Chicago Fire Season 12: Why Episode 11 Is A Game-Changer For Kelly Severide

Contains spoilers for "Chicago Fire" Season 12, Episode  11 — "Inside Man"

This has been a bit of a wild season for recent Chicago returnee Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), and some of it's been a little worrying. Bouncing back and forth between the ATF assignment — which keeps pulling on his heartstrings –  and his marriage to Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), Severide has tried to follow his ambition while he keeps his love and connection to Firehouse 51 alive. And it looks like the episode "Inside Man" will complicate things much more for him.

Per an interview with showrunner Andrea Newman published by TVLine, Severide goes missing when he sees something untoward happening at the firehouse after hours as he and some crew members, including his wife, work the night shift. Severide and his engine are gone when Kidd wakes up, leading her to chase him down. 

Newman said that this will be a chance for audiences to see Severide do something he hasn't done in awhile — be a fully unleashed man of action. "Severide has been trapped behind a desk lately, covering the firehouse for Boden, doing paperwork, etc., and it felt like, in some ways, he was a caged animal ready to break out and go tear some stuff apart," she explained.

That's a big change-up from most of what he's done in Season 12, and Newman said Kinney was raring to go. "Taylor is so game for this kind of thing. He loves the action and is a very physical guy." Newman noted that all of the male cast members train with real firefighters, and Kinney has relished such activity.

How will Kidd react to her husband's brush with danger? Let's just say she'll be two steps behind him.

According to Andrea Newman, Stella Kidd will be impacted in a big way by Kelly Severide's disappearance. "It's a rough time for Kidd. She has to somehow set her emotions aside while she throws herself into finding her husband. Some alarming suspects emerge along the way." That means her investigation might be complicated by her loyalties — or by the complete danger she finds herself embroiled in. 

Since Severide's made a recent habit of dropping contact with Kidd or disappearing without warning due to his situation with the ATF, leaving him missing every so often during Season 12, perhaps she'll worry that he's run off with the engine on purpose. Stranger things have happened on "Chicago Fire" over the years, after all — including Kidd's Season 10 absence, which had the writing team scrambling to rewrite scripts featuring her. But there's one thing the ever-tough Stella Kidd will never do, and that's quit. Presumably, she's going to spend "Inside Man" doing all she can to save her husband, but audiences will have to wait until this Wednesday night to find out if she does.