Chicago Fire: What is Jason Pelham’s backstory?

Jason Pelham (Brett Dalton) is becoming more and more of an enigma. The 51 newcomer has not had the easiest time taking over the role of Lieutenant from Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer), especially when it was discovered that he has some blemishes on his past career.

During the episode “What Happened at Whiskey Point”, it was revealed that Pelham had not been a popular firefighter at the stations he worked at previously. This played into the suspicions that Mouch (Christian Stolte) and Herrmann (David Eigenberg) had been harboring since Pelham’s arrival.

Here’s what you need to know about Pelham’s backstory and what it means for his future.

Is Jason Pelham leaving Chicago Fire?

It was the aforementioned duo of Mouch and Herrman who first raised a concern about Pelham. They told Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) that Pelham had worked at six stations in the past two years, which suggests that the firefighter has a hard time fitting in. Boden took stock of what the duo had to say, and looked into Pelham’s record privately.

Later in the episode, he called Pelham into his office and confronted him regarding his past. He pointed out that not only had Pelham moved around to a suspiciously large degree, but that he has multiple suspensions from different firehouses.

Pelham refused to explain the suspensions. He asserts that he would love nothing more than to stay at 51 and work alongside Severide (Taylor Kinney) and the rest of the squad, but he storms out of the office without so much as an excuse.

Is Brett Dalton leaving Chicago Fire?

Towards the end of “What Happened at Whiskey Point”, its discovered that Pelham was booted off his first fire station because he punched his commanding officer in the face. Once more, there was no reason given, but the commanding officer resigned from the station a week later. The incident took place at the titular Whiskey Point station.

Boden tries to get to the bottom of what happened, but the 51 gets a call, meaning the episode ends with the cause of Pelham’s outburst still unknown. We can ascertain that the cause of the fight was the commanding officer, since he was the one who resigned.

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Fans have also gotten to known Pelham over the last few episodes, and while he may be a strict commander (Gallo can attest to that), he’s proven himself to be an honest and heroic firefighter.

Showrunner has already confirmed that Pelham’s stint with the 51 will be brief, and likely serve as a transitional period in Chicago Fire history. Given the cliffhanger arc his character has been given, it’s safe to assume that his checkered past will be his ultimate undoing.

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