Chicago Fire 12×10 “The Wrong Guy” sees the show return from hiatus with an uneven hour that doesn’t really do anything too badly, it just doesn’t lean into the show’s strengths. With Boden out, Severide is in charge and he is as uncomfortable as the episode feels, like he’s trying out a coat that fits but that doesn’t really suit him.
We’ve known for a while that the future for Severide wasn’t in succeeding Boden or taking over as Captain after Casey, but this episode cements it. Severide always had his own journey, and it was always more OFI-shaped than anything else. In a way, that’s a good thing. He doesn’t have to follow in other people’s footsteps and One Chicago is already guilty of recycling storylines in way too many cases, so the fact that they’re giving Severide his own is a step in the right direction. There is, however, something to be said about knowing where a storyline is going before committing to it.
Take Stella, whose Girls on Fire storyline has always been kind of in the background. It’s a convenient crutch when the show needs it to add drama — like in this hour, but it never really ends up being the big thing it should be. Stella is hardly ever celebrated the way she should for what she created, and the difference it has made in so many girls’ lives. And even in Chicago Fire 12×10 “The Wrong Guy” when she does, we don’t get to see that celebration.
Stellaride too has been pushed to the background, relegated to tiny moments, even though right now, the ship is the one thing the show has that has fans excited for what Chicago Fire has in store for the future. Speculation for Chicago Fire 12×10 “The Wrong Guy” was mostly centered on the daring rescue Stella would attempt and how Kelly would react to seeing his wife in danger. Instead of leaning into that, however, the show gave us one worried look and nothing else, not even a conversation about it. Sure, Kelly and Stella do this job for a living, but this is TV. They could have given us at least one scene.
The other big storyline of the hour has to do with Cruz and Javi, and as satisfying as that ends up being, it feels like such an isolated story that it’s hard to understand what the point of it even is. It would have made more sense had it actually involved Severide, as he offered at one point, or the rest of the Squad, but the really isolated storylines feel really strange sometimes in episodes such as this one.
Sure, we want Joe Minoso to have some good material, and the ensemble stories don’t always provide that in the way this storyline did. Lately, however, it seems like Chicago Fire doesn’t really seem to know what the balance is between giving actors the kind of material they deserve and telling interesting stories that keep viewers hooked. And, with only three episodes to go in this shortened season, it’s hard to see them figuring it out anytime soon.
