After Chicago Fire Delivered A Big Career Cliffhanger For Severide, How Much Do We Need To Worry About His Choice?
Spoilers ahead for Episode 2 of Chicago Fire Season 13, called “Ride the Blade.”
Chicago Fire is officially moving forward in the era of Dermot Mulroney’s Dom Pascal as the new Chief of Firehouse 51, but it wasn’t his influence that had the house out of sorts in “Ride the Blade.” In fact, it has only taken two episodes of the fall 2024 TV schedule for Damon’s presence to cause some insurmountable complications for the other firefighters. After Severide got a wakeup call, he informed his half brother that something needs to change, and it could lead to one of the two characters leaving 51.
What Happened In “Ride The Blade”
The trouble started when Truck, Squad, and Engine were all called to the scene of an accident, and Damon raced into the action to try and save a life despite Kidd yelling different directions. He later confessed to Severide that he’d heard what the Truck lieutenant had said, and Severide decided not to tell his wife – who also happened to be the lieutenant in question – about it.
And Severide might have just kept on covering for Damon if Cruz didn’t drop some hard truths on him. Cruz called the Squad lieutenant out for treating Damon differently than he would anybody else, and it was affecting the firehouse. It could also get much worse, if Severide had to decide between protecting his brother and doing his job.
That was enough for Severide to know that he had to come clean to Stella, who wasn’t happy that he’d lied to her, and it remains to be seen if she’ll be up for keeping Damon shortly after Pascal pointed out the amount of Truck turnover.
In a spectacular failure to read the room, Damon stormed up to Severide at Molly’s to yell at him for telling Kidd the truth, and Severide kept his cool a lot better than he would have back in the early days of Chicago Fire. (You can stream the early seasons with a Peacock subscription.) When Damon shouted that he thought Severide had his back about not telling Kidd, Severide told his half brother:
I did [have your back]. That’s the problem. I lied to protect you, which is something I wouldn’t have done for anyone else. She’s pissed, she has every right to be, at both of us… We can’t work at the same firehouse. One of us has to go.
Honestly, with how he calmly talked to Damon to make up for his mistake, maybe he is ready to start a family if/when Stella gets to the same place. If this exchange had happened between Damon and any other series regular, I would have assumed that there’d be no question whatsoever about which character would stay at 51. Since this is Severide we’re talking about, though, there are some variables to consider.
Could Severide Leave Firehouse 51?
On the one hand, Chicago Fire writing the top-billed actor out of the action is hard to take seriously as a possibility, not least because Squad is more specialized than Truck or Engine. I don’t honestly believe that Severide would permanently leave 51 unless Taylor Kinney is leaving the show. But Severide has more career options with the CFD than any other character on this show.
Could Severide decide to fall on the sword, leave 51 so Damon can stay, and become a full-time “fire cop” for OFI? He’s had a knack for fire investigation going back to the very early days of Chicago Fire, and only got better in recent years. The conflict with Stella over OFI might not even be an issue if he’s just focusing on that in Chicago instead of splitting his focus between Squad and OFI.
Or maybe the bigger conflict will be over Damon, even in this scenario. As Severide noted, Kidd has every right to be pissed at both of them already. Cruz has also already proved that he can step into the lieutenant position while Severide is out from Squad 3, so Fire wouldn’t need a new regular to fill that vacancy.
Plus, of the three lieutenants at 51, Severide seems to have the least conflict with Pascal, so he’d be the easiest of the three to lift out and start a new story for elsewhere in the CFD. And who knows? Maybe moving to an OFI role would result in Severide crossing paths with Boden, since Eamonn Walker was reportedly open to reprising the role as a non-regular in Season 13.
It could also be interesting if Severide moving into a role that doesn’t involve risking life and limb on a daily basis could affect how Stella is feeling about starting a family. Even Severide immediately acknowledged when he floated the idea that having kids of their own would physically affect Kidd far more than it would affect him, but could she start to come around to the idea with the option of Severide having a safer job?
That may be a stretch, but I think there are a lot of interesting possibilities if Chicago Fire does have Severide decide to leave 51 for a time. He wouldn’t have to leave the CFD, and I’d be curious to see how the rest of the firehouse would react to losing Severide to keep Damon.
Do I think there’s any chance of Severide permanently leaving his role as officer of Squad 3? Definitely not, short of Taylor Kinney deciding to leave One Chicago. But I’m open to seeing how Chicago Fire would handle Severide as a full-time fire cop at this point as well as watching the firehouse without him for a stretch of episodes. Besides, this is Season 13! A show doesn’t last for thirteen seasons without being willing to branch out and try out new stories.
At the very least, it’s fun to speculate. Check out the promo for the next episode:
Based on the promo, it seems that the job we should be more immediately worried about is Stella’s, since the figure being told off by Pascal appears to be the Truck lieutenant. As for Severide and Damon… well, the most we can say from the promo is that both characters will be in the episode.
