Chicago Fire elected Carl Grissom the new Fire Commissioner, but here’s why Gary Cole’s character will be a terrible boss in Chicago Fire season 7.
The latest season of Chicago Fire ended with a sucker punch, when the season finale revealed that Chief Carl Grissom (recurring guest star Gary Cole) was the new Chicago Fire Department Commissioner.
Since that’s where the season ended, it stands to reason that Chicago Fire season 7 will begin with Grissom now in charge of the entire fire department. And frankly, the idea of that scares and frustrates us.
Grissom was introduced in the sixth season as a friend and mentor from Kelly Severide’s (Taylor Kinney) past, but we quickly found a plethora of reasons to dislike him. Whether it was trying to push Severide up the career ladder or that big reveal at the end of the season, he’s demonstrated that he’s more trouble than he’s worth—if he’s even worth that much.
Now he’s the boss of not just Firehouse 51, but the whole CFD, and that is a frightening prospect indeed. If you thought Deputy Chief Anderson was bad, Carl Grissom has more power and he’s a lot worse.
Click through the below slideshow for the five reasons we believe Chief Grissom is going to be a terrible Fire Commissioner during Chicago Fire season 7, and let us know if you’re cringing at the idea as much as we are in the comments.
5. The show wants him to be bad
Let’s get the most obvious strike against Carl Grissom out of the way first: he’s going to be a bad boss because that’s what Chicago Fire wants him to be.
The show has zero inclination to make him anything else. He was introduced this season as a foil for our heroes, and only got worse as the season went along. The writers aren’t suddenly going to change their tune and say he had an epiphany between seasons and now he’s a shining example of public administration.
That’s not how TV works. If Grissom suddenly became an upstanding character, there would be no tension and no drama for Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) or any of the other characters as they interact with him. Having characters all get along is great in principle, but it’s much less fun to write. And if there’s one thing we know about Chicago Fire, it’s that the show loves drama.
It’s not going to spend a large portion of the season making Grissom into this thorn in Boden’s side and then waste the opportunity. Grissom is going to be a terrible Fire Commissioner because he’s been written as a terrible person, and there’s no reason to think that’s going to change in Chicago Fire season 7.
4. He’s a liar and a cheater
Do you remember how Chicago Fire season 6 ended, before that Dawson cliffhanger? It involved Otis (Yuri Sardarov) uncovering that Carl Grissom had falsified his records for years in order to make himself look better with the department supervisors. And it worked, too, because Grissom nabbed the top job just before Otis and Boden could take their evidence to the bosses.
So we know for a fact that Grissom is a liar, and that he’s willing to cheat to get ahead. Not only that, but he’s been lying and scheming for a darn long time, so this is clearly something that’s part of his modus operandi. It’s not that his moral compass is misguided; we’re willing to bet that he doesn’t even have one. And if he’ll lie on his paperwork, what else will he lie about or manipulate now that he’s got even more power with which to manipulate?
Look no further than the episode “The Strongest Among Us” when Grissom went out of his way to make it look like Boden and Severide hadn’t immediately reported a monetary gift they were unexpectedly given for rescuing a man’s son. Grissom wanted it to look like a bribe and he almost succeeded. That was what he did then; how much more will he get away with now that there’s no one to keep him in check?
Our only saving grace is that you figure Chicago Fire season 7 will expose his paperwork issues eventually (or otherwise why introduce the fraud). But we’re willing to be that won’t be all Grissom gets away with next season.
3. He can’t make up his mind
As Chicago Fire has told us time and time again, being a leader requires the ability to make quick decisions and stand by those decisions. Carl Grissom may now be the leader of the city’s whole first department, but he waffles more than a Waffle House.
First he was going to retire and wanted Boden to take his position when he left. Then he wasn’t going to leave after all. And then he decided to not only stay in the department, but move up and challenge for Fire Commissioner.
First he came in wanting Kelly Severide to likewise look at moving up the ranks, because he cared so much about Severide and his future within the department. Then when Severide rebuffed the idea, suddenly Grissom turned against him.
Grissom’s mood, and what he wants to do, seems to change on a dime. That’s a terrible quality in anyone with authority, but even moreso when you’re the person at the top of the organizational chart.
He has to make some of the biggest decisions in the Chicago Fire Department. What’s going to happen if he changes his mind? Or he comes in and decides he’s ticked at someone? He’s totally unstable, and that’s dangerous when he’s the new man in charge.
2. His loyalty is fleeting
To take a page out of the book of Chicago PD, while a character in One Chicago can have some questionable morals but still be successful (we’re looking at you, Hank Voight), characters without loyalty are paper tigers. And Carl Grissom doesn’t seem to have any loyalty, and he certainly isn’t going to get any from our heroes.
Yes, he has a longstanding relationship with both Severide and his father Benny Severide (Treat Williams), and he was influential in Severide’s career at some point—maybe sometime in the past he was a kinder, gentler Grissom. But that man obviously does not exist now.
As we mentioned in the last slide, Grissom easily turned on Severide when Severide decided that he didn’t want to follow Grissom’s advice, and even moreso when Severide backed Boden for the commissioner’s job. If that’s any example of how he treats friends and colleagues, everyone is only good to him for as long as they’re good to him.
He’s not that loyal, and there’s no way anyone at Firehouse 51 is going to be loyal to him now that they know how he’s falsified all those records and how he’s acted around them this past season. It is a huge problem, because how can you be the head honcho of any organization when the people underneath don’t trust you as far as they can throw you?
1. He’s in the job for the wrong reasons
The biggest reason that we’re scared of Carl Grissom as Chicago Fire‘s new Fire Commissioner is because he’s now running the department for the entirely wrong reasons. He’s doing this wrong and that’s terrifying when he’s the one in charge.
Grissom isn’t where he is because he wants to serve the community and make the department better. He was ready to retire and ride off into the sunset until he got an adrenaline rush from his helping Severide on a rescue. Falsifying those records shows that he’s driven by ambition, too. So as far as we can tell, his single biggest motivation is himself.
He wants to be a hero, but not to save people; his satisfaction is in what it gives him. He wants to look good; hence why he’s making his house look better than it was. Even when he was trying to help Severide move up, it was his whole idea. Everything he’s ever said or done on Chicago Fire is pointing toward a man who’s self-obsessed.
But this job is bigger than one person. It’s about running a whole department, and keeping the whole city of Chicago safe. As we’ve seen on this show for years, firefighting requires you to be utterly selfless, risking your life every day and devoting it to other people. Grissom is the complete opposite, and because of that, we’re afraid he’s going to run the department into the ground.
Let’s hope someone stops him in Chicago Fire season 7 and stops him quickly, because he could do an awful lot of damage and he won’t care about any of it as long as he comes out on top.
Next: Can Chicago Fire's firefighters ever advance?
How concerned are you about Chief Grissom being the new boss in Chicago Fire season 7? How long do you think he’ll last? Give us your thoughts on his character in the comments.
Chicago Fire returns to NBC on Sept. 26.