We’ve come to the end of another broadcast season, with the One Chicago finales premiering Wednesday, May 21 on NBC. The night kicks off with Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET and is followed by Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. However, Fire is set to undergo some major changes in season 14. Daniel Kyri and Jake Lockett, who play Darren Ritter and Sam Carter, will not be returning as series regulars. The news came as a surprise to fans, given the important role they play within the main cast.
Meanwhile, Chicago P.D. season 12 has seen Voight at war with Reid, amidst his own internal battle. It’s up to fans to decide if the characters are all truly that different, but it’s a question the series has asked in recent episodes. Their storyline comes to a head in “Vows”, and there’s no doubt that the fallout will continue into the next season. Coinciding with its title, the finale also features the long-awaited wedding between Burgess and Ruzek, but current events threaten to disrupt the lantern.
Ahead of the finales, I caught up with Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman and Chicago P.D. showrunner Gwen Sigan about what to expect in the last installment of the seasons.
Ritter And Carver Could Return To Chicago Fire
“We love these actors so much and the characters are such an inherent part of the show.”
I have to ask the obvious question. We know that Ritter and Carver are escaping. Will their departures fit into the finale?
Andrea Newman: We haven’t sat down for season 14 yet. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do. I mean, obviously, they’re not going to be regulars. Whether or not they’re going to be part of stories next season, that’s still up in the air.
We love these actors so much and the characters are such an inherent part of the show. There could be explosive endings to these stories, but we could also be winding them in a little bit more. Maybe not as regulars, but seeing them come back and play their stories out. We’ll have to see.
So they could still return in the future.
Andrea Newman: Yeah, there’s always a chance. Nothing is locked down yet.
How far is Severide willing to go to prove that Pascal did not attempt to kill Franklin?
Andrea Newman: Great question. There’s some risky behavior happening on Severide’s part. He is all in to defend Pascal, but at the same time, he can’t help having a nagging feeling that maybe Pascal did have something to do with it.
They had that bond that came out of the Bishop incident early in the season, and he’s put his trust in this guy, and they’ve had each other’s back. So he’s all in and Van Meter is none too happy about it, but he’s going all in for Pascal. If Pascal goes down, Severide goes down. Those are the stakes.
Only One Person Can Remain Chief Of Firehouse 51
“Somebody is going to have to go, and that’s the mystery that must be solved.”
If Herrmann passes the chief’s test, that poses an interesting problem. Is there only room for either him or Pascal at Firehouse 51?
Andrea Newman: Yeah, that’s been the dilemma from the beginning. Somebody is going to have to go, and that’s the mystery that must be solved. From the beginning of this season, the pressure has been on Herrmann because Boden handed him the crown at the end of the last season and said, “You’re the next leader here. You just have to take these tests to get there.” Everybody’s been pushed for it, and Mouch needs it to happen for him to get where he wants.
And Pascal comes in, and he’s testing him and is pushing Herrmann all the time. And the one person who hasn’t stopped and said, “Should I be doing this?” is Herrmann. So that’s really where we’re at heading into the finale, is he not knowing what to do and wanting to support his best friend. And at the same time, they’ve become a family with Pascal as well. It’s not so easy to just say, “Oh yeah. We’ll kick that guy to the curb.” Pascal’s got his problems going on, but Herrmann does too.
Will we get any developments in Severide and Kidd’s baby journey in the finale?
Andrea Newman: I feel like this whole season has been a journey for both of them in the way that they didn’t have clear role models when they got married. They were like, “Our parents were terrible parents, so how are we going to be ever good parents?” Kidd has struggled particularly with that.
But having that journey this year where she got to talk to her cousin when he showed up and talked about her aunt’s pregnancy and the depression and realized when she articulated that, that she could move on from that. And same with the rollercoaster episode in the hospital where they almost got to adopt this baby, and they got this glimpse of what motherhood would be like.
Even though it was a tragic ending, and they didn’t get the baby, I think it really empowered Severide and Kidd as a couple and brought them closer together. They got a little glimpse of what each other would be like as a mother and a father. So, in my mind, she came out of that experience saying, “I can do this.” She’s empowered to the point of, “I can be a mother. However that happens, I can be a mom, and I’m ready for it.”
What else do fans have to look forward to in the Chicago Fire finale?
Andrea Newman: A lot of things come to a head. Kidd is managing, trying to take care of Natalie, which is a big part of her life right now and finding out that Natalie and her mother are not going to reunite in 21 is a big deal. There’s a lot still to come on the horizon for her in terms of the adoption journey too. So it’s all leading to her feeling like, “Can she handle this? Can she and Severide really handle this?” And that decision is made in the finale.
There Will Be An Emotional Fallout To The Voight And Reid Storyline In Chicago P.D.
“I think the consequences of actions are always something that can come up again.”
Burgess had her badge taken away a week before her wedding. Could there be any trepidation about, “Is now the right time to get married?”
Gwen Sigan: Yeah, definitely. They’ve come so far. It’s been 12 years for Burgess and Ruzek to get to this place where they’re now getting married. And so I think for Burgess to feel anything except happy and excited and overwhelmed in all the good ways feels wrong. So to have this huge thing of getting her badge stripped is definitely going to make her feel like, “This is not how I wanted to feel a week before my wedding.”
“I didn’t want to feel this sadness and emptiness. I wanted to only feel all the good things I’ve been waiting for.” So yeah, definitely not anything like cold feet, but I do think it makes Burgess realize, “I wanted more than this. I deserve more than this. I deserve to be happy going into my wedding.” So we will see a little bit of her having to deal with that and talk to Ruzek about, “Is this the best plan, the best timing?” All of that.
A huge question this season has been, is Voight just like Reid? Will the finale continue asking that and maybe sway viewers in one way or the other?
Gwen Sigan: Yeah, that was definitely the whole setup into the finale. All through the finale, you’ll see Voight fighting against the nature that is Reid. I think it’s him fighting those base instincts and fighting the thing inside of him that is very Reid-like, which is, I think he has a capacity for violence. I think he’s a very flawed man, and there is that kind of easy out that’s always there for him of ways to do things that are off-book and that aren’t necessarily right.
And so the whole finale is really built to try to keep testing him and questioning that. By the end of the episode, I think the audience will be left to answer for themselves of what they feel. Have the lines that he’s crossed made him similar to Reid, worse than Reid, better than Reid? It’s all for the audience to decide where they fall out.
With that being such a major plot point throughout this season, will we see a definitive conclusion to it [in the finale]?
Gwen Sigan: There’s a pretty definitive conclusion in certain storylines. There’s definitely an emotional fallout, and I think the consequences of actions are always something that can come up again. And they’re never concrete on this show. I mean, anytime that one of our characters makes a big ethical decision, we always like to think about the cost and what is that cost? And so there’s a lot of cost falling out of this finale in interesting ways that I think will keep reverberating as the series goes on.
There’s been a potential romance lingering between Voight and Chapman. Will either the finale or next season revisit that plotline?
Gwen Sigan: Yeah, definitely. You’ll see some of it in the finale. I think it’s really intertwined with the Reid story. The way that we set out to work on the finale was definitely to have Chapman sort of be this angel on his shoulder, and be this more ethical, more moral person that he could rely on. She is really trying to get Voight to a place of, “Let me help you, let me do this the right way. There are still options for us.”
And that also is interwoven into this idea of how Chapman’s been very honest about her feelings for him. She’s also aware that he, perhaps, isn’t the most capable of having relationships in the way that she might want, but there does reach a point for everybody where, if you’re giving, giving, what are you getting back in return? And so we see some of that in their relationship in the finale. They don’t really have a line right now, and do they need one? And where is it going to go? So we’ll answer some of that in the finale.
