Chicago Fire season 8 character review: Stella Kidd

What it means

Firstly, it’s great to see Stella get through an extended period of time without any Stellaride drama. The last few seasons have usually thrown some wrench in their relationship, whether it’s one of them getting injured so the other one can worry, someone’s ex showing up, or some other issue. Whether you’re a Stellaride shipper or not, it’s just refreshing to see Chicago Fire steer clear of that for a season.

However, her storyline wasn’t perfect either. It felt a little iffy that Stella was the shining star in a whole conference full of firefighters that outranked her, and that after she overextended herself by taking on one side gig, she jumped into another one. Of course, teaching an academy course is much more work than wrangling some high schoolers, but it still felt just slightly like deja vu.

If you overlook those few details, it’s one of the better seasons for any Chicago Fire character (or One Chicago character, for that matter). Stella avoided major injury or massive tragedy, while she also started to build up her professional resume and was happy in her relationship.

But happy characters don’t typically make for good TV drama, so all of this just prompts us to ask what Derek Haas and company will do with her in season 9. Watching her teach kids is fine for a half-season arc but it’s not going to hold viewers’ interest for next season. Could a promotion be on her horizon? Or is there renewed trouble ahead once the show returns?