Jake Lockett won’t reveal whether Sam Carver and Violet Mikami are Chicago Fire’s ultimate targets, but he does know why Carver rejected her apology in the season 13 premiere.
Lockett, who plays firefighter Carver, told Us Weekly exclusively on Tuesday, October 1, that his character spent six weeks off filming “trying to figure out how to move forward” with Violet (Hanako Greensmith).
While Carver was on leave from the fire department, he thought Violet would change — and be upfront about her feelings for him — but instead, he got the same old story from her.
“You’re sitting here trying to do the same old thing, just wading through it, not really [committing], like, half-heartedly talking about it,” Lockett, 39, said of Violet’s actions in the premiere, which aired on September 25. He noted that from Carver’s perspective, he’s learned that he “can’t do that anymore.” Carver “told you everything,” and when Violet “didn’t respond” and she “didn’t pursue me,” Carver refused to “sit here and play in the apathy of it anymore.”
In the season 12 finale in May, Carver was shocked by a call involving an abusive father and his son, who had been burned in a kitchen accident. (Carver was pushed into a fire by his brother when he was a child, which was a trigger for him.) After that incident—and telling Violet he loved her and she just stood there—he took a six-week leave of absence. The season 13 premiere aired after Carver returned from Texas. At the time, Violet told her friends at Firehouse 51 that she had planned to tell him she had feelings for him and apologize for her inaction, but before she had the chance, he turned her down.
Carver also surprised everyone when he was picked up after his shift by a mystery woman he had apparently started dating in Texas.
“I don’t want to give anything away,” Lockett teased when asked about the new woman, who is named Tori (Holly Hinchliffe). He explained that Carver’s connection to Tori was a coping mechanism after his breakup with Violet.
“Sometimes it’s easier not to move on than it is to, you know, deal with someone you actually [have] to like.”
Lockett admitted that Carver felt “a little traumatized” after letting Violet into his world and she didn’t immediately reciprocate those feelings.
According to Lockett, lingering feelings on both sides will be a big part of episode 2, which airs Wednesday, October 2.
“Carver shut Violet down when she tried to talk to him [last week]. There’s going to be a little bit of him trying to avoid that situation at work, which is going to be… difficult,” the actor teased to Us. “I mean, we work hand in hand.”
