Chicago Fire season 8 character preview: Christopher Herrmann

What should happen

First of all, Chicago Fire season 8 absolutely cannot include Christopher Herrmann’s death. Of the secondary characters on the show, Herrmann is the most valuable. David Eigenberg not only gives some of the best comic relief, but his character’s more vulnerable side also provides some of the show’s more poignant moments. We need him around.

So let’s assume that Herrmann makes it through the blaze in one piece. He should have something to do right off the bat. Either he’s about to lose his protege, or if he doesn’t, he’s going to be really annoyed with Ritter for defying a direct order to leave him there. So he’ll either be grieving, or need to put the new guy in his place—something that he’s great at.

Once the fallout from the premiere cliffhanger is all said and done, there’s still a lot to mine in the Herrmann becoming a Lieutenant storyline. It was played largely for laughs last season, but there should be some drama in it, too. He’s wanted the bump up in authority, but he’s also not great in dealing with the stuff that comes with authority (i.e. office politics, annoying bureaucrats, doing paperwork).

He may not enjoy the job that much once the shine wears off, or he could run into a situation that he doesn’t know how to handle. But there could be things to explore here that we didn’t quite get into when Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) was promoted to Captain. Let’s use Herrmann to push further into the corridors of power, and watch his hilarious reactions.