It was pretty clear from the get-go that viewers were never going to buy into Chicago Fire's attempt at foisting a new captain on them. Two seasons of effort ended up amounting to a waste of the very talented Dermot Mulroney's time, and it left fans annoyed in the wake of his departure. It wasn't just that Mulroney had to step into the difficult position of replacing Eamonn Walker's Chief Wallace Boden—it was that the show never seemed to have a clear idea of who Pascal was or if he was a friend or a foe to the 51 crew.
It didn't help that Pascal spent his first season making enemies out of Stella Kidd and Kelly Severide and rubbing the rest of the gang the wrong way. The show likely hoped to set him apart from the wise, methodical, and cool-minded Boden by making him look tougher and more hot-headed. All it did was make him harder to love, a fatal position for Mulroney to deal with while trying to establish Pascal's position at the station.
The show softened him slightly as he got to know the crew and understand both Stella and Kelly's quirks and commitments. The program then introduced another complication via Pascal's wife, Monica, who felt emotionally alienated from him and seemed prepared to divorce him. But instead of going through with a marital termination storyline, the couple attempted a reconciliation.
That quickly ended when the show killed Monica off in a dire attempt at stirring up sympathy for Pascal. Fans barely cared about Pascal at this point—making him a widower added no real depth to his storyline. His brief subsequent flirtation with Annette Davis, which occurred during season 14, will naturally be headed nowhere as the show prepares for his exit storyline.
The final full Pascal season featured him behaving in firm defiance of convention, but this time on behalf of 15 as he tried to protect the station from budget cuts. He ended up having to defend his own actions when a deadly pandemic threatened Chicago and he had to keep his own from dying at the hands of the illness. He was offered a job in Phoenix he seems poised to take. He told Severide that he wanted the man to take his place on the squad if he'd rather not take a position with OFI instead—finally sealing the breach between the two men that never quite healed by Dom's first days on the team.
And the audience last sees him outside of a major fire that's threatening the lives of the squad—suggesting he might charge in. It's far too late to redeem Pascal at this point, but might a noble death be in the cards for him? We'll see when the show reconvenes in October.
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