Will Severide be mentioned in the Chicago Fire S11 finale?

Severide (Taylor Kinney) will not be in the Chicago Fire season 11 finale. It’s been confirmed by the showrunners, months after revealing that the character would be taking a leave of absence from the 51 to join an arson investigation program.

While Severide may not be in the episode, the importance he has in the lives of other characters has many fans wondering whether we’ll get an update on his training, or when he plans to be back in the Windy City.

Is Severide going to be in the Chicago Fire finale?

There have been several examples of One Chicago shows making sense of a character’s absence by having other characters talk about them. It’s a tactic that was used to smooth over the exit of Casey (Jesse Spencer) in season 10, and it was recently used to drive a wedge between Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) on Chicago PD.

We’ve even seen it used on Severide this season. While he threw out the idea of entering the arson investigation program, it wasn’t until the following episode, when he was already gone, that another character confirmed his decision. In the episode “Never, Ever Make a Mistake”, Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) mentioned how she missed Severide’s protectiveness after she had to deal with a stalker.

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

"“If Kelly were here, he would tell me that I might have gone too far in bonding with my victim, you know, that there are serious risks in making real connections,” she said. “And he might be right. But I don’t know how to do this job any other way.”"

These are good ways of making the viewer feel as though Severide is still part of the world of the show. Given how crucial season finales are, we can’t help but assume that Kidd will either give an update on Severide’s return date, or receive a call/message from him on how things are going. We know the couple have been communicating offscreen, but it would be nice to see it actually play out via phone call or text.

Given how bummed fans were over the news that Severide would be missing the finale, the writers will almost certainly make reference to him as a means of quelling our concern.

For the latest Chicago Fire season 11 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.