Chicago Fire is on the verge of returning to NBC with the fall finale after a brief break, and longtime fans know that Fire finales tend to have very high stakes. In the Season 11 episode that airs on December 7, those stakes will be quite literally very high for Severide, on top of the consequences that both he and Stella will have to face for their actions. Showrunners Andrea Newman and Derek Haas opened up to CinemaBlend about what’s ahead for the two lieutenants, while the BTS look at Taylor Kinney’s sky-high stunt shows off just what the star is capable of after ten full seasons and counting.
The fall finale will be called “Nemesis,” and Severide will wind up in a different kind of danger than usual. The behind-the-scenes drone footage (seen above) shows Taylor Kinney on top of a liftable bridge at a very steep angle, more than 150 feet in the air. The actor even did most of the stunt himself. The visual of the Chicago skyline in the background on top of everything else suggests that this is a sequence that viewers absolutely will not want to miss.
Of course, Severide’s skills as a Squad lieutenant that allow him to do things like dangle off the end of a bridge haven’t applied to his situation with the CPD and Detective Pryma in the aftermath of his and Stella’s near-death experience on their wedding night. When I spoke with the Chicago Fire showrunners, they shared how the situation weighing so heavily on Severide will impact the fall finale. Andrea Newman said:
I would say that that case has been haunting him, and it's really haunting him when we come into [Episode] 9, and he's going to take action and take control in the storyline, and that's gonna lead to some bad repercussions. He'll put people in danger from 51 by taking action.
Taking action is definitely in character for Severide, but it sounds like that won’t pay off in the situation with Pryma, the dirty cop, and the whole mess of the criminals who still haven’t been caught. Will he put his fellow 51 heroes in danger on a call, or in what should be a safe situation, like when the bad guys crashed his wedding night? Derek Haas elaborated:
It ties back to the end of last season where they didn't just attack him on the job. They came to his wedding night, and a cop let these guys know where he was. That is something that – you know, his wife almost got killed, and that will get Severide's dander up at any moment. And he's ready to pound someone.
Severide is usually more likely to stop a fight while on a call than to “pound someone,” so he’s evidently at his breaking point in the fall finale. Only time will tell what the consequences will be (and whether or not we’ll have to wait until the winter premiere in the 2023 TV schedule for the fallout), but it seems safe to say that there will be some highs and lows for Taylor Kinney’s character before the end of 2022.
And he may not be the only one! Stella Kidd has had a rough time as a lieutenant in Season 11 when it comes to Carver, who she did not want to bring onto Truck 81, on top of all the usual stressors of the job. She has of course risen to every challenge so far. When asked if her leadership skills are going to be put to the test again, Andrea Newman previewed:
They are absolutely put to the test in Episode 9. Like you said, she rises to the occasion and we've really seen her grow as a leader, and she's got to make an incredibly difficult decision in this episode. Who she's going to bring in with her and put in harm's way, and she has to make that decision and then she's got to deal with the actions that happen once she does.
Whatever this decision is, it sounds like it could be far riskier than anything else she has had to lead her crew through in Season 11! Truck 81 is manned by plenty of capable firefighters, and who she chooses to follow her into danger could make all the difference. Derek Haas shared his own thoughts on Stella’s leadership and the upcoming consequences:
What we love about writing about firefighters in real life is every single one of them will volunteer for the most dangerous job, if you've ever been with any Chicago firefighter, and so we'd like to see that dynamic on the show. But it's the leaders who have to then make the decision and live with the consequences as we've seen over 11 seasons. It doesn't always work out. This is one of those situations where the ultimate test of your leadership is having somebody's life in your hand.
See how Chicago Fire finishes off 2022 with the fall finale on Wednesday, December 7 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, between Chicago Med at 8 p.m. and Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. Med showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov have already previewed Ethan’s “happy ending” (and some not-so-happy endings) in the medical drama’s fall finale. and P.D. set the stage for an intense episode after the chilling cliffhanger.
While One Chicago fans are undoubtedly bummed that the Windy City action is heading into a hiatus, the break won’t be too long. All three shows will return to their normal time slots on Wednesday, January 4, and you can always revisit past episodes streaming with a Peacock subscription.
