The 300th episode of Chicago Fire brought an official end to Joe Minoso’s time as Joe Cruz in an episode that celebrated his legacy and gave the character one of the greatest farewells in the show’s 15-season run.
Early in the episode, it looked like Cruz was going to return to Firehouse 51 after it was revealed that his recovery was coming along even better than expected. With Archer’s help, he was able to get into a rehab program with a stellar reputation for helping injured firefighters past the finish line in their recovery, paving the way for them to return to the job. The news excited Cruz, and he was eager to get back to his team at 51, but then Cruz realized that his family needed him more.
After careful consideration, Cruz decided to walk away from Firehouse 51 to move to Minneapolis to be closer to Chloe’s family and put his own family first. The episode ended with an emotional series of goodbyes for Cruz, including a really touching moment in which he honored Otis before joining his 51 family for one final group photo. It was a perfect ending for the character; however, it seems the writers actually considered a much more shocking storyline for Cruz.
While Cruz ultimately survived the warehouse fire, it turns out that there were discussions to kill him off the show rather than leaving the door open for him to return, as was ultimately decided upon.
“That was discussed. That was one of the options that was thrown out there. I won’t say by who, but yeah, that was pitched,” Minoso revealed to Deadline.
But wait, that’s not the most shocking part of this revelation! It makes sense that the show considered killing off Cruz as a big death is always on the table when writers decide to write out a character. What is surprising is that Minoso revealed that the show actually considered dragging Cruz’s fate out over the course of the first four episodes before killing him off in the 300th episode!
“A lot of that is hard to pin down, because it would depend on how they navigated the story. There was some discussion about the death not happening until the fifth episode, and everything else being a flashback kind of thing,” Minoso told TVLine.
That’s right, the show actually considered dragging Cruz’s death out and sending the character off in the 300th episode by killing him! I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely glad they scrapped that idea because I would have been both crushed and so annoyed if the show killed Cruz off in the 300th episode. Now, there is one approach to the idea of dragging Cruz’s fate out that would have been fun to explore.
One route the show could have taken was to have Cruz undergo a major surgery in the 300th episode and then use that storyline to bring back former characters while Cruz was being operated on. This could have allowed the show to bring back characters such as Otis in an organic way while adding an element of suspense as we wait to see if Cruz pulled through the surgery. That would have certainly made the 300th episode feel like more of a celebration of the show’s overall legacy than what we ended up getting in the episode, while still honoring Cruz through his sendoff episode.
At least we got to see a subtle Otis tribute in the 300th, and, more importantly, the writers did not kill Cruz off so that the door remains open for him to potentially return.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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