Chicago Fire season 8 midseason report: Stella Kidd

What it means

Chicago Fire quickly and clearly established a theme this season of Stella Kidd moving forward in her career and getting recognized for her talent as a firefighter. It’s as if her character is rising into prominence within the show this season, in the way that she became the most important female character last season. And while that’s an admirable idea, it’s a bit head-scratching, too.

What is this all supposed to amount to? Stella getting a promotion wouldn’t make sense, as there aren’t any officer positions open at Firehouse 51. Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) jumped up to the open Lieutenant role last season, and there hasn’t been any mention of other jobs; there probably shouldn’t be, since we’ve already got two Captains and a Lieutenant. Five officers under one roof, when you count Chief Boden, would seem like overkill.

So is Stella going to get a job opportunity somewhere else? That wouldn’t work either, since she can’t leave Firehouse 51 or she wouldn’t be on the show anymore.

That makes it feel like whatever happens with Stella professionally, it doesn’t really matter. She’s limited in what she can do because of the confines of the show. We could be wrong (hopefully we are), but so far this just feels like spinning the character’s wheels. Especially when she doesn’t seem to be that enthused about climbing the professional ladder. When she’s not that interested, it’s hard to ask the audience to be interested.

But hey, at least we haven’t had someone or something try to get in between Stellaride yet again this season.