Chicago Fire’s Season 12 saw the return of Taylor Kinney from his hiatus at the end of Season 11, which fans were thrilled about. It also saw the departure of two fan favorites — Kara Killmer, whose character Sylvie Brett married Matt Casey and moved to Portland, and Eamonn Walker, whose character Wallace Boden was appointed to a higher level position, making it impossible for him to stay at Firehouse 51 any longer.
Though audiences didn’t see Chloe until Season 12, Episode 12, “Under Pressure,” she is a topic of conversation for Joe and Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) throughout the season. Cruz reveals to Herrmann that he’s been taking fewer shifts because Chloe has been traveling for work and wanted him to spend more time at home, and that they’re talking about couples therapy. Herrmann tells him to do the therapy to keep his marriage, and Joe does, but things come to a head in “Under Pressure” when Joe is taken to the hospital after collapsing at the scene of a fire. Though he’s completely fine, the hospital trip scares Chloe, who finally admits that she’s been struggling with the risks he takes at work and has been pulling away from Joe and the firehouse.
Though some fans found their relationship problems plausible, many struggled with the episode because of the return of Chloe’s old fear that had seemingly been resolved before they got married. The episode promo led fans to believe that Cruz might be leaving, which certainly didn’t help, nor did so many of Chloe and Joe’s relationship problems happening off-screen. Perhaps if fans had seen Joe and Chloe having trouble at home or even attending couples therapy, it would have felt different, but instead, their marital strife felt abstract and unnecessary, and centering an episode around it felt forced. Joe and Chloe have long been solid as a couple, and fans didn’t want the writers to do anything to change that.
