Chicago Fire season 9 character preview: Matthew Casey

What should happen

Casey needs to figure out what he wants. Or rather, the Chicago Fire writers need to figure out what Casey wants, because his love life has been going around in circles since Monica Raymund’s decision to leave the series also left Casey without his wife. What was an opportunity for him to grow as an individual has become a guessing game as to who he’s going to date next.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a romantic relationship between Casey and Brett. The fact that she was good friends with his ex-wife is a bit awkward, but the show doesn’t seem to see it as a major issue. It had the chance to address it when Dawson returned in “Best Friend Magic” and we didn’t even get a significant scene between Brett and Dawson about anything. There’s no big red flag that would prevent them from getting together, so season 9 either needs to do that or explain why it isn’t and move on.

Casey has much more to offer than whatever his romantic relationship is, or isn’t. He’s still the second highest-ranking officer at Firehouse 51 and he’s also the firehouse’s emotional leader. It should be time to explore new storylines for him that aren’t his love life, almost killing him, or his arguing with Severide about something.