Chicago Fire season 8 character review: Sylvie Brett

Our prognosis for Sylvie Brett in Chicago Fire season 9

Next season will be a turning point for Brett. The show has wiped away just about everything she had, and that means it needs to figure out what it’s going to replace that with.

Since the departure of Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund), we’ve seen how Brett functions as the Paramedic in Charge. There’s still untapped potential there. With the exception of episodes like “Badlands” we’ve never seen Brett be as assertive as Dawson was. Whatever your feelings about Gabby’s character, she had a command presence and a self-confidence that Brett still lacks a lot of the time.

She deserves to mature and to find that strength in herself, because it’s in there and when she does use it, Kara Killmer gets to put in some wonderful performances. Perhaps with another new teammate to teach, Brett will become more confident.

But she’s also suffered a lot of collateral damage, too. The departures of Raymund, Ilonzeh and even Jon Seda have all affected the Brett character, by removing people close to her. That’s made a consistent history of loss for her that the writers just have to adapt to. How can they turn that around? Maybe she’d feel better about herself if she wasn’t dealing with so much bad news.

It would be fantastic to see Brett make some big decisions when the show returns—maybe it’s trying to further her career like other characters have done, or maybe she finally makes a move on Casey. But season 9 can absolutely be her season if the writers are willing to take some risks with her character.

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