Chicago Fire wrapped up Severide’s arc sooner than I expected, and now I’m worried about Damon’s parting shot
Spoilers ahead for Chicago Fire Season 13 Episode 3, titled “All Kinds of Crazy.”
The biggest twist of Chicago Fire Season 12 (streamable with a Peacock subscription) was the revelation that the seemingly shady Damon is actually Severide’s half-brother, and he’s only keeping it a secret to learn about the Squad’s lieutenant. However, in “All Kinds of Crazy” on the 2024 TV schedule, Damon is just downright shady when he lies to Chief Pascal about Stella Kidd being a bad officer, which could get her sent away from 51. Apparently, the Damon/Severide ending from last week’s episode isn’t something we need to worry about! Fortunately, Pascal doesn’t let Kidd’s reaction to him or Truck’s turnover sway his opinion after Mouch assures him he has all the information, and Damon is removed from 51 and has to leave… but not before saying goodbye to Severide, which makes me nervous. In a confrontation before leaving, Damon tells Severide this: Trust you? I came to 51 because I wanted to get to know you, learn from you. But you abandoned me the first chance you got. And you were too busy solving an arson case to help me when I needed you the most. You think you put Benny in the past? You’re Benny.
Objectively speaking, all the problems Damon complains about are problems of his own making, since Severide has no obligation to help him with anything, let alone hide him from Kidd and Pascal. Damon was dishonest from the start, and they’re both adults. If anything, his time ending at 51 is just a big consequence for a lot of small actions, and just going back to the floating pool doesn’t seem so bad after what he tried to do by lying about Kidd to the new leader.
Even so, Damon being wrong about what he said doesn’t mean the farewell scene won’t hurt Severide. When I spoke to showrunner Andrea Newman ahead of Season 13, she mentioned that one of the problems the good ship Stellaride faces and the possibility of starting a family is “the aftermath of Benny Severide’s son.” When I mentioned that I caught a few Benny Severide Easter eggs while rewatching the Season 12 finale, Newman also commented “it’s fun to see all that.”
And given all of this, I’m worried that Severide might start to break down a little bit with the implication that he’s just like his father. While Stella has made it clear that she’s not ready to start a family, it would still be a shame if Severide decided that he wasn’t worthy of being a father because he’s Benny’s son. Severide feeling ready to be a father is a sign of great maturity. How sad would it be if he started to doubt himself again because of something Damon said to him in a fit of rage?
Unfortunately, the promo for the next episode doesn’t shed much light on the matter, though it does suggest that fans might want to start praying for Violet. Check it out: New episodes of Chicago Fire air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET, right between Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET, all on NBC. The three showrunners of One Chicago still keep in touch to some extent via text message threads, but the series remains largely separate except for a few small crossovers. If you want to catch up on past episodes of one or all three, you can find them streaming on Peacock.
