Chicago Fire season 7 character preview: Matthew Casey

Where we left off

Casey had a previous season of professional success mixed with personal surprises. Things got off to a pretty good start when he was offered a surprise promotion to Captain—surprising not only to him, but because Chicago Fire has a history of finding ways for its characters not to get career opportunities.

Being a “white shirt” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, though. Casey struggled with the various new aspects of his role, causing tension with Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and prompting him to lean on Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) for advice. Eventually, the team got used to Captain Casey, and Casey himself seemed to relax and get used to his new job description.

On the personal front, his marriage was as passionate as it had ever been, but hit its fair share of speed bumps. The major issue was family, in various forms. Casey worried about Dawson getting too close to Bria (recurring guest star Quinn Cooke), a teenager whom she had spotted at a call out and subsequently tried to help.

Dawson, in turn, butted heads with her husband about starting a family of their own. Casey didn’t want them to try for another pregnancy when he discovered that doing so could put Dawson’s life at risk, and went so far as to visit an adoption agency without her. That infuriated Dawson, whose response was to ask about a job in Puerto Rico—without him. Ouch.