As Chicago Fire season 13 came to a close, Violet decided to finally come clean to Carver about her feelings by leaving him the letter she had written while he was in rehab. At first, Carver didn’t respond in the way Violet had hoped he would, and we found out that part of this stemmed from the letter arriving at an unfortunate time.
We came to find out that prior to Violet leaving the letter for Carver, he applied for a job at the Denver Fire Department in hopes of getting a new start. As he told Violet, he realized that he needed a change of scenery in order to help him maintain his sobriety. The news shook Violet, but she was supportive as always, telling him that she hopes he finds what he needs there. It seemed like that was that, until Carver showed up at her home as the episode came to a close, where they shared a passionate kiss as he told her that he loved her, too.
Under normal circumstances, this moment would be cause for celebration. However, these are not normal circumstances.
Before the finale, word broke that Jake Lockett, who has played Carver on the show since season 11, would be leaving the show. This means that while Carver and Violet might have finally confessed their feelings for each other, they’re not going to have a future together on the show. While Carver and Violet might have expressed their feelings for one another by exchanging I love yous after a passionate kiss, it sadly seems that a long-distance relationship is not in the cards for the pair.
Following the season finale, Chicago Fire showrunner Andrea Newman hinted to TVLine that the show will not be bringing fans another Brett and Casey long-distance relationship storyline. Instead, it seems the pair won’t be getting a happy ending as Carver looks to get his clean slate out of Chicago.
“Those are really hard to do,” Newman explained when asked about an off-screen long-distance relationship for the pair. “There’s always the possibility they’ll try that, but I don’t know if that helps him, if what he’s really trying to do is get away from the space where he fell apart and started to spiral, if getting in a relationship with somebody who was all part of that is in the cards. I’m not sure.”
Honestly, as much as we hate to admit it, a long-distance relationship really doesn’t make sense here, given that we know Jake Lockett is leaving the show, while there don’t seem to be any plans for Hanako Greensmith to exit the series. This doesn’t mean we like the idea of Carver and Violet finally confessing their feelings for each other only to go their separate ways, but that’s life. Sometimes things just don’t work out how we hope they will.
Let’s not forget, this isn’t the writers’ fault. Unfortunately, Lockett’s exit is connected to budget cuts, and news of his exit came late in the season. It’s likely the writers had one thing planned but now will have to pivot due to Lockett’s departure, and because the news came so late in the season, there likely wasn’t much the writers could have done to change course so late in the game. Fortunately, they seem to have had enough foresight to lay the foundation for Carver’s exit before the season ended. We’ll just have to wait to see where things go when Chicago Fire season 14 arrives this fall to see whether the finale was indeed Carver’s final appearance.
Regardless of whether we’ll see Carver in season 14 or not, the one thing that seems certain is that he and Violet will be going their separate ways.