Spoilers ahead for Episode 7 of Chicago Fire Season 13, called "Untouchable."
Believe it or not, Chicago Fire's run in the 2024 TV schedule is nearly over with the Season 13 fall finale set to air on November 20. There's plenty of drama to fill that fall finale, with storylines ranging from Severide and Pascal joining forces to the ongoing saga of the star-crossed Violet and Carver. Herrmann and Mouch are also set for their officer exams. When I recently spoke with David Eigenberg about Herrmann chasing that promotion within the CFD, he shared what had never occurred to him... or Herrmann.
As fans will remember from the Season 12 finale (which is available streaming with a Peacock subscription now), Boden's emotional goodbye to Firehouse 51 involved naming Herrmann as his chosen successor as Chief. Season 13 threw a wrench in that by adding Dermot Mulroney as Chief Pascal, who seemingly has no plan of going anywhere now that he's settled into 51. Meanwhile, Herrmann is still set to take the captain's exam as the first step toward getting that Chief gig.
So, during CinemaBlend's interview with David Eigenberg at NBC's One Chicago press junket, I asked if it ever would have occurred to Herrmann to go on this path toward leadership if Boden hadn't suggested it. The longtime Chicago Fire actor laughed and responded:
No. When you get to know the real world of firefighters, there are firefighters and then there are officers. Once you're a lieutenant, you're a firefighter but you're not called a firefighter anymore. 'Are you a firefighter or an officer?' And Herrmann would go, 'I'm a firefighter.' And he was very content with that. Then they brought in a new thing, and I think it's been good... I honestly don't know what's going to happen, and I don't know if they know what's going to happen.
It seems that no decisions have been made about if Herrmann will become the new Chief of 51 in the foreseeable future, but there's still a lot of Season 13 left as the 2025 TV schedule approaches. After getting his thoughts on whether Herrmann ever would have thought about pursuing this promotion, I had to know: would it ever have occurred to David Eigenberg as an actor that there could be a new Chief when Eamonn Walker was such a pivotal part of the cast for so long? The actor explained, with a touching story about his real-life friendship with Walker:
No, I didn't. Eamonn is a dear [friend]. He actually has been visiting me, and he just went out of town to go see his son. But I'm in the basement, and he's been staying right over there. I'm very close to Eamonn, and I love him dearly. I've sat in the desk a few times, in Boden's desk... And I honestly don't know what they're going to do. Dermot has been a wonderful addition to the cast and to the show. He's an adorable, loving man, and he's a very interesting actor, so they're going to play it out how it goes.
While Eigenberg only had good things to say about Dermot Mulroney, not every firefighter in 51 has warmed up to Pascal as the new Chief. Herrmann accepted Pascal pretty quickly, though, despite the new character taking the desk that Boden had intended to go to him. So, how has Eigenberg – who has appeared in all thirteen seasons of Chicago Fire so far – approached Herrmann's dynamic with Pascal this year? He shared:
I didn't get any notes on it, on exactly how to play it, because in some ways dramatically, you want to amp it up a little bit because it's television. But the reality is, there is some competition amongst real firefighters for positions. But there's also what I’d like to call a humanhood, including women and men, towards each other. He came in [and] we had a couple of comments of actors going like, '[Pascal] has got some jerky antics about him,' but one of the actors also was like, 'He's doing this thing to us, but are we allowed to like him? Because I do like him!'
I'd say that's a pretty nice compliment to Dermot Mulroney, if he could make his character so likable despite odds being stacked against Pascal getting a warm welcome! Eigenberg went on to say that he looks "at it as life's going to unfold as it's going to unfold."
Filming also hadn't concluded for the year yet by the time of the One Chicago press junket, and the actor shared what he wanted to add to what he was shooting next... if Chicago Fire was the kind of show with improvisation, anyway. Eigenberg said:
I was just going over some stuff for tomorrow, and I was going to put a line in that they probably won't let me say. Because I have a scene with him, and [I'd be] going, 'Hey, don't start that with me!' But it was not written that way, so I don't know if they're gonna [let me]. [laughs] They very rarely let us say something that's not scripted, but I want to lean into a little bit more antagonism.
The most immediate concern for fans might be whatever is going to go down in the fall finale. Chicago Fire has a history of major developments and cliffhangers in finales, and the promo suggests that we should probably buckle up for a ride on Wednesday night. Take a look:
The fall finale of Chicago Fire Season 13, called "Quicksand," will air on Wednesday, November 20 at 9 p.m. ET, between the fall finale of Chicago Med in the wake of the big twist for Archer at 8 p.m. ET and fall finale of Chicago P.D. following Cook's first undercover gig at 10 p.m. ET, all on NBC. If you're going to want to revisit some older episodes over winter hiatus, you can find all three series streaming on Peacock now.
