Chicago Fire Season 14 has barely just begun, and it’s already dropping bombshells left and right.
Let’s start with the big #Stellaride twist — well, one of them, that is. Last we saw Stella Kidd and Kelly Severide, they were celebrating an unexpected pregnancy. But Wednesday’s premiere begins with the couple receiving shocking news: Stella lost the baby.
Though Severide tells her they’ll get through it together, showrunner Andrea Newman tells TVLine the news presents a “messy” beginning for the couple, given their different reactions.
“When [Stella] realizes that she is not pregnant anymore, there is a measure of relief, I think for her, and that creates all sort of guilt,” Newman says. Severide, meanwhile, is crushed to learn he won’t become a father, so the pair feels as distant as ever.
To complicate things, Stella is facing a professional challenge: New firefighter Sal Vasquez has joined her team and brought his bad attitude along with him. His insubordination is so appalling that Stella urges Pascal to remove him from Firehouse 51. But the Chief says it’s Vasquez’s last chance to stay in the CFD, and that he needs that to happen — why that is remains a mystery.
Elsewhere, Herrmann refuses to leave the Officer’s Quarters, which should now house Lt. Mouch, creating awkwardness among the unit. Mouch isn’t pushing the matter, even though his team encourages him to “lay down the law.” But how much time does Herrmann need to come to terms with his Season 13 decision to step down as lieutenant in order to hand over the position to Mouch? Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte says Mouch will eventually have to face this awkwardness directly.
“[Mouch] could’ve been an officer on a different shift or a different house, but the only reason I get to do it right here completely in my comfort zone is because of the sacrifice [Herrmann] made, so I owe him,” Stolte shares. “There’s no denying that I owe him, but what do I owe him? For how long? Is this an eternal sort of weird open-ended jailhouse obligation? At some point, it has to be resolved enough that I can carry on and focus on the job.”
For now, the two agree on a “time-share” approach to the quarters, splitting things equally between them. (As if that’s going to work out!)
The premiere also introduces Ritter’s departure — he jets off to New York to be with Dwayne after a gunshot wound lands him in the hospital — and the CFD layoffs that Newman has been teasing for a while. The city’s budget is completely underwater, and has to conserve resources by implementing brownouts and reductions. Pascal tells his team their runs will be longer, and shifts will be busier.
Amid all that chaos, the Chicago Fire bosses just couldn’t help but end the premiere with one more #Stellaride twist. Remember Terry from the adoption agency? Well, remembering that Stella and Severide were interested in adopting Natalie in Season 13, Terry returns with an urgent proposition: He needs someone to take in a teenager set to be removed from his group home.
The timing feels perfect, and Newman said this storyline was “built in from the start.” She said Stella’s own history as an orphaned teenager, her involvement with mentoring girls and her recent history with Natalie have laid the foundation for an adoption all along.
Though neither Stella nor Severide officially respond to Terry’s request, Newman practically confirmed their upcoming parental journey: “They had an idea of what their family was gonna be, and now it’s gonna look a little different, but it’s a family nonetheless.”
