The Season 12 finale of Chicago Fire saw a lot of departures from Firehouse 51, including fan favorites Chief Wallace Boden (Eammon Walker) and Sam Carver (Jake Lockett). Boden’s departure was permanent, as he was promoted to downtown, but thankfully, in the Season 13 premiere, Carver returned, but he didn’t return alone.
After telling Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith) that he loved her and being rejected, fans were hoping that Violet would come to her senses and apologize to Carver. She had come to terms with her feelings, but she still couldn’t tell him how she really felt, as he had returned from Texas with his ex-girlfriend from high school, Tori (Holly Hinchliffe), in town.
“I know we dated in high school, we were high school sweethearts, and we didn’t talk much,” Lockett told Parade of the new woman in his life. “We didn’t talk much about why it ended, but generally, like high school things, they were a little dramatic and not easy to work through. Everything seems bigger when you’re that age, so that’s how I look at it. Looking back, it probably seems a little dramatic. But she filled a certain void, as you might think, and allowed him to not have to dig into certain aspects.”
While in Texas, Carver was said to be working on his anger issues, which is why he was put on leave. He initially seemed different when he returned, but the question is whether he actually worked on his issues or just spent time having fun with Tori.
“After the first couple of episodes, I think there was definitely some awareness that some Band-Aids had been applied,” Lockett says. “After meeting Tori, whether or not he would have gone back and done the work that needed to be done is a good question. I think there’s a world where maybe he would have tried, maybe it would have worked, maybe it wouldn’t have. But I think, overall, this whole situation, we’ve put a Band-Aid on by allowing him to have someone who just lets him stay where he is, who doesn’t push him in different directions. And Tori’s her own tornado, so I think he can still learn a lot.”
So what does that mean for Carver and Violet? Violet drunkenly texts Carver one night and then worries when he never responds. She figures out it’s because he never saw the message. Tori deleted it and then told Violet, “I lost him once. I’m not going to lose him again.” Of course, Carver had no idea. After telling Violet that he loved her and she, with her own issues, rejected him, they were now in a situation where they had to work together. But the feelings of love don’t just disappear.
“I think that’s what happens when you put yourself out there and it doesn’t feel reciprocated, you have to deal with that loss,” Lockett said. “I think that’s the hard thing. You see this person in front of you that you have such strong feelings for, but at the end of the day, they burn you out. He has to deal with how to manage that on a professional level.”
And that’s what they’re both doing. On a professional level, they’re dealing with it. When lives are at stake, they put their personal feelings aside and they do what they have to do to save lives, but when it comes to firefighters on a personal level, it’s a little messy.
“It’s like high school,” Lockett said. “We don’t really talk about things and they don’t really talk about things. So it forces us to address things and deal with the fact that he doesn’t really want to talk about it. In fact, he ended it in Episode 1, right? He was like, ‘Basically, let’s forget about last year and move on like we never knew each other.’ It’s like, ‘Okay, man, at some point you’re going to have to talk,’ but so far he hasn’t.
