Eagle-eyed fans watching Chicago Fire tonight are likely going to notice one member of Firehouse 51 surprisingly missing in action. This is because episode 13, “Born of Fire” will not feature Daniel Kyri’s character, Darren Ritter, making him the latest Chicago Fire actor to miss an episode of season 13.
That’s right, it’s apparently Kyri’s turn to sit out an episode of the season - a trend that has become incredibly common this season with many series regulars missing an episode here and there. The good news is that Ritter will be back in action before you know it, but that still begs the question, where was Ritter in this episode?
Warning spoilers ahead for Chicago Fire season 13, episode 13, “Born of Fire,” are ahead.
Ritter is on vacation, but should be back soon!
As is often the case when Chicago Fire actors have missed an episode this season, Ritter’s absence in “Born of Fire” was explained via a quick conversation in the show at the end of the episode. So what is Ritter up to that is keeping him out of action for episode 13? Well, it seems that Ritter has decided to take a well-deserved vacation.
The reveal came courtesy of a quick conversation between Novak and Violet in which Novak casually mentioned that Ritter had called hundreds of times to check in while out of town on a mountain vacation. It was a great way to casually explain to viewers why Ritter wasn’t present in the episode, but it also came very quickly making it easy for fans to miss the moment.
Little was revealed about the vacation outside of it being a mountain getaway, but we imagine this isn’t going to be some extended vacay that will keep Ritter out of action for multiple weeks. In fact, if we had to speculate we’d say it’s highly likely that Ritter will return in episode 14, making this a brief break.
When he returns, we hope to see more of his and Carver’s growing friendship. It’s been really fun seeing the two characters interacting more this season with Carver taking Ritter under his wing and helping him grow as a firefighter working as part of Truck 81. It's been nice to see Carver helping Ritter learn new skills and to see a comradery building between the two this season.
We’re also hoping we’ll get to see more of Ritter’s personal life as well which hasn’t gone quite as well this season, with his relationship with Dwayne coming to a sudden end just a few episodes ago. As the show’s only really LGBTQ representation, we’d love to see Ritter’s love live explored more and for the show to give him a bit of happiness after his string of failed relationships! After all, he deserves to have some fun and find the one like so many other 51 members have.
Whatever might be in the cards, we're just hoping Ritter won't miss too many more episodes this season and look forward to seeing Kyri back in action on Chicago Fire soon!