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Chicago Fire season 7 midseason report card: What worked, what didn’t?

By Brittany Frederick

CHICAGO FIRE -- "The Solution to Everything" Episode 708 -- Pictured: (l-r) Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide, Christian Stolte as Mouch, Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd -- (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC)
CHICAGO FIRE -- "The Solution to Everything" Episode 708 -- Pictured: (l-r) Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide, Christian Stolte as Mouch, Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd -- (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC) /
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CHICAGO FIRE — “What Will Define You” Episode 707 — Pictured: Christian Stolte as Randy “Mouch” McHolland — (Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC) /

What didn’t work

It’s no surprise that Dawsey left a big hole in Chicago Fire, which the show has filled with the new Stellaride ship that started last season. But things have played out awkwardly so far. First, it was putting Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) in another life-threatening situation—which felt a little bit repetitive since she’d been almost shot the previous season.

Then the recent situation with Stella, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Tyler (recurring guest star Tye White) is a mess. Is it a love triangle or isn’t it? Is it ironic that Severide has all these jealousy issues about Stella’s friend when he’s got a list of exes a mile long, two of which she’s had to see him with? Whatever it is, it’s muddled and needs to get wrapped up pronto.

The handling of Dawson’s exit was a bit awkward, but you can’t ding this season for that because it was set up by last season’s finale, and Derek Haas has been honest about how that got messed up. What’s been a problem for Chicago Fire season 7 is the idea of putting her ex-husband into a relationship so soon after she left.

It comes off just like what happened to Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) on Chicago PD: rushing into a new relationship without much time for the character, or the audience, to mourn the old one. It would’ve been better to just let characters be single for a while and let their next love interest be one that develops organically.

And while there’s an explanation now for Benny Severide’s (Treat Williams) death, we’re still not sure it was absolutely necessary. We understand where the writers were coming from, but it may be something that the show winds up regretting. At least we got to have Severide’s sister Katie come back finally!

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