Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) made a big decision on the Chicago Fire episode "Relief Cut." The couple have been flirting with the idea of having kids, and they decided to do so in the episode's final scene.
Kidd is hesitant to get pregnant, though. The character asked whether Severide would be open to adopting instead, and in a very sweet moment, he agreed. Kidd was taken in by her aunt and uncle after her parents died, so the parallel is very touching. The thing is, we've seen this storyline before. We've seen it a lot, actually.
Stellaride is going
Chicago Fire has subjected fans to several adoptions over the years. In fact, it's harder to find a couple on the show that didn't adopt, than one that did. Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) basically went the adoption route twice during his time at Firehouse 51. He adopted a son with Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund), then became the guardian for the Darden boys.
His current wife, Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer), was given up for adoption as a kid, and subsequently adopted a child of her own before she moved to Seattle with Casey. All together, they have three adopted kids. Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) has a biological child with his wife, but he also decided to go adopt Javi, who we have seen far more often.
There's nothing wrong with adoption as a storyline, and one could convincingly argue that the Fire writers have done a good job of setting up an emotional reason as to why the characters chose to go the adoption route each time. The flip side, though, is that adoption is starting to become predictable.
Stella Kidd's hesitance to have children stemmed from her reluctance to miss that much of her work. Plus, being pregnant on the job posed a series of difficulties and restrictions. It's not something the show had ever explored before, and frankly, it could have made for lots of interesting conflicts.
Kidd opting for adoption is an effective way to keep the character around, and on the job, but it also means we're going to see Stellaride go through the same story beats we've seen several of the other couples go through on Chicago Fire. We will enjoy it, but it's starting to become a narrative crutch in the writers room, rather than a clever twist.
Are you excited for another adoption storyline? Are we being too harsh?