‘Chicago Fire’ Scoop: Severide in Danger and Pascal & Mouch’s Challenge

Uh-oh, two of the CFD’s own are in the middle of quite a dangerous situation when Chicago Fire returns on Wednesday, January 7 — how will they get out of it?

That’s for the midseason return to reveal, with Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Van Meter (Tim Hopper) unknowingly trapped with a fire raging below them as they question the target of an arsonist. Meanwhile, just as Pascal (Dermot Mulroney) seems to be moving forward with Annette (Annabeth Gish), she reveals that, thanks to a conversation they had previously, one of the changes coming to the CFD to help with budget cuts is the decommissioning of some rigs — and Mouch’s (Christian Stolte) engine is on the list.

Below, executive producer and director Reza Tabrizi previews the midseason return, which cliffhangers will take longer to resolve, and much more.

Severide and Van Meter have no idea the trouble they’re in when we last see them. What can you tease about how they’re going to get out of it and directing that?

Reza Tabrizi: The way the writers pulled the fall finale together where every storyline had its own cliffhanger was really interesting to basically continue as we get into winter premiere, but the Severide, Van Meter, and Mr. Cole element is obviously something that Severide himself has been in this situation a lot of times where he ends up in a position that he needs to MacGyver his way out of. Now, this time obviously, Van Meter is there, who has experience with fire, but of course, things can’t be that easy. So there’s definitely going to be challenges as far as how they work their way out of danger and how much out of danger is for us to find out.

Peter Gordon/NBC

The logline teases, “When an act of arson harms someone close to the Firehouse 51 family, Severide must track down the perpetrator,” which leads me to think something could happen to Van Meter. Severide’s close to Van Meter, he was in the middle of the danger himself. So, how does that affect how Severide is going about things in the next episode?

Yeah, it’s something that obviously Severide and Van Meder have been getting closer and closer in the last few years, especially since Benny died and then even more so when Boden got promoted and had to leave the firehouse. Severide has found Van Meter to be that next almost father figure type dynamic. And as we’ve seen this season with Isaiah around and Van Meter and Severide having a conversation about fatherhood and all that, there’s even more that they are sharing now, and they can talk about. So it is going to be interesting to see how that dynamic develops coming out of this situation that they’re in now.

Like you mentioned, each storyline had its cliffhanger because there was the matter of the risk of Mouch’s engine being decommissioned amidst the budget cuts. How much do Mouch and Pascal feel that they can do at this point when it comes to that?

How much they feel they can do, I think, to some extent goes out the window compared to how much they will do. There’s obviously a lot of closed doors, but it doesn’t stop them from knocking on the door, and it’s going to be a challenge that they’re going to have to deal with for a few episodes. It’s not a storyline that concludes quickly. It’s a bigger thing with the city, obviously, and how we need to address it. And it’s something that the firehouse obviously as a whole has a feeling about it, and there are the ones closer to Mouch, like Herrmann [David Eigenberg] and Pascal at this point, who feel more responsible to try to address it. So that dynamic is going to be — Mouch is such a loved character for the audience and for us on set, to be honest. Christian Stolte is fantastic, and he’s such a funny guy, so it definitely brings some heart to it as far as what could happen with him and the struggles of trying to challenge that.

Speaking of heart, because Pascal is trying to see if he’s ready to date, it seems like things were on the right track with Annette and then there was that bombshell at the dinner. So how is this affecting their relationship and how he feels about her and moving forward in general? Because he was iffy about whether he was ready to, which was understandable.

Yeah, after losing Monica, it’s not something that you can move on from easily, but finally, it seems like a door has opened for him to maybe want to explore moving on from Monica and obviously, they missed a couple of meetings together between Pascal and Davis, and he made that lovely dinner. And the interesting part to me is, regarding Pascal’s relationship with Davis, as soon as there’s a win, there’s a hammer that drops, which is also the case with Mouch in the same storyline; as soon as basically he’s had a win and he’s coming into his own as far as being a lieutenant, the hammer’s dropping, which is the story of life.

Will Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) be back in Chicago in the midseason return? And how are things going with Isaiah’s (Hero Hunter) mom? Because they do seem to have a good setup now, right?

Yeah, they have a good setup, and obviously anytime Severide’s in danger, Kidd’s going to be there for him and vice versa. So the big cliffhanger, the fire cliffhanger, let’s say, the news makes its way to Cleveland, where Kidd is with Isaiah, and how they’re going to deal with this challenge from far away is going to be interesting to see.

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What’s coming up for Cruz (Joe Minoso)?

Cruz is definitely going to have a bigger part in the second half of the season. He’s had his family elements that he’s been dealing with, but at the same time, he’s the most trusted within the squad by Severide, I would say. So there are times that he is going to have to step up for his department and for his rig, for squad and for his friend, Severide. So those elements are going to definitely come to surface a little bit more.

What else can you preview about what’s coming up when the show returns?

That some of the cliffhangers will be answered quickly and some of the cliffhangers are going to take their time to explore and deal with the reality of what these hammers that drop give us. It’s going to be exciting. We’re picking right back up from where we left off, and there’s a lot to explore.

What about any crossovers, whether it’s a full three-show crossover or just the mini ones that One Chicago does so well?

Yeah, obviously, we have the character crossovers that are happening a little bit more, and there are conversations about crossovers coming up. I think the crossover last season was very successful, so the conversations are there, and we’ll see how we end up dealing with it.

Are there any returning characters coming up?

Well, between the three shows, there’s a pool of a lot of good characters and good actors, so anytime we get the chance to work with them again, it’s something that we explore. So I think there are some conversations about that as well.

How’s Vasquez (Brandon Larracuente) going to handle his dad being out of prison? Because so far, it’s just the shock for him.

And the shock has led to him wanting to step away from being involved with his dad, obviously, in the fall finale, but as we all know, that’s not how it’s going to end up. The challenge was trying to get his dad out of prison and now that he’s spent all that energy and Ray Vasquez is out without his help, Ray Vasquez is not going away, I will say.

Chicago Fire, Midseason Return, Wednesday, January 7, 9/8c, NBC