Knowing that Joe Minoso will be exiting Chicago Fire in the show’s 300th episode, fans have come into season 15 expecting to only see Minoso in a small batch of episodes. With the 300th episode airing as the fifth episode of the season, we expected that we’d at least get to see Minoso appearing as Joe Cruz throughout those five episodes as the show prepares to send him off.
Perhaps that’s why it was so jarring and surprising when the second episode of the season came and went without an appearance from Minoso. That’s right, Cruz was not in season 15, episode 2, with the character being sidelined in the episode.
Early in the episode, Severide informs Kidd that Cruz had texted him last night to let him know he’d be at PT all this morning. When Kidd asked about whether that was good news, Severide admitted that while he still has a long road ahead of him, he’s not as grim as they thought.
At the time, it seemed like we’d drop in on Cruz at some point in the episode to get a look at how his PT was unfolding; however, it turned out that the conversation was designed to give fans an update on Cruz without actually featuring him within the episode.
It was truly disappointing to see the show sideline Cruz knowing that we’ve only got a few episodes left in Minoso’s time on the show. Especially when you consider how meaningful it would be to actually get to follow Cruz on his journey and that the moment could have easily taken precedence over another side storyline the show opted to explore.
As much as we loved the humor of the Herrmann and Mouch storyline, we would have loved to see Chicago Fire explore Cruz’s journey and allow fans to continue on that journey with him. There has been so much conversation about the show looking to use Cruz’s storyline to explore the very real risks that first responders take in protecting and serving, and we wish the show would have taken us into the room with Cruz to follow him through his journey.
Rather than seeing Mouch worrying about reading an excerpt from his book, we wish the show would have used that time to show Cruz’s perseverance in tackling the challenges that come with PT. Let us see the ups and downs that come with an injury such as this and allow for those vulnerable moments to shine through as Cruz fights to regain use of his legs and takes this journey.
With just two episodes before the 300th episode, we really hope that Chicago Fire does not continue to sideline Cruz in the episodes ahead. It would be such a disservice to the character and to the fans to keep Cruz's recovery journey as an off-camera thread that is only touched upon via updates from conversations.
It's hard enough to know that we're losing Minoso, but if we don't get to see him on-screen in the limited time he has left with the show, it stings and is something we hope won't turn into a trend.
Add us as a preferred source on Google