Before Chicago Fire season 14 premiered, fans of the long-running One Chicago series were given reasons to be excited. For example, it was announced that the show would feature a new bad boy character who is portrayed by a talented young actor. If that wasn't enough, it was also revealed that Chicago Fire and Chicago Med would have several mini crossovers during the 2025-2026 TV season.
As awesome as those revelations were, there is no doubt that many Chicago Fire fans were most excited by the news that Stella Kidd and Kelly Severide received at the end of the show's 13th season. Then, Chicago Fire's 14th season premiere introduced a twist that fans didn't see coming that was just plain cruel to the characters and many of the show's viewers alike.
Chicago Fire's season 14 premiere played a cruel trick on viewers
After the finale for Chicago Fire season 13, fans of the show celebrated what appeared to be wonderful news. After Stella Kidd and Kelly Severide had previously faced setbacks in their attempt to become parents, they learned that she was carrying his baby. However, the first minute of Chicago Fire season 14 revealed that there had been a mistake and Kidd had never been pregnant at all. This was a truly cruel twist for two reasons.
The first reason the twist went too far is that having Severide and Kidd suffer so much heartbreak just feels mean to the characters and the fans who love them. After all, the couple had already gone through a failed adoption attempt that forced them to suffer a lot. On top of that, there is no denying that being firefighters is a job that inherently causes emotional strife, which is something Kidd and Severide have gone through enough of.
More importantly, Chicago Fire's twist is cruel because it would have made many unsuspecting viewers deal with the emotional turmoil of being reminded of their real-life pain. Tragically, struggling to have a baby is an emotionally devastating situation that a lot of couples go through while feeling alone. For many of those people, Chicago Fire's season 14 twist could make them re-experience some of the heart-wrenching pain they'd already felt for real. That is especially the case because the twist pulled the rug out on viewers with virtually no buildup.
Given how harsh the Chicago Fire season 14 bait and switch was, that begs an obvious question. Why did the show introduce such a cruel twist? While speaking to TV Insider in October 2025, Chicago Fire's showrunner Andrea Newman explained why the show introduced the stunning twist.
"We wanted to keep it real in the sense that there’s no planning perfectly having a family, that there’s just so many things that can go wrong or go in different directions than you expect. And for Kidd and Severide, we set up this kind of beautiful moment of, “Isn’t this perfect?” And Severide was so happy, and Kidd, feeding off that, was so happy. But at the end of the day, looking back, Kidd had a lot of hesitations and concerns about pregnancy and what that would look like for her, how it would change her as a firefighter, all that. "
"So, to throw a wrench in the best laid plans and see how they handle that, Kidd might be feeling a little relieved, and then that would make her feel guilty and terrible. And Severide was going to pick up on that and kind of follow her lead because she experienced a loss, and he wants to respect that, and he did, too. And she’s got to kind of figure out how to navigate his emotional state," Newman continued. "And it’s all about having a plan for family and having it not go the way you planned. And maybe your family will end up looking very different than the original starting place, but it’s still a family nonetheless. So, putting our two leads in that position and shaking it all up and seeing what comes out."
We're not sure we agree it was needed, but we've got a whole season ahead to see just where the writers will take Kidd and Severide.