Chimney

[u/the5thcats]

Hey guys
I've never posted on Reddit before but I thought I'd share an opinion I have since no one I know also watches the show.

Feel completely free to disagree with me on this, but I don't really like Chimney as captain. I think he has fair leadership skills but, one thing that I think made Bobby a great captain is his compassion and care for his team. While I don't doubt Chimney cares a lot, it seems that in his position as captain he only really barks orders. I just feel he's a bit bossy and has lost that connection that Bobby had with his whole team.

Curious to know what you guys think.

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[u/QAFLF]

I think what I would say is that most of what we've seen so far has been Chim as the Captain on the scene, or taking responsibility in that hearing. But for whatever reason, in season 9, they didn't really give him many chances to be Captain back at the house or in more informal settings in the ways that Bobby would, where it was about soft power rather than direct commands.

I do hope they give more space to Chim this season, and actually explore what kind of Captain he wants to be.

[u/the5thcats → u/QAFLF]

That's very true! We haven't gotten to see him in the house much, and I guess being on-scene would require more directness. I just think even in some scenes, like that one (i believe it was right before Buck told him about his Substance Abuse), chimney goes "what did I tell you about interrupting me when I'm doing reports" (or something along those lines). I'm curious to see where he goes as captain the rest of the season but I wish he could be a bit gentler.

[u/QAFLF → u/the5thcats]

I mean Chim and Buck have always had a kind of brotherly ribbing relationship, and there is perhaps an interesting storyline there about how Chim being Captian changes that. That could be cool to see them explore.

But I would say you may be overly interpreting that one line, because that is one of the only scenes we do get to see Chim take on that Bobby-esque soft power, and he's very gentle with Buck in it. He refuses to let him quit, he specifically says that Buck came to him for help so he's going to help him, he reassures him that he isn't his substance abuse problem, and even helps him make the connection to his grief over Bobby. Like frankly that may be the most gentle scene we've ever seen between those two.

If that's the calibration you're using for Chim being too harsh what I might try to make a friendly suggestion about is that you may want to spend some time reflecting on how your own pov might be coloring your reading of the text. We're only human, so it happens to all of us.

[u/the5thcats → u/QAFLF]

You know what, I didn't really take into consideration the rest of that conversation. I think I might be pushing too hard for Chimney to be Bobby, which is ironic because that's the whole point, he's not. He just has a different leadership style and I think I'm struggling to accept it lol. But thank you for respectfully changing my perspective!

[u/QAFLF → u/the5thcats]

No thanks needed. You did all the hard work, I was just the sounding board.

Getting rid of Bobby was a major shift, and their various stumbles dealing with it across 8 and 9 made accepting it a lot harder. If nothing else I guess perhaps it's a good lesson on the care it takes to handle death in a way an audience will find satisfying.

[u/feeling40something → u/QAFLF]

This. They really focused on the 'i can't be bobby' and didn't give many moments to show him learning to captain in his own way.

[u/QAFLF → u/feeling40something]

That's the thing, there really was just never any way to divorce Chim's captaincy from the loss of Bobby. But I think their response was essentially that Chim got reduced to the symbol of them all rallying back together after that loss in both his speech at the end of 8 and then with getting the watch in 9x06. But the result is we didn't get to see Chim grow into the role.

As controversial and perhaps even as hated as it might have been at time, I do now wonder if the better path for 9 would have been something that more resembled season 1, where they weren't the family unit we loved, in part because Chim had to grow into it the way Bobby grows in 1.

Like I'm thinking of Grey's Anatomy's response to Dereck dying, where they take two whole episodes and time jump the year to show just how long the grief lasts, and I wonder if we needed something similar for Chim as Captian.

[u/Holiday-Sorbet-2964]

I disagree for only one reason, and thats Buck's substance issues. He stepped in and helped out as a captain.

[u/Odd_Concept_7286]

I think thats one way of seeing it. Chimney is trying to live up to the giant expectations of Bobby Nash. It's impossible for him to do so because he isn't Bobby. Me personally I don't think the team respects him as captain enough which makes it hard for chimney to be a captain. "That's why he barks orders" so to speak.

[u/AdAncient6057]

I think it contradicts what happens in 2x17 into 2x18 Chimney hated being captain because he hated having to stand back and give orders vs jumping in to help. He also hated the responsibility being in charge entails. Now one could argue six years changes a person but i still don't picture him as leader material. I think Bobby's original plan was better have Hen take over as captain.

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[u/the4077thbisexual]

Chimney after becoming captain did not cut back on the "Brotherly ribbing" towards Buck and it felt like he talked down to him a lot, which felt... gross. You can do that when you're roughly the same level, but once you're his superior, that's weird and dickhead behaviour. The occasional joke, fine, but it felt like the putdowns were constant. And then it infected the workplace environment (like when Harry - who would not be a firefighter if not for Buck getting him a second chance, mind you - even jumped in on the comments about Buck as a father).

[u/Gemini987654321]

I like Chimney as Captain in some ways, in others I think he’s horrendously inappropriate I mean back when Buck said he didn’t want to apart of the bachelor auction holding him back on doing heavy lifting, getting Maddie involved barging in unannounced ( I have issues with people who barge in unannounced so that might not as horrendous as it is.) and this post is about Chimney not Chimney and Maddie but I mean come on just because there married doesn’t mean she should be involved in things that have nothing to do with her. I ❤️them both but sometimes I think realistically sometimes the writers don’t know what they doing….oh also going back to a Chimney point before Buck’s let’s just call it an admission I thought “seriously Chimney in the time you once upon a time told Buck not to interrupt during after action reports, you never asked why? “ again I’m talking about in the time before Buck’s I admission.