Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 17 ‘Sway’ tries to continue the Chief Hopkins storyline, but stumbles a little because of Taylor Kinney’s absence. We knew from the beginning that budget cuts would mean some regulars would be missing in an episode here or there. Other shows have done this pretty successfully. And even Chicago Fire this season has more or less done a decent job of letting people miss an episode or two in a way that makes sense.
It doesn’t work as well now because the show just introduced a storyline that revolves around Severine, only to have Stella be the one dealing with Chief Hopkins this hour. And sure, they’re married. His problems are her problems. But in this case… we needed to see how the continuation of this particular problem looks on Severine.
We also desperately need Stella and Kelly scenes at this point. And it would have been really nice to see a conversation between the two about Hopkins. Not every episode has to be about Stellare, but they are at the center of what makes this show work, and Chicago Fire should remember that.
The Hopkins Issue.
The problem with Hopkins is that he doesn’t feel like a new problem, even if he is. Without Severide around, the personal connection is gone, so this episode just feels like another hardass boss trying to test the team and 51 proving they’re up to the challenge. Been there, done that. The possibility that Hopkins isn’t just being a hardass but planning revenge is interesting, but a bit far-fetched.
And even the personal connection serves Kelly’s storyline up to a point. We needed something to take Kelly from “Eh, I don’t want to be Captain” to “Okay, I’ll do it because who else?” and into “This is what I want.” And Hopkins works for that. But how well does he work outside of that? What else does he bring to the table that we haven’t seen before? Basically, how much chaos can he cause at the end of the season?
It took a while, but Pascal did end up showing us something. In fact, by the time Pascal departed, we liked his character more than we’d ever liked him. Can Chicago Fire do something of the sort with Chief Hopkins? Does it want to? Honestly, we kind of hope the answer is no, if only because we don’t want him to stick around all that long.
MORE: We didn’t like how Chicago Fire handled the Stellaride pregnancy storyline. But we’re still holding out hope for the future!
Can We Go Back to the Stellaride Baby Thing?
For a season that started with Kelly and Stella losing a baby and then had the fallout from that be very minimal, the end of the season feels like it needs to give us some payoff in this storyline. Otherwise, what was the point of making it a big thing this season? And a big thing last season, too! With all that setup, it’s gotta lead somewhere.
Not to a cliff hanger like last seasons, please. Been there, done that, we didn’t like the ending. But now that Stella and Kelly have more or less talked about it and are on the same page, we need to at least see them making plans, at the very least. Not just vibes. Not just possibilities. How is this storyline moving forward? And what will Kelly and Stella do with the challenges the decision to start a family will cause?
If the show does examine that and doesn’t just make the end of the season about Hopkins’ nonsensical revenge plot, we might have a good story on our hands. Right now, we’re not sure.