Spoilers ahead for Episode 19 of Chicago Fire Season 10, called "Finish What You Started."
Chicago Fire said goodbye to Brett earlier in Season 10 when she decided to take a break from the Windy City and visit Casey, which left Violet in need of a new partner. Unfortunately, her new partner turned out to be a liar trying to sow seeds of discontent about Violet's position at Firehouse 51, and she can't just file a complaint to get Emma transferred. She's in an impossible situation, and she really needs Brett back... if Brett is coming back.
Violet already got some weird vibes from Emma due to her harsh bedside manner in their first episode together, and Ritter discovered last week that she'd lied about her background. She decided to start spreading stories about Violet being shaken up by blood and difficult calls to try and steal her job, but made one big mistake: she tried to spread stories to Violet's best friends at 51. Despite the drama between her and Gallo recently, he and Ritter had her back.
Unfortunately, they weren't the people who she truly needs to have her back. She tried to convince Boden (who recovered from last week's hostage situation to closely monitor Kylie's love life) to transfer Emma away, only to discover that Boden's position as Deputy District Chief didn't give him the power to transfer paramedics. The only person who could transfer Emma out of 51 to stop her is Chief Hawkins, who caused a lot of trouble the last time he showed preferential treatment.
This time, Violet truly needs his help, but he's basically on probation because of their relationship, so he can't transfer Emma. Even though it did lead to a sweet love confession between the two, she's stuck with Emma for the foreseeable future. The good news is that Brett is supposed to come back, but the mention that she's going to be back in "a month" in "Finish What You Started" threw me.
Last week's episode also said that she's supposed to be back in a month, and it seems pretty clear that these two episodes didn't take place in the same week. This could just be a case of Chicago Fire not wanting to get too specific in light of not being 100% sure of when the episodes would air in the 2022 TV schedule, but I know that I caught it. Are they ballparking when Brett will be back? And with the finale airing on May 25 and only three episodes left until Season 10 hits the 22-episode mark, will she actually be back before the end of the season?
I certainly hope so, but we can only speculate for now. Hanako Greensmith definitely wasn't kidding around when she described Violet's plot with Emma as "juicy"! Chicago is taking a couple of weeks off, and Chicago Fire won't return to NBC with a new episode until Wednesday, May 11. Fire (as well as Med and P.D.) will air their final three episodes without any breaks.
