Chicago Fire season 8 midseason report: Emily Foster

How has Chicago Fire season 8 gone for Emily Foster? Before Chicago Fire returns, we’re reviewing the season for Annie Ilonzeh’s character.

Before Chicago Fire comes back in the new year, we’re taking a moment to pause and look at the current season for each character. What are the important events that fans need to remember?

What plot developments have been good for each character, and which story points need to be improved? And of course, where could they go next when new episodes start in January?

Read through the below as we look at Chicago Fire season 8 as it relates to Emily Foster (Annie Ilonzeh), starting with:

What’s happened so far

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After being introduced last season and thus having a lot of screen time, Foster has faded back into more of a supporting role in season 8, except for the start of the season when fans saw her have to deal with a hopeless new partner.

The only major Foster-centric subplot since then was her having financial problems, and thus becoming the world’s most aggressive spin instructor near the end of the season.

She also had a strong part in “Badlands” as she helped investigate that case, but that was really more of a showcase for Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) with Foster supporting her partner.

Other than that, she’s mostly been there for “girl talk” type subplots (like the ill-fated women’s lounge) and of course, working out in the field.

That’s not surprising, since the show had to give a lot of time to Foster last season in order to introduce her and get the audience behind her. Now that she’s been established, and the show has another new character to promote, she’s not doing as much but that doesn’t mean she’s not still a part of the show. We just haven’t gotten to see a lot of her yet.

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What it means

Chicago Fire season 8 hasn’t had a Foster-centric episode yet, as she supports her colleagues in their stories. Having her work with that new paramedic didn’t really count; it was more comic relief as part of episodes, not an episode that was really focused on Foster. But with plenty of episodes left in the season it’s entirely possible that one is coming up.

Annie Ilonzeh has settled well into the series, and developed a good chemistry with Kara Killmer in a relatively short amount of time, so that’s a plus. We haven’t seen much of her interacting with other people, so that would be an area to look for going forward.

Another positive is that season 8 is not repeatedly bringing up Foster’s sexuality the way that season 7 did; it sometimes came off like that was what the show wanted us to focus on about her. And, as she demonstrated in talking about her family, there’s more about her that’s interesting than just who she may be sleeping with.

What’s next

Perhaps Foster will get more time in the spotlight now that other characters have had some big arcs; the Chicago Fire writers are usually pretty good about rotating characters in and out of the front position.

However much of her we see next, there’s still room for character development. We haven’t seen her develop friendships outside of those with Brett and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), which is fine but comes off like there’s a girls’ clique (the women’s lounge story didn’t help that). There’s a lot of other characters she’d be great playing off of. Why not explore more of those relationships?

Foster has plenty of possibility ahead of her. What about a plot with her and Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende)? Both have reputations for taking crazy risks, so those two working together could be either a brilliant team or a total disaster for Firehouse 51—but it would be watchable!

Next. Grading this season of Chicago Fire. dark

For the latest Chicago Fire season 8 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.

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