After the Chicago Fire season 14 finale, fans were convinced that season 15 would open with a major loss for Firehouse 51. These fears were not unfounded, as the finale left the lives of nearly every character up in the air in a cliffhanger that felt very reminiscent of the show’s season 2 finale. That finale resulted in a shocking death in the season 3 premiere, so it was understandable for fans to worry about history repeating itself in the season 15 premiere.
Thankfully, no main characters were killed off in the Chicago Fire season 15 premiere, with the only casualties from the warehouse fire being a pair of civilians. Cruz was unable to rescue them before the roof collapsed. While every member of 51 made it out of the fire alive, not everyone made it out of the fire unscathed. When the roof collapsed, the debris injured Cruz’s spine, resulting in the loss of his legs.
Interestingly, while the writers ultimately chose not to kill off a character in the premiere, they did seriously consider the option, and there was one key reason they opted not to go that route: it had already been done in the past.
“We did not know. That’s a thing we do sometimes as a way to just keep things fresh for ourselves after all this time. We write ourselves into a pickle and not know how we’re going to get out of it. Then we go off, and we have a hiatus and kick around all of the different possibilities. We thought very seriously about killing someone, but in the end, we’ve done it in the past,” new showrunner Victor Teran told People.
It’s a very fair reason because we indeed had spent most of the summer talking about how similar the season 14 finale felt to the season 2 finale and speculating that the cliffhanger likely hinted a big death was coming. The writers could have easily recycled a similar storyline, albeit under different circumstances, but we appreciate that they opted not to begin the season with such a somber note and took the opportunity to tell a new storyline, even if it’s one that is breaking our hearts.
In fact, that factored into the decision as well, as the writers didn’t want to start the season with such an emotional cloud over the show and saw this as a chance to tell a more complicated story.
“In order not to make the first big group of episodes be all about that emotionally, you have to sort of skip past some of the more acute emotions around it. And by doing it the way we did it, I think we saw an opportunity to tell something that felt even more complicated,” Teran explained.
He certainly is not exaggerating, as the storyline being told via Cruz is indeed much more complicated than a character death would have been.
The show is able to tell a really emotional story through Cruz’s injury, exploring his recovery efforts and the physical and emotional toll of a life-changing injury. We get to see the resilience and determination it takes to rebuild one’s life after everything changes in an instant. Rather than closing the door on Cruz’s story, the show has given itself the opportunity to tell a powerful, deeply human story about recovery and what it means to be a firefighter when you can no longer do the job you love.
We’re hoping that the show uses Minoso’s final episodes to truly dive into this storyline and we’re already preparing for an emotional 300th episode sendoff for Cruz as his time on the show draws to an end following the injury.
Don't miss new episodes of Chicago Fire Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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