Hanako Greensmith knows how Violet Mikami screwed things up with Sam Carver on Chicago Fire, but their road to redemption won’t be easy.
“I think we’ll see a little bit of her reaction [to Carver leaving] at the end of season 12, which I think is a little bit of shock and guilt and regret,” Greensmith, 27, told Us Weekly exclusively about Violet not being able to tell Carver (Jake Lockett) how she really felt before he took a leave of absence from Firehouse 51. “I think there’s a lot of things that she didn’t say that she wishes she had said.”
The actress revealed that season 13, which premieres Wednesday, September 25, begins with Violet “deciding whether or not she’s ready to convey what she may have wished she had said at that moment.”
Greensmith notes that fans will also find out “exactly why” Carver left so abruptly at the end of last season. Viewers will see “why he was gone for so long and what life is like when he comes back.”
In the season 12 finale in May, Carver was deeply affected by a call in which it was reported that a father had abused his adult son while working at a restaurant. Carver assaulted one of the suspects after seeing the burn marks on the victim’s arm. (Carver had previously revealed that his brother pushed him into a campfire when he was 9 years old.) After the altercation, Carver was forced to quit his job as a firefighter. Violet, who had run into Carver, was shocked when he left without warning — especially since she didn’t make it clear how much she liked him.
When Carver returned about six weeks later, Greensmith said Violet wasn’t exactly prepared. “It’s going to be fascinating,” Greensmith told Us of Violet and Carver’s reunion, hinting that it’ll be the “push and pull” relationship fans are used to between the pair.
“It’s a dance,” she added, admitting that both characters are “finding their place in new situations that both include and exclude each other.”
The NBC star alluded to “a little bit of a shift between the relationship that we know they had in the past.”
Greensmith pointed out that Violet suffered a “deep loss” when her ex-boyfriend, chief medical officer Evan Hawkins (Jimmy Nicholas), died in the line of duty in a season 11 episode, something she may not have fully come to terms with. That pain still haunts Violet, but that’s okay.
“As long as there’s room for that pain and understanding of that past, I think there’s still room to move forward,” Greensmith explains. “But the more [Violet] ignores its existence and doesn’t incorporate it into what’s evident in her new relationships, the more it’s going to hold her back in the future.”
Violet’s relationship with Carver won’t be the only dynamic shift this season. Greensmith tells Us that there’s a “great opportunity” for Violet and her newest ambulance companion, Lyla Novak (Jocelyn Hudon), to “combine” their skills starting in the season premiere.
“[We’re seeing] Violet step into a very new energy in her life,” Greensmith reveals. “She’s getting more comfortable being PIC [physician in charge], comfortable being with Novak, comfortable learning to navigate this new romantic terrain in her life and whether or not she’s going to move on not just Hawkins but Carver as well.”
