What’s next for Stella Kidd in Chicago Fire season 10?

What it means

It’s no surprise that the Chicago Fire writers gave Stella a lot to do in season 9, and that most of it worked out well for her—they were trying to put her in a position to make lieutenant, which would not be effective either for the show or the audience if we didn’t see Stella at her best. It had to be believable that the department would want to promote her, and fans needed to root for her, both of which are hard to do if a character doesn’t distinguish themselves or makes a big mistake.

But season 9 also resolved the two biggest questions that One Chicago viewers had about Stella. We watched her try to work her way up the ladder for two whole seasons, so now that she’s been promoted, what’s the next step of her career? Obviously her job responsibilities are going to change, but how does that actually manifest itself on a weekly basis? Will she start giving out orders to people? Will she branch out into other areas of firefighting?

Especially since she’s had success with Girls on Fire and has such a great personality, it would be no surprise if her new rank came with some community outreach duties—although, to be fair, it also didn’t go well when she was transferred into a different job a few seasons ago!

Stellaride fans have also been clamoring for a proposal, so the only real question there is when the wedding will be. This is, of course, presuming that Severide survives the season 9 cliffhanger—but it would be terribly cruel to have him propose and then kill the character off, so he should live. His latest near-death experience might push the wedding back, but they’ll probably tie the knot by midseason…and then what?