Firehouse 51 operated on a bit of a skeleton crew in Chicago Fire season 14, episode 15. This was because literally one entire pillar of the firehouse was unexpectedly sidelined with Squad 3 missing in action.
Now, it’s not at all uncommon for there to be a few episodes each season in which a large number of characters are absent. We’re growing accustomed to it at this point as the show navigates the cost-cutting measures in place that allow us to get as many episodes as we do and for the show to continue. It’s a small price to pay to see Chicago Fire remain on our screens.
What is uncommon is for the show to sideline such a large part of the cast and then ignore their absence. Sadly, though, that was the case in episode 15.
There was no mention in the episode to explain why Cruz, Capp, and Tony were not around for the shift. No one quickly explained that Squad 3 was off for the shift or away for the day due to training or some other reason. They were simply not present, and no reason was provided.
We understand that there are times when the show will sideline characters without a proper explanation, and this is okay. It’s hard to always be coming up with ways to acknowledge the absence of characters without becoming repetitive, and we know this is a hard situation for the writers to be in. We could have accepted the show ignoring Cruz, Capp, and Tony’s absence from the episode, but the problem was there was another character missing in action whose absence the show did choose to acknowledge.
Also missing in episode 15 was Severide, and the show worked in a quick conversation early in the episode to explain that he was taking the shift off to study for the captain’s exam. It was great getting the update, and it felt organic in the context of the scene, but if the writers worked that mention in, we have to wonder why they couldn’t have also tossed in a quick reference to Squad 3 as well.
When updating Violet and Vasquez about Severide taking the shift off, it would have been nice if the writers allowed Violet to also mention that Squad 3 was out for the shift as well. Or perhaps they could have had Novak or Vasquez make a remark questioning what Squad 3 thinks of Severide potentially moving up to captain, to which they could have then replied that they were off duty. Literally, the smallest of references to at least acknowledge that the entirety of Squad 3 was out rather than just Severide would have been nice to see.
We get that this might seem like a small item, but when you’re sidelining four original characters in a single episode, it just feels off to only address the absence of one of the four.