Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for the Season 12 premiere of Chicago Fire, called "Barely Gone."
Chicago Fire has officially returned to NBC for Season 12 after a prolonged hiatus, and its arrival in the 2024 TV schedule involved a six-month time jump and two looming cast departures to address. While Kara Killmer will still be around a bit longer as Brett, Alberto Rosende's exit as Gallo was scheduled for the premiere. Despite a sweet story that showrunner Andrea Newman shared with CinemaBlend about saying goodbye to Rosende, I had some major doubts about a happy ending while watching "Barely Gone."
The Story Behind Alberto Rosende's Exit
Andrea Newman, who also opened up about the "rude shock" of returning to Fire in the winter as opposed to the fall as usual, chatted with CinemaBlend about the twelfth season, including the departure of Alberto Rosende as the first series regular to bow out in 2024. The Season 12 premiere wasted no time in establishing that Gallo was leaving Firehouse 51 to move to Michigan with his aunt, giving him the first chance to be with blood relatives since he was a kid. He was set to visit one last time to say his goodbyes, and Ritter and Violet were determined not to get emotional.
The characters were unsuccessful on that front, and based on what the showrunner shared, emotions were running high behind the scenes when Alberto Rosende was filming Gallo's goodbye to Firehouse 51 and his two best friends. When I spoke with Andrea Newman, I asked about the approach to saying goodbye to a longtime series regular, and she explained:
What you want to do is just do justice to the character and make sure it feels real to the character. In this case, it's Gallo leaving and he's got reasons that have been seated for a long time, since we first met him, and we'll understand right away when he says them and it's incredibly difficult to say goodbye.
Gallo was clearly excited to be with family members he previously didn't even know he had, but Violet and Ritter had a tough goodbye to say. I for one did get a laugh out of him joking that he'd already made two new best friends in Michigan named "Vitter" and "Riolet," and it was a bittersweet goodbye. Bitter to lose a character who was introduced as a combination of Casey and Severide, but sweet that he was seemingly getting a happy ending. Newman continued:
Gosh, the day on set where we shot Alberto saying goodbye to Violet and Ritter. There were genuine tears flying in every direction and we kept having to hold roll, hold the camera because there's so much emotion. What we want to do is just do justice to Gallo. He had a fantastic season last season. Alberto, we love him as an actor and we love the character. It's about making sure that it feels real to the character and that we give them their due, and I hope we did that with Gallo. I think we did.
I spoke with the showrunner prior to getting to watch the Season 12 premiere, and at the time, it sounded like there was every reason to expect an emotional but happy exit for Alberto Rosende as Blake Gallo. As I was watching the episode, however, years of Chicago Fire viewing began to make me very nervous that a sad twist was on the way. Read on for why!
The Season 12 Premiere Was Going Too Well
Call me a pessimist, but it still feels like just yesterday that Chicago Fire returned from a hiatus and immediately killed off Otis in a gruesome death scene, which was actually the twist that brought Alberto Rosende's Gallo into Firehouse 51 in the first place. Season 11 ended with Mouch seemingly on death's door, Brett potentially in for heartbreak, and the question of whether Stella would be able to bring Severide back to 51.
"Barely Gone" quickly established that Mouch was back and better than ever, Brett was happily engaged to Casey and raising baby Julia, and Severide and Stella were back together, albeit with some tension over his long absence. Throw in Gallo getting a very happy ending when there was still half an episode left to go, and I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that other shoe seemed to be the delivery of an explosive package to Firehouse 51 with little to no time to get rid of it.
Even though Gallo wasn't at 51 at the time, and even though Boden and Herrmann were racing around the building to find the deadly device, I was all but convinced that Gallo was going to pop out of nowhere, grab the box, and try to run to safety, only to be injured and/or killed in the explosion. What can I say? Otis' Season 8 premiere death traumatized me, and the first-look images at Season 12 had me paranoid that a main character was going to be seriously hurt.
I could have imagined Gallo coming back to 51 for one last confession to Violet or moment with Ritter, only to find the explosive device and sacrifice his own life in saving others. Rarely have I been so happy to be wrong about a plot twist! Gallo's farewell to the rest of 51 and Alberto Rosende's sweet behind-the-scenes moment with Hanako Greensmith and Daniel Kyri weren't overshadowed by tragedy.
And in fact, nobody was killed by the explosion, although Herrmann had a very close call when he tried to get the box to a dumpster and as far away from anybody else as possible. I'm not convinced that he's as fine as he tried to say at the end of "Barely Gone," but with everybody alive and seemingly well, I'm going to be optimistic!
Honestly, my biggest issue with the Season 12 premiere is the idea that Brett hasn't ordered a wedding dress with only six weeks left until the nuptials. Somebody should have been watching Say Yes to the Dress over the long hiatus, if you ask me!
Keep tuning in to NBC on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of Chicago Fire for what's next for the heroes of Firehouse 51, including (but not limited to) whether Herrmann will deal with some lingering damage from the explosion, how the tension between Severide and Stella plays out, and/or how Sylvie Brett gets a wedding dress that fits perfectly in less than two months. You'll be able to revisit the Season 12 premiere streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription as well.
