated as Novak took it upon herself to fill the “parent” role. But it never occurred to her to ask anyone else what they wanted, she admitted. With that, she took off and went to Heidi’s to make amends and hang out.

Engine 51 Gets Cut

After multiple attempts at a casual coffee and then lunch, Pascal and Annette finally managed to have a date night at his place. Too bad she interrupted the romantic dinner with some bad news: To avert a teachers’ strike, the city had to take funds from other departments, including asking CFD for a list of rigs that could be permanently decommissioned. On the cutting block is Engine 51, which means Mouch could soon be out of a job just when he finally made lieutenant! (Thankfully, none of the other main characters are currently on Engine.)

More: This Chicago Med Character Was Originally Supposed to Die

The Dangerous Cliffhanger

The fall finale’s twisty ending involved Severide, who was investigating an arson case with Van Meter at a school. As the episode came to a close, Severide and Van Meter were talking with the targeted teacher at his home, while a hooded figure lit a fire in the lobby of the building. (Stella — who is on furlough for two weeks in Cleveland — is gonna be so pissed when she finds out Severide’s in danger. Again.)

Chicago Fire returns with a new episode on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026.

Check out the gallery below to review all of this year’s renewed primetime shows.