[Spoiler] May Be Gone from Firehouse 51, But Is This Really Their Final Goodbye on Chicago Fire?
Warning, the following post contains spoilers from the third episode of Chicago Fire. If you haven’t yet watched the episode, this is a good time to bounce before we get into the spoiler at the heart of this post.
Heading into Chicago Fire season 13 episode 3, we knew that someone was in danger of being let go at 51. The promo for the episode made it clear that Chief Pascal was going to be parting ways with someone at 51, but the identity of who would be leaving 51 remained very much up on the air as NBC made it hard to know exactly who would land on the chopping block.
For most of the episode, it looked like Chief Pascal had it out for Kidd as he seemed to question her leadership and again harked on the turnover on her rig. He was very dismissive of her initial concerns about Damon and it wasn’t looking good when he told Mouch he should be prepared to take the lieutenant exa, as “you never know” when a position would open at 51.
Mouch being the loyal friend that he is, went to bat for Kidd and urged him to take a look into Kidd’s records at 51 which speaks for itself, and also made sure to pass along records about the turnovers to make sure he has the full context on the numbers.
After taking things into consideration, it was Damon who was dismissed from 51 as Pascal put him back into the floater pool per Kidd’s request. Damon lashes out at Severide for abandoning him in his time of need and says he’s exactly like Benny as he storms out.
With Damon having been dismissed, it seems his time at 51 has come to an end and his relationship with Severide is definitely on the rocks, but is that truly the last we’ve seen of Damon on Chicago Fire?
NBC hasn’t confirmed whether Damon is leaving, but he needs to stick around!
Following the episode, one could assume that perhaps Michael Bradway’s time on Chicago Fire has come to a close and that the character will be written off. This could very well become the case, but at this time NBC has not announced Bradway’s departure from the show and we hope there is a reason for this.
While Damon might be done at 51, his dismal from 51 shouldn’t be the end of his story.
It’s clear this is going to create a divide between him and Severide, and that’s okay! Brothers fight and this storyline gives the show the chance to explore what their dynamic looks like when Severide isn’t going above and beyond trying to make up for lost time by looking the other way. They’ve both hurt each other in unique ways with Damon feeling like Severide didn’t have his back, and Damon calling Severide Benny is sure to hit him given the rocky relationship he had with Benny.
We don’t expect the two will patch things up overnight, but the show needs to follow through and allow us the chance to see them build a relationship outside 51 and work through the issues.
Not working together could be best for them all, even if Damon doesn’t see it now, and we’d hope the show will find a way to keep him around in the meantime as he goes on this arc. Perhaps his path crosses with 51 on a call after he finds placement elsewhere in the CFD, or maybe we simply get glimpses of his character outside of work.
Time away could allow Damon to mature a bit and set the stage for him to eventually return to 51 down the line after he’s gotten more experience under his belt, and when he’s no longer trying to impress Severide as he becomes more sure in their relationship outside of work.
It feels like we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of this storyline and there is still a lot to unpack, so we hope this isn’t truly goodbye for Damon. However, only time will tell, as to whether this is really the end of his time on the show.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC and streaming on Peacock!
