Heading into the Chicago Fire season 14 winter premiere, I had a bad feeling that Van Meter could be in grave danger.
While the promo for the winter premiere put a focus on Severide and left fans worried that he could be in real danger, I was never worried about Severide. Yes, he was trapped in the fire, but there was no way the show was going to kill off such a central character. What seemed much more likely was that the show would kill off a secondary character, whose death would have a major impact on Severide: Van Meter.
Going into the premiere, I was certain that Van Meter would be killed off, and my instincts were on the right path. Van Meter and Severide both managed to get out of the fire alive, but Van Meter suffered serious injuries that left him in a medically induced coma, fighting for his life. Things were not looking good for Van Meter as the episode ended and the promo for episode 9, airing January 14, paints a picture that makes fans think he won't pull through. However, that’s precisely why they shouldn’t be worried about the show killing him off.
In the promo for episode 9, we see Severide sitting at Van Meter’s bedside in the hospital with tears in his eyes. The sequence makes it look like perhaps Severide is saying his goodbyes and that Van Meter won’t survive. However, NBC is never one to give away the big twist in its promos.
The One Chicago promos nearly always lead fans to believe one thing, only to pull out a surprising twist. If Van Meter was really not going to pull through, we have a feeling the show wouldn’t overhype the moment by showing multiple shots of a distraught Severide crying alone at his bedside in the hospital.
It’s possible that Van Meter could die, but what is most likely to happen is that the scenes from the promo will come early in the episode. We’re likely to see Severide vowing to get justice for his friend in those tear-filled scenes, and then throwing himself into the case once more. We’ll likely see the killer brought to justice by the end of the episode before Severide gets a call from Med. After fearing the worst, we’ll see Severide arrive at the hospital to be greeted by an awake Van Meter, who will have come out of his medically induced coma and will be expected to make a full recovery.
This is an outcome that would be a fitting conclusion to the storyline, and one that fans would surely appreciate. While we had come to accept that Van Meter might be a goner, we never wanted to see the character leave the show as his mentor relationship is one of our favorite dynamics in the series!