Chicago Fire season 7 midseason report: Kelly Severide

What it means

Something had to fill the void created by the absence of the Dawsey relationship, so it made a lot of sense that Chicago Fire would shift its focus to Severide and Stellaride. After all, Severide is as big a part of the show as Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer), and the writers had spent seasons with the Severide and Stella relationship going back and forth.

But now that it’s here, Stellaride fans might be a little disappointed. Though they’ve had a few cute moments (kissing in full view at the firehouse!) the drama injected into their relationship isn’t quite jibing yet. After making clear how Stella absolutely wasn’t jealous of Anna and Renee Royce, now the show is just flipping that theme the other way around?

It feels like we’ve done this dance before, moreso because Chicago Fire won’t explicitly clarify if he has a reason to be jealous or not. Plus, keep in mind that this wasn’t an issue when Stella was in a relationship with Hazmat Zach last season. So Severide only gets jealous of men who are close to Stella when he’s dating her? That sounds weirdly possessive.

Between that and the death of his father, Severide’s at an odd time in his life. The decision to get rid of Benny, while dramatic and leading to possibly the best episode of the season, might be not so great in the long term. It leaves Kelly with a whole unresolved burden about his dad and how they never made peace, on top of his relationship issues and whatever happens in his career. He has a lot to balance, and can he handle it all?