Chicago Fire season 7 character review: Emily Foster

What it means

As a brand new character, Chicago Fire fans have to take Foster’s season with a grain of salt, since the writers are still figuring her out just as much as the fans are. Not only that, but they also have to find ways to work in facts about her so that the audience feels like they care about her.

To that end, the season was a mixed bag for Emily Foster. She got a couple of heroic moments so that the audience could embrace her as a valued part of the team, like her emergency surgery and helping Brett with a bus crash in the middle of nowhere. And we met someone from her past, Kyle Sheffield (recurring guest star Teddy Sears), although the show spent less time developing their friendship and more on Kyle starting a romantic relationship with Brett.

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But it felt like Chicago Fire was overemphasizing her sexuality. It’s great that Foster is representing the LGBTQ community; she’s the only main character on any of the One Chicago shows who is LGBTQ. But more than once, the writers kept bringing it up, as if they needed to make sure fans knew her orientation.

Remember the line at the start of one episode where Foster casually mentioned to Brett that she was on a date with a woman Brett presumed to be straight? That had no relevance to the plot and was never mentioned again, but the writers made a point of inserting it and showing us Foster looking kind of proud about it. Her sexuality shouldn’t be used for shock value or as the primary thing that defines her. She has a lot more to offer than that.