'Chicago Fire' Season 8 Episode 6: Gallo opens up about his past to Casey and explains why he disobeyed his direct order
After Brian "Otis" Zvonecek's death in the season eight premiere of 'Chicago Fire', Captain Matthew Casey was tasked with the tough job of finding a replacement for him.
Three months later, Casey comes across Blake Gallo, who was then part of another firehouse. Gallo had scaled a building to help support a man dangling off the roof by ropes. In another episode, Gallo rescues a child from a falling roller coaster.
In this week's episode, when called to a major house fire, Casey asks Gallo to check the back door of the house but not go in. When a kid comes running, insisting on going inside to save his family, Gallo tells him that he will and disobeys Casey's order.
When Casey realizes that Gallo disobeyed him, he is angry and gives Gallo a bunch of dirty jobs to do and tells Gallo that he will have to retrain at the academy. He even puts it in the report which is read by Chief Boden later. Gallo takes the punishment in stride and accepts what he did was wrong.
Chief Boden then speaks to Casey and tells him about Gallo's backstory, that the fire he survived when he was 12 years old had taken away his entire family.
Casey is still angry, however, and wants Gallo to talk to him directly instead, which he does later — saying that he wonders whether he could have saved his family even today.
That's when Casey changes his stance and tells him this is what could make him a great firefighter.
In a touching speech, Casey tells Gallo, "We all have some kind of pain we're living with, but when you can admit to the pain, own it — that's when it scars over and makes you stronger, becomes the armor you wear into battle."
Fans loved this exchange as well and can't wait to see Casey's mentorship of Gallo continue to unfold. There was also a moment when candidate Ritter tells Gallo that the firehouse will be like a family and fans want more of this as well.
One fan tweeted, "I hope Gallo and Ritter get more screen time together in the future. One, it'd be great to see more of them both, two it'd be great to see them bond as newbies/young firefighters. #ChicagoFire."
'Chicago Fire' airs on NBC on Wednesday nights.