Chicago Fire season 8 midseason report: Wallace Boden

How has Chicago Fire season 8 gone for Wallace Boden? Before Chicago Fire returns, we’re reviewing the season for Eamonn Walker’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 Christopher Herrmann (Eamonn Walker), starting with:

What’s happened so far

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The first portion of Chicago Fire‘s season has seen Boden in a fatherly role with the Firehouse 51 team, showing how he’s in charge both literally and in terms of being their emotional leader.

Boden shepherded his team through the loss of Otis (Yuri Sardarov); it was his idea to put the memorial for Otis out on the apron to keep their colleague as a permanent part of 51.

He also exerted his authority when Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) was looking to bring in a new recruit to fill the open spot, wanting to make sure that the right person joined the team and they didn’t end up losing someone else.

More recently, Boden has served as a mentor for Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), sending her to a leadership conference and getting her a second job as a fire academy instructor. When all of that proved to be too much for Stella to bear, Boden had a heart-to-heart with her and agreed to relax a bit, while still encouraging her.

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What it means

What we’ve seen from Wallace Boden in the first part of Chicago Fire season 8 is exactly what one would expect from someone in his position. It’s Boden’s job to get his firehouse through the tough times like losing a friend and colleague, and it’s also his job to look out for the future of his house, as well.

Boden was the rock to steer the group through grieving Otis’s loss, and we also saw him making the big decisions, whether it was not wanting to bring on a firefighter that he perceived as reckless with Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) or trying to further Stella’s career. He has to not only think about what’s happening in front of him, but look forward, too.

That’s why he’s the boss in the first place. You don’t make it up to the rank of Battalion Chief if you don’t have the ability to deal with the big-picture situations, and these episodes have reminded us how valuable Boden is to his firehouse.

What’s next

Boden’s arc mentoring Stella appears to be wrapped up for now, since she clearly needs a break from all of her responsibilities. That’s not to say they couldn’t revisit this in the future, but it feels like a storyline that came to a head in the midseason finale.

So what other supervisor-type challenges could be in front of Boden? There’s the usual “one of the firefighters gets in trouble and Boden has to deal with it” storyline, which is one that comes up like once or twice a season. There could be something like Boden keeping a closer eye on Gallo and not seeing eye-to-eye with Casey et al. on how the new recruit is developing.

At least Chicago Fire has avoided more of Boden getting into a fight with somebody above him, as that stuff got old last season. (To be fair, that’s in part because the other One Chicago shows also had similar storylines.) We’ve seen enough of Boden battling the department; he’s more engaging as a character when he’s doing things that are positive and not getting needless grief from other people.

Grading this season of Chicago Fire. dark. Next

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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