Chicago Fire Season 13 had to avoid a major mistake with kids Stella and Kelly
In “Chicago Fire,” they were either relationship killers or relationship saviors. Over the years, we watched Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) fall in love with her adopted son Louie before losing him, which ruined her marriage to Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer). On top of that, Gabby suffered a miscarriage and learned that if she got pregnant again, she could die, which completely destroyed any hope of happiness the Casey family might have had. We saw Cruz (Joe Minoso) adopt Javi (Carlos S. Sanchez) along with Chloe (Kristen Gutoskie), and then become a rather protective father to both Javi and his biological son, Brian. Adoptee Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) returned the favor when she became adoptive mother to Julia, named after Sylvie’s biological mother. But many of these stories follow the same rhythm—a group member finds an abandoned child, bonds, and then their original relatives get involved.
Depending on the lesson the show’s writers want to convey, or how dramatic the couple’s romance requires, the child will either return to their birth family or they’ll stay with foster parents. Next up in this pivoting storyline looks to be Stellaride, who saw a major plot twist develop in the Season 12 finale that suggested they were considering becoming parents. The couple who finally got back together, Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), have been through a lot and are at a strange crossroads in their relationship—not the best time to have a child. With the couple considering the idea, there was one thing “Chicago Fire” desperately needed to do—make the story different from any of the kids’ storylines they’ve done in recent years.
Stella and Kelly have had a very tumultuous couple of seasons on “Chicago Fire,” some of which were inspired by Taylor Kinney’s season-long absence from the show in Season 11. First, Stella spent most of Season 10 in Boston, launching her charity Girl on Fire. Then, Kelly went away in Season 11 to help solve an ATF case and work with the government on a training program. Finally, in Season 12, both halves of Stellaride are back together in Chicago, mending their fraying marriage and learning to trust each other again.
That’s what makes Kelly’s announcement to Stella that he wants kids and wants to start trying for one soon so shocking. He knows that his wife loves her very manual job, and they’ve just managed to get their marriage back on track. Even he seems a little embarrassed to suggest this to Stella. She has good reason to be completely taken aback by the suggestion, because it comes completely out of the blue. It shows that he’s not thinking about her, her career, or what she’s facing.
This is the kind of plot that could resolve in one of four ways — either Stella has a miscarriage or they have fertility issues, they find a child old enough to adopt and run into some trouble adding them to the family, Stella decides she doesn’t want kids and lies to Kelly about not using birth control or — the most unlikely option of all, because this is “Chicago Fire” and drama rules — she has a drama-free delivery and delivery.
The first two options are just rehash of previous storylines. As for the idea of Stella lying to Kelly… do these two really need any more relationship drama on top of everything they’ve been through lately? The obvious answer is that originality needs to come in here, by all means.
How do you freshen up a story that may have been past its prime? Do something completely different with it. Why not have Stella deal horribly with losing control of her body and circumstances? Why not have her hate her physical limitations? Why not have her be an unconventional mother—bad at parenting, to her horror? Maybe she never settles into that role, surprisingly, even if Kelly is a natural father. Sometimes even the most heroic of us can be terrible parents. At the very least, it would be a different idea—and would add some shades of gray to Stella’s no-nonsense persona.
Another way to make this story interesting? Include any paternal feelings Kelly might be developing for her newfound half-brother, Jack Damon (Michael Bradway), a shocking twist that occurred in the Season 12 finale. Maybe he’s transferring his desire to be a father to his younger brother, and helping Jack teaches him that he needs to wait a little longer to be someone’s father.
