Throughout Chicago Fire Season 13, the assumption was that Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) would, in the near future, take over as Firehouse 51’s battalion chief, following Wallace Boden’s (Eamonn Walker) promotion, even with Dermot Mulroney coming in as Don Pascal in the position. But by the end of the finale, he not only revealed that he didn’t want the job, he also stepped back from being an officer, leaving an open lieutenant position for Mouch (Christian Stolte).
Now, ahead of the Season 14 premiere on Wednesday, October 1, on NBC, Eigenberg explained that decision while on the new One Chicago Podcast hosted by Brian Luce, a former Chicago police officer who’s now a producer and technical consultant on P.D.
Eigenberg appreciated that “it doesn’t look like [Herrmann] can pull off the whole chief thing,” he said. “I like that. They were like, ‘You want to be chief on this?’ I was like, ‘Whatever you guys want.’ I’m a hired gun. I do what I do. I don’t have enough ego in the game probably in my life, but I love people. I love being around. I want to stay for as long as I can, so I enjoyed that kind of journey. Everything’s always about ascension.”
However, he added, “There was a great book called The Knockout Artist, and it was a book about a guy who was a great boxer, but he had a glass chin, and sometimes you’re just born with a glass chin. It’s who you are. You can’t change that. And for people who don’t know what a glass chin is … you get knocked out real quick. They go down, and it’s not because they’re not man enough, it’s not because they don’t have enough heart. … I like seeing that sometimes it’s not always about the ascension and making it home. It’s not always about getting the golden goose. Sometimes it’s about just getting on with it. That’s what firefighters and PD are about.”
After the finale, showrunner Andrea Newman told TV Insider that the pressure, Mouch returning from his injury in the previous season, and Pascal showing him what being chief actually entailed (standing back during the action, not being boots on the ground) factored into Herrmann’s decision.
“Boden had said, ‘You’re the one to take the throne,’ essentially. And that coming from Boden, who Herrmann worships, is heavy pressure. And then on the other side, you have Mouch who had come back from his injury in the previous season, ‘Call Me McHolland,’ like a totally rejuvenated firefighter on a war path. ‘I’m not going to be the couch guy anymore.’ So Herrmann’s kind of caught between these two things. And the one thing he never asks himself as the snowball starts rolling down the hill is, ‘Do I want this?’ And I think Pascal senses that and sensed that from the start, and so he’s sort of testing him along the way,” she said. “That was something we wanted to see, is Pascal turning the screws a little bit. And is he doing it for his own purposes or is he doing it to help Herrmann was always the question. And I think that’s what leads all those roads to the finale and the decision that Herrmann makes.”
And now, ahead of Season 14, as part of our One Chicago Fall Preview, Newman shared, “Mouch really steps up and takes over,” which will complicate things once he’s Herrmann’s boss.
