‘Chicago Fire’ Boss & Christian Stolte Talk Kidd & Severide’s Shocking Development, Ritter’s Exit, and More

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chicago Fire Season 14 premiere, “Kicking Down Doors.”]

Chicago Fire kicks off its new season with devastating news for Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Severide (Taylor Kinney) in the Wednesday, October 1, premiere, only to end it with a surprising development. It also sets up Ritter’s (Daniel Kyri) exit and introduces 51’s newest firefighter, Vasquez (Brandon Larracuente).

At the beginning of the premiere, Kidd and Severide learn she lost the baby, but they’re surprised to, at the end of it, find their social worker, Terry (Joe Daru), waiting outside 51 to tell them of a teen being removed from a group home with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, Ritter finds out his ex-boyfriend Dwayne (Samuel B. Jackson) was shot on the job in New York — they’ve stayed in touch — and rushes to his hospital bedside. And Truck’s newest member, Vasquez, rubs Kidd the wrong way (like acting without waiting for orders), but Pascal (Dermot Mulroney) tells her he’s not going anywhere. Plus, Mouch (Christian Stolte) is now a lieutenant, but Herrmann (David Eigenberg) reluctantly only agrees to share his office. The premiere also explains Carter (Jake Lockett) and Damon’s (Michael Bradway) absences: The former did leave, and he and Violet (Hanako Greensmith) are giving each other space to move on, while the latter transferred.

Below, showrunner Andrea Newman and star Christian Stolte unpack the premiere.

Why have Kidd lose the pregnancy, another loss for the couple so soon after the failed adoption, and then introduce a new adoption story at the end of the premiere when it seems like they haven’t really had time to fully grieve those previous losses?

Andrea Newman: Yeah, I mean, for us, this is a show about emergencies and first responders and crises, and I think a lot of it was just what can you throw at them and what will happen when you give them [challenges]? But we wanted to keep it real in the sense that there’s no planning perfectly having a family, that there’s just so many things that can go wrong or go in different directions than you expect. And for Kidd and Severide, we set up this kind of beautiful moment of, “Isn’t this perfect?” And Severide was so happy, and Kidd, feeding off that, was so happy. But at the end of the day, looking back, Kidd had a lot of hesitations and concerns about pregnancy and what that would look like for her, how it would change her as a firefighter, all that. So, to throw a wrench in the best laid plans and see how they handle that, Kidd might be feeling a little relieved, and then that would make her feel guilty and terrible. And Severide was going to pick up on that and kind of follow her lead because she experienced a loss, and he wants to respect that, and he did, too. And she’s got to kind of figure out how to navigate his emotional state. And it’s all about having a plan for family and having it not go the way you planned. And maybe your family will end up looking very different than the original starting place, but it’s still a family nonetheless. So, putting our two leads in that position and shaking it all up and seeing what comes out.

Peter Gordon/NBC

Christian Stolte: Also, for you as a writer, the worst possible time for something to happen might be the best possible time for it to happen.

Newman: Exactly right. Yeah, I think that’s true. I think as soon as you start resting back and saying, “Oh, yeah, it’s all in cruise control from here,” is when things should go very, very wrong.

Speaking of losses, the good news is Dwayne is alive, but we do know that Ritter is leaving. So is that playing into his exit? And because Mouch just talked about how he gets to know people and then they leave, how is he going to be dealing with Ritter leaving?

Stolte: Yeah, I thought about that. I thought about how that statement comes before Mouch even knows he’s going to lose Ritter, too.

Newman: That’s a very special relationship, the Mouch [and] Ritter relationship. We really just almost dance around it a little bit in this first episode, but these guys are really tight. I mean, obviously, Mouch pulled Ritter off the banister. That kid was not going to be a firefighter if it hadn’t been for Mouch. There is no doubt that Ritter had lost all confidence; he had lost all sense of purpose in terms of firefighting, and Mouch brought him back to a place where he could be the best firefighter he could be and see himself in a whole new light as a firefighter. And to me, that foreshadowed so many things about Mouch as a leader that we then get to see come up on their feet as we go forward. And obviously from here forward, too.

But for Ritter, there’s been a real pattern of him struggling to find love and then realizing maybe he had it all along. And obviously, that echoes what Violet went through with Carver. So, she’s seeing him go through this and wavering a little bit, do I jump? Do I hang back? What do I do? And she’s like, “You better go and go now, because I had a window with Carver where there was a moment,” and the moment interestingly was not last season. The moment was that finale of the season before, where Carver was open and saying, “Let’s be together.” And she pushed him away, and then he went to Texas and spiraled, and that’s where it went. So, she is calling that moment back for Ritter and saying, “I had a moment, and now’s your moment with Dwayne, so take it, learn from my mistakes, and take that moment.” And so it’s a payoff for both the Mouch relationship with Ritter, the Violet relationship with Ritter, and all of 51 because they want what’s best for him, and they want to see him happy out in the world.

Can you say when his last episode is?

Newman: He’s there at the beginning of the season, and we hope to see him back at some point later in the season. This is what we do on Chicago Fire. We’ll say our goodbyes, and then we’ll see people again. And he’s certainly very much still in the lives of all of us.

Peter Gordon/NBC

Stolte: He was often the voice of reason. He was often the voice of sanity, and a peacemaker and things like that. And so his absence, I think, will have ramifications.

Newman: Absolutely. Yeah. He is the one who, it’s like in siblings, there’s the kid who’s climbing up something and definitely going to fall, and then there’s the sibling that’s on the bottom saying like, “Careful, no, don’t, come down. What are you doing?” Ritter was the sibling keeping things from going haywire, and now he’s not here anymore. What’s going to happen? Oh God.

Pascal clearly knows something about Vasquez. We get the tease at the beginning of the episode, and then he’s very adamant about Kidd keeping him, and he says that this job is his last hope to stay in the CFD, but there’s clearly more to it. What can you say about what’s going on there, and what’s Mouch’s take on this guy, even though he doesn’t want to get to know him?

Newman: Yeah. Well, Pascal, he has some intel, but not all the intel about Vazquez, who’s been on the ropes and had trouble with authority in the past, big trouble with authority. So then he comes in, and Kidd is his new authority figure, and there’s a reason that she’s been picked to be the one to lead him. And it’s because she knows how to manage that kind of personality. We’ve seen her do it before with Damon, and so she has the tools, but I think Vasquez is going to challenge her in a way that she hasn’t been challenged before in terms of leadership. And Pascal, to some degree, is going to — he has a way of respecting Kidd enough to step back and let this happen, let this unfold and evolve as it’s going to. But as it gets more and more fraught, then he may have to step back in. But yeah, it’s going to be a challenge for Kidd and for Vazquez to see how they each affect each other and how Vazquez becomes a member or doesn’t become a member of 51, how it affects him and the 51 family.

Stolte: I think Mouch is glad it’s not his problem, that he’s got other things to focus on now, and that’s Truck business and Truck is no longer my universe.

Newman: But what’s cool for Mouch is you were under Kidd, you worked under her, but now you’re her equal. So to hear you — Today [September 25], we’re filming scenes where it’s like, “How’s it going with Vazquez?” Now you’re at that level, so you can suss out Vazquez and help guide her a little bit and how to manage him.

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Stolte: I like that Mouch and Kidd always found common ground. We’ve never had to butt heads over anything. All of that plays well and makes sense. Oh, I also want to say — this has nothing to do with any question that’s been asked, but I was so pleased that you all decided to make Mouch someone who is A-OK doing the incident reports. I love that.

Newman: You’re a writer. You did Sheets on Fire.

Stolte: That was such a pleasant development. I thought I was going to have to play the, “Oy, incident reports.” He likes it.

Newman: No, you put your own flare on the incident reports.

Stolte: I love it.

Newman: You bring your romance novelist vibes to it.

Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC