Firehouse 51 bids farewell to one of its own after he's butting head with Chief Boden, not because he's fired but because of an injury.
- Oct 19, 2016
AceShowbiz - "Chicago Fire" has just said goodbye to one of its firefighters. In the Tuesday, October 18 episode of the NBC series, [SPOILER ALERT!] Jimmy Borrelli (Steven R. McQueen) exited Firehouse 51 after he was feuding with Chief Boden over the latter's involvement in the death of Jimmy's brother.
Losing faith in the chief's leadership, Jimmy took matters into his own hands during a fire call and ended up getting badly burned. The injury subsequently ended his career as a firefighter. But in his final moments, Jimmy made peace with Chief Boden as they shared a quiet moment and held hands.
But this isn't the first shakeup on the show, following Shay's (Lauren German) death, Mills' (Charlie Barnett) decision to leave town and Chili's (Dora Madison) dismissal. "[I] think its important to keep things fresh and to bring in new voices," co-creator and executive producer Michael Brandt tells The Hollywood Reporter of the shakeups, "whether those voices are a voice of reason or a voice of trouble, either way it gives us something new and its gives the established characters something to play off of. I think 100 episodes in, we have to keep changing things up. We've had to do that to keep things fresh over the last four years, but they're dangerous jobs, what they do, so we do have to play the reality of that as well."
Why it had to be Jimmy? "For us, Jimmy felt like the kind of character who would do something fairly brash. Given that he was young; given that he was emotional," Brandt explains. "What we liked about this was Jimmy's repairing of his relationship with his brother and then ultimately that being the downfall of the character on the show. It wasn't out of the blue. It was motivated by his love for his brother and it was also motivated by the decision that Boden made which you know all those things always live in grey areas and they're always very complicated so it was just a creative [decision.]"
Brandt also tells TVLine, "With Jimmy's character, it just felt like he needed to stand up for what he believed in, but Boden needed to stand up for what he believed in, and those two things couldn't live together. It was driven by the story and who the characters have evolved into."
Despite Brandt's notion of the importance of shakeup, Jimmy's exit could be the only big change this season as Brandt says, "I think as of now there are no plans to shake things up too much. We know we've done that a lot in the past. We feel really good about where everything is right now so for now, no there are no plans to make any big changes."
On how Jimmy's exit will impact the rest of the firehouse, Brandt teases, "The way Jimmy was reacting was causing waves in the house... So I think it gets to the point in the house where everybody feels like what Jimmy's doing is not to the benefit of the house or to the CFP. I think everybody understands why he's doing it, you know it's an emotional reaction and when Jimmy does leave, there's sadness about what happened to him but ultimately its for the benefit of the house who can then heal for what happened and reunite with each other."
"Chicago Fire" returns with "Scorched Earth" next Tuesday, October 25 at 10/9c on NBC. Casey enlists Susan Weller (guest star Lauren Stamile) to help with an urgent personal matter. Severide receives an offer to travel luxuriously with rich party guy Travis Brenner (guest star Scott Elrod) and Stella uses all her resources to help a sick street kid after saving him during a tunnel fire. Meanwhile, Otis and Herrmann discuss their concerns over Molly's lack of customers.
