Joe Minoso’s Joe Cruz has officially left the building, and his colleagues definitely have some feelings about it. Taylor Kinney—who has been with Chicago Fire since season 1 and has been one of the show’s last lifers—is no exception to that rule. Kelly Severide was left broken-hearted by his friend’s departure—and Kinney felt the same way about losing Miñoso.
“It’s one of those things that I’ll never forget. We spend a lot of time together, and at times, more than family. Starting out, these were 15- to 16-hour days, sometimes six days a week. Joe’s been my right-hand man for the past almost a decade, and there’s a lot of time spent looking someone in the eye, telling the truth. It’s just an intimate relationship. So to have a scene where the art imitates life and vice versa… it was raw, it was real, and it was honest. I cherish that moment, and that’ll be with me forever," Kinney told Variety.
Naturally, Kelly had to deal with some similar feelings as he lost Joe Cruz. Cruz is healing from a spinal injury incurred at the scene of a fire that left him partially paralyzed and, after a period of despair, managed to work his way back from a prone state to working with a physical therapist.
With Chloe giving birth to a set of premature twins and his two boys worried that their dad might die if he encounters another fierce fire, Joe makes the choice to move his family closer to Chloe’s folks. They’ll get help with the twins, the boys will be able to relax, and Joe can continue his rehab at a nearby hospital, which is state-of-the-art and will get him up and running in no time at all. What Cruz will do jobwise and where he will land professionally remains unaddressed, but presumably that’s something the show will handle in the future.
Kelly, meanwhile, has been quite busy with his marriage to Stella Kidd, and the two of them have been coping with their failed attempts at parenthood. After realizing they don’t want to deal with biological parenthood, they have tried foster parenting and have experienced mixed results in trying to keep their first major foster, a boy named Isaiah. Isaiah ended up going back to his biological family by the end of the previous season after bouncing back and forth between his bio-mother and the twosome. He’s also been caught between his loyalty to 51 and his work with the ATF, which has won him a fearsome foe.
Through it all, Cruz has always been a reliable presence for both of them in the firehouse, always there to lend a hand and always able to step in when things get too hot either at the scene of a fire or
politically. Unfortunately, the entire squad is down an ally, but with any luck someone new will step into Severide’s life and make it a whole lot brighter.
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