Chicago Fire Finale Says Goodbye to Boden — Plus, Damon Makes a Shocking Confession!
Change is afoot for more than just Chief Boden in Eamonn Walker’s final episode of Chicago Fire as a series regular.
Upon returning to the Windy City, Boden vows to do everything in his power to stop Robinson from taking over as Deputy Commissioner, but he doesn’t realize just what that will entail until a call goes horribly wrong. As a foreman dangles high up in the air, Boden goes up the ladder himself to rescue him. Sadly, the man won’t reach out and grab Boden’s hand, falling to uninflated mat below. When Boden visits the unconscious foreman in the hospital, he remarks that the way the man put his team first was the bravest thing he’s ever seen. His leadership inspires Boden to do more as a leader, himself, and put his hat into the ring for the DC job.
Should he get the position, Boden wants Herrmann to replace him at 51. But first, Herrmann needs to get promoted to captain and take the Battalion chief test, not to mention overcome his insecurities.
“I’m nobody, and I am for sure no Chief Boden,” Herrmann says. Boden responds that he just needs to be himself, which is someone who listens and looks out for people and always leads with his heart.
Boden’s thinking that his chances of becoming DC are slim this late in the game, but we know better. Barnes returns to Chicago and notes that Stella came to visit her in Oakland. That level of loyalty which Boden inspires is something to be proud of, she tells him before congratulating him.
With Boden now officially moving up the ranks, it’s time for tearful goodbyes. Privately in the rig, Mouch and Herrmann have a quiet moment, where the former wonders what they’re going to do without Boden there every day to hold them together. As Boden packs up his office, the entire firehouse files in to bid him an emotional farewell. Stella notes that some people you can never say goodbye to because they become a part of who you are, while Cruz shares that Boden made 51 a family and the firehouse a home. Ritter also gets in a lovely moment about how he feels like he was born at 51 and didn’t know what it meant to be a firefighter beforehand, and that all trickles down from Boden, of course. The chief points out that they’ll still see each other, but the loss that the firehouse is facing without Boden’s gravitas and goodness there day-to-day can’t be overstated.
Elsewhere in the finale:
* Big twist alert! Damon lashes out during a restaurant call with a mean dad because he had one, too, and his name was Benny Severide. Yes, Damon is Severide’s half-brother!
* In other Severide-related bombshells, he wants to start a family. (The confession is sparked by a cute baby photo from Sylvie to Stella.) Severide acknowledges that it’s a bigger decision for Stella, but he’s been thinking about it a lot. Stella does not look super overjoyed at the idea. Perhaps she’s just blindsided?
* Carver also has a big reaction during that restaurant call, accusing the father and his son of abusing the younger brother. When the father goes at Stella, Carver physically attacks him, while Damon goes for the older brother, accidentally hitting Novak in the head during the scuffle. Violet thinks Carver did what he did because he still has feelings for Stella, but she’s way off-base. Carver counters that Violet keeps pushing him away because she can’t let go of Hawkins.
“You know I’m not in love with Kidd, because I’m stupid enough to have fallen in love with you,” he exclaims and walks away.
After Stella accidentally spills the beans about Carver’s violent past with his brother, Violet realizes how badly she messed up. Now Carver’s taken another furlough, and he’s not answering her calls.
* Mouch announces that he’s going to take the lieutenant test.
Fire fans, what did you think of Boden’s farewell? Grade it below, then hit the comments!
When is Kelly going to be promoted to captain or put in charge of the arson unit? It looks like Stella doesn’t want kids so hopefully this is the end of them. I can’t stand Stella. I was hoping Damon was Kelly’s kid since they already did the half sibling storyline with him.
Stella is so selfish. She already knew kelly wants a family since before their marriage yet she kept her opinion in the topic quite. The show are ignoring Stella flaws and trying hard to sell their relationship as perfect and healthy but the truth is it far from that.
Severide’s just told us he didn’t like the paperwork and left Herrmann to do the heavy lifting with human resources – he’s going to stay on Squad as long as there’s a 51. The arson investigation trip was exciting because it was travel and new stuff and devoid of the day-to-day of running a unit, if Taylor Kinney hadn’t needed his leave of absence then it wouldn’t have happened, and Kidd won’t let it happen again.
As soon as Severide started talking about family I guessed that Damon would be his kid too – a kid from his early 20s would be just about eligible for CFD by now – and they seemed to be hinting at some sort of paternal replacement with the focus on Severide taking Damon under his wing and advocating for him with Kidd, teaching him the struts and so on; the framing and composition of that was very much ‘dad playing with kids’ not ‘brothers who have the same kind of job’. But they can make up whatever they want about Benny and it stays offscreen in the many many gaps where Severide withdrew from or avoided Benny and of course Benny’s own foibles, whereas if Severide has a kid he hasn’t known about this entire time then he’s gotta explain that to Kidd and it’s going to be relevant for the rest of his time on the show.
When Damon said his father was Benny Severide, I actually shouted ‘What?!’ at my TV! 🤣
I was expecting him to be Jelly’s kid, by a high school girlfriend.
You and me both!!
I had the same reaction, CM! 😯😱
Please keep this show
It got renewed already, it’s not going anywhere for a long-time.
Damen is Bennys was the first guess, from the hyps I thought they’d come up with a more interesting story. The show needs to figure out what to do withHermann and Mouch.
They were very strongly setting up for Herrmann as Battalion Chief and Mouch taking over Engine. That would also put Mouch back with Ritter, and since most of the calls we follow are centred on Truck, would also give Christian Stolte and David Eigenberg a bit of a breather from stunts, while also making room for Kylie and someone genuinely new (an actor who pulls in a lower salary, probably). Cruz seems to be happy with the relieving Squad Lieutenant now that Severide’s communicating better, and he might not want to take on more while Chloe’s trauma is still close to the surface, leaving Severide and Kidd in their places as anchors for everyone else.
The biggest difference between Boden and Robinson is Boden inspires loyalty and support from firefighters all over the country not just the few in Robinson’s clique. Rest of the ep was meh I never really liked Violet and Carver mainly because their ‘love’ is unhealthy trauma bonding Carver doesn’t allow himself to be vulnerable with Violet and Violet is too hung up over Hawkins to move forward with something real. Carver needs to put a hemisphere between him and medic misery.
To much Chicago Fire Dept politics
I think Stella do want to start a family but she was blindsided by it she just needs time and I love that Severide was considering how big of a decision it would be to Stella. Plus we have seen Stella longing after baby Julia way before Brett left the show. I have to wonder how Severide going to handle Damon being his half-siblings.
This finale was way better than I expected, I loved the drama in it. I wasn’t expecting Carver to have a really bad rift between him and Violet. Then the ending wasn’t all the way surprising as I suspected Damon and Kelly were related, but it was more surprising that they were brothers and instead of father and son.
I wonder if we’ve heard the last from Chief Robinson. They should’ve bought Emma Jacobs back to tie that storyline up between her and Violet.
Seriously, Taylor Kinney is definitely looking his age these days.
His hair may be gray, but that doesn’t make him “old”(he’s only 42). Hell, I was gray by my mid-30s.
Shocked Pikachu face! Not! I knew Damon was going to end up being related. And they cinched it at the very beginning when Severide is going on about “that kid”, like he’s about to say, he reminds me, well of me.
When Damon first showed up, I thought he looked a bit like Casey and was thinking he was going to be related to him. When he looked at that photo on the wall it showed Casey; caused me to think it was going in that direction.
Chief Boden’s storyline was inspiring. I’m glad they found a way to give him a position he was deserving of. Hopefully we see Boden more than in a passing capacity in the future. I believe they’ve dropped him to Recurring Status?
I’m glad Carver got Violet out of his system.
I feel like everyone is grabbing a hold of Damon saying Benny Severide was his father and that means he’s Severide half-brother. However, it’s also possible Benny was Damon’s stepfather. Benny was married to a women named Beth and stepfather to her kids. It’s possible Damon was raised with Benny as his father even if they weren’t related by blood. I feel like we’ve already done this half-sibling story before with Katie, though it may be a different dynamic with both Severide and Damon being firefighters. It should make for an interesting plot next season.
Not gonna lie, I hoped they’d go this way with Boden. Also, it was nice to see Donna and Terrance again.
I would love to see Hermann as Battalion Chief. I know people will say that Kelly is the obvious choice because of how long he’s been a lieutenant, but Kelly has made it very clear time and time again (and even in this episode) that he has no interest in the job. But if Hermann does get the job, and Mouch becomes a lieutenant like he said he wanted, does that open the door for Mouch to be lieutenant on Engine 51????
As for Jack, I hope that was all he was hiding. I mean Benny being a not-so-great dad (he had his moments so I’ll stop short of saying completely horrible), is nothing new. I just hope that Jack doesn’t hate/blame Kelly for Benny’s behavior, though it doesn’t really seem like he will. At least not based off of how’s he’s treated Kelly so far. Guess we’ll see.
The series will not be the same with out Eamoon Walker. Big mistakes!😝