Chicago Fire season 7 midseason report: Wallace Boden

What it means

Boden’s storyline in Chicago Fire season 7 has played out pretty much as One Chicago fans had expected, given how last season ended. As soon as Grissom was elected as the Fire Commissioner everyone knew it was going to make Boden’s life difficult—the only difference has been how the show has approached it.

Ideally, this would have been a back and forth slugfest between Boden and Grissom. But because Gary Cole was unavailable to reprise his role during the first part of this season, the writers had to find another antagonist for Boden. Hence the Gorsch character; Steven Boyer did exactly what he needed to do—but he was almost too annoying because Gorsch was never more than a thorn in Boden’s side. (The crossover, where he stood around literally doing nothing in a huge crisis, was the epitome of being a caricature.)

Eamonn Walker was grace under pressure this season, once again demonstrating why Boden is so beloved by so many people. It’s hard to come up with a character who really shakes Boden, since Walker has so much strength. But he needs a bigger challenge, and luckily he should get one in the rest of this season since Grissom will return in the future.

And how will this all play out? What does Boden ultimately want? Last season he got his boat and started talking about things outside of work—but unlike other characters there’s not other places the writers can take him. He can’t be promoted (well, not if he wants to stay on the show). So how can this storyline feel fresh without upending Boden’s entire world? That’s the big question.