Season 12 Episode 11. “Inside Man,” airs on NBC tonight.
In Chicago Fire Season 12 Episode 11, “Inside Man,” the show changes its tone as Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) goes missing with one of the rigs. In a storyline resembling Die Hard, the rest of the firehouse springs into action to find him and the assailants, but he won’t feign distress. It would be nice to be saved, but Severide is not someone to sit around and wait. Showrunner Andrea Newman talked to TV Line about this storyline, and she opened up about how it came to be and why they decided to tie that to Severide. As shown in the episode’s promo, Severide is taken on an unusual ride when intruders break into the firehouse in the middle of the night and steal the Engine. Matters escalate when he must show himself, putting his own life at risk.
Newman opened up about why it was time to give Severide a thrilling storyline. She revised some facts about Severide’s current life where he’s stuck in OFI investigations or pushing paper behind the desk. Severide and Kinney live for action. She talked about that, saying:
“Severide has been trapped behind a desk lately, covering the firehouse for Boden , doing paperwork, etc., and it felt like, in some ways, he was a caged animal ready to break out and go tear some stuff apart. And that’s pretty much what he does in this episode!”
Right off the bat, the episode has a different feel to it. Most events in the episode happen during the day, but occasionally, we catch a glimpse into the night shift. Some scenes have taken place in the bunks, but we rarely see the whole firehouse prepare to go to bed. Newman talked about how that came to be, saying:
“I’m so glad you noticed that about all of them getting ready for bed! We were trying to remember if we’ve ever even seen that on the show before. Our amazing writer, Matt Whitney , wrote this one (it’s based on a real event!), and we were excited about giving Severide his own action/thriller episode and watching the impact it has on Kidd and 51 at the same time.”
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Ritter (Daniel Kyri) overheard an intriguing phone call revealing some nefarious plan Damon (Michael Bradway) has. The episode’s title teases an inside man who helps the intruders steal the rig, and given Damon’s consistently odd behavior coupled with the fact that much about him is unknown, he might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Newman was hesitant to talk about that, but teased some development for the character once his secret is out. She spoke of Ritter learning the secret, saying, “Damon is now on Ritter’s radar in a big way, and Ritter has to make some decisions. The fallout of those decisions will definitely peel back layers on Damon’s character.”
The episode will challenge Kinney a lot, given the amount of physical work he has to do. When asked about how he reacted, Newman said: “Taylor is so game for this kind of thing. He loves the action and is a very physical guy. All our cast regularly trains with real firefighters, and Taylor loves that kind of work. As soon as the idea of a Die Hard episode for Severide came up in the writers’ room, we knew he’d slay it.”
