➤ Season 13 ends with big emotions and even bigger questions.
Chicago Fire’s Season 13 finale, “It Had To End This Way,” ends in, perhaps, the biggest surprise out of the three One Chicago shows airing season finales on Wednesday night. Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), who spent the entire season discussing the possibility of starting a family and finally settled on adoption, only to see that possibility ripped from their hands, are going to be parents. Stella is pregnant!
It is both the perfect payoff for the storyline Chicago Fire had set up all season and quite a surprise for fans who were expecting more heartbreak. In fact, the Chicago Fire Season 13 finale is shockingly uplifting considering the episode was meant to write out two characters: Jake Lockett’s Sam Carver and Daniel Kyri’s Darren Ritter. Neither of the two will be returning as series regulars in Season 14, and yet when the episode ended, it somehow seemed unthinkable that the two won’t be back in some capacity.This is especially true of Carver, who told Violet he’s transferring to Denver because he didn’t trust himself to stay sober in Chicago, and yet finished the episode confessing his love to her and passionately kissing her. Where does the show go from here? And can it really go anywhere without Lockett? The show did promise budget cuts were coming for the CFD, so things could look very different next season.
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Someone who didn’t seem to be going anywhere? New Chief Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney), who, despite a rocky start at Firehouse 51, has earned everyone’s respect. This was particularly true of Severide, who put his neck on the line for the Chief and was rewarded with the trust of his boss and a growing friendship that looks like it’s going to be at the center of what the show wants to do going forward.
Leadership, after all, is going to look very different at Firehouse 51 next season after Herrmann’s (David Eigenberg) surprising decision to relinquish his rank and go back to being just a firefighter so his best friend Mouch (Christian Stolte) can have his turn as Lieutenant.
Below, Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman breaks down the Stellaride future, what Firehouse 51 looks like with a baby, Carver’s goodbye that wasn’t, and Herrmann’s monumental decision.
The season ended with a big moment for Stellaride, but before that, we had a lot of Natalie with Kelly, and especially with Stella. What was that storyline about for you? Was it about healing Stella’s inner teenager more than about positioning Natalie as someone they could adopt?
Andrea Newman: Oh, I love it. I love that you said that, because that’s exactly how we looked at it. It’s like she was the kid whose parents weren’t there. And now it’s like, how can she solve these problems? Can she support this girl and give her the love she needs to get her back to a healthy place where she can just be a regular teenager? That is, you know, what Stella’s dream was. And that’s kind of where Aunt Laverne eventually got her. That’s what Aunt Laverne did for her. And it’s what she was able to do, or what she hopes to do for Natalie.
The baby is great news. But logistically, a baby presents some problems. Do you know how you’re going to approach it? How does it change the kind of stories you’re telling with Stella and Kelly going forward?
Newman: We have lots of versions of this. Nothing is set in stone, you know, we’re not in the room yet for Season 14. Nothing is decided. But there are so many ways to go with that. And as we always say, if you think the stakes are high when you’re married and working together, imagine having a baby and being on the same call where both of you could die, and then you’re leaving your baby an orphan. The stakes of everything are super high.
For us, it’s not really about how much we even see the baby. It would be more about how Stella and Kelly interact as a couple, and how being firefighters in this incredibly dangerous job changes for them with a baby. Like their adoption agent said, this is a very risky thing you’re doing here. And you have to take responsibility for that. So, there’s a lot to play in terms of the emotion and the weight, just as firefighters, let alone as a couple.
There are also different dynamics that change with a baby, like the one between Severide and Damon, who is now going to be an uncle.
