Here’s why Severide, Cruz and Mouch all missed the last episode of Chicago Fire

It’s been an interesting few weeks for Chicago Fire fans, with the show’s ensemble missing several key players in back-to-back weeks. 

Episode 16 saw over half of the show’s series regulars cast missing unexpectedly, with the episode focusing exclusively on Squad 3. This led to a solid episode that gave the members of Squad 3 the chance to step into the spotlight in a way we haven’t seen in some time, but it was certainly strange to not see Kidd, Herrman, Vasquez, Mouch, Violet, and Novak in the episode. 

Our hope was that episode 17 would bring the characters back together with a complete roster back on call at Firehouse 51. Sadly, that was not the case, though, with several key characters sidelined unexpectedly. 

The first character we’d come to learn was out for the episode was Severide. Severide’s absence was explained at the top of the episode as Herrmann and Kidd arrived for their shift. 

While walking into the firehouse, Kidd brought Herrmann up to speed on everything that had gone down in the previous shift while they were both out. After explaining how heated things got between Severide and Chief Hopkins, Kidd revealed that Severide was taking a few weeks away from 51 to complete training as part of his journey to becoming a captain in the CFD. 

“So it sounds like the chief had some personal beef with Benny from back in the day and was holding it against Kelly. It’s probably a good thing that Kelly’s going to the captains’ training for a couple weeks, it might give him the chance to cool off because he was on the warpath,” Kidd explained. 

Shortly after Kidd’s conversation with Herrmann, she went to meet with Hopkins, who quickly explained that Squad and Engine were out for the shift. He then explained that despite Squad being out of rotation, he’d called in Tony and Capp to work on Truck for the shift.

“I had Capp and Tony come in today even though Squad is off. I want them to work on the rig. And I know Engine is off this shift; I’ll meet them next time around, but I’ve been going through personnel files for your truck,” he explained before their conversation was interrupted by an incoming call. 

Interestingly, we had expected that Cruz could miss the episode after it was revealed he had bought tickets for him and Javi to head to Honduras. We anticipated that he’d miss episode 17 and the show would explain that they had taken the trip or that Cruz would just quietly be written out of the show, leaving fans to connect the dots that the trip was likely the cause. 

What we did not expect was that Mouch would be out for a second straight week. Thankfully the show at least explained that Engine was off shift, but it certainly felt strange for Mouch to be out for yet another episode and for the show to draw out his first encounter with Hopkins. 

Hopefully, the trio will be back in action when Chicago Fire returns from its final break of the season on April 22.

Elias Koteas plays detective Alvin Olinsky in just over 100 episodes of “Chicago P.D.” This is in addition to a combined eight episodes as the character on “Chicago Justice,” “Chicago Fire,” and “Chicago Med.” Between his debut in the “Chicago P.D.” pilot and his departure in Season 5, Episode 22, Alvin is a core member of the show’s cast and the One Chicago universe at large. In his final appearance, however, Alvin dies, meaning that the episode’s May 2018 air date marks Koteas’ definitive exit from the franchise.

After that final episode of “Chicago P.D.” Season 5 first aired, TVLine interviewed showrunner Rick Eid about the decision to kill off Alvin. “From a creative perspective, it was a decision that evolved organically,” he said, detailing how the series’ writers landed on Alvin’s death as a byproduct of a key storyline.

“From a business perspective, however, this was an extremely difficult decision,” Eid continued. “Elias is a terrific actor and a good person. He’s also been an important part of the show since the very beginning. So this part of the process was really challenging. But Elias handled the news like a true professional and remained committed to the show and his character until the final shot. We will miss him dearly.”

Koteas’ “Chicago P.D.” departure, then, was not the result of an interpersonal conflict or even a desire to move on to other work, but the notion that Alvin’s death was what was best for the series’ story at the time.

The Chicago P.D. writers’ room at one point considered Alvin’s survival

In his TVLine interview, Rick Eid characterized Alvin Olinsky’s death as a plot point the “Chicago P.D.” writers’ room decided would best serve the character’s storyline going into the Season 5 finale. He echoed this sentiment in another interview published around the same time by Entertainment Weekly. That said, during this latter conversation, Eid revealed that Alvin surviving that episode’s events was, at least at one point, something the writers’ room considered. “I think everything was on the table,” he said. “We went through practically every iteration we could think of, and we all just kept coming back to this idea as a really powerful idea. That’s ultimately how it all came about.”

Furthermore, Eid emphasized that accepting the “Chicago P.D.” team’s decision to kill off Elias Koteas’ character wasn’t easy. “Ultimately, the final decision is just really hard because everybody loves Elias, and he’s a great actor and a great person. It’s hard,” he said.

Based on these comments, Alvin’s death was something the “Chicago P.D.” writers decided made so much sense it was worth overcoming what was otherwise an aversion to writing Koteas off of the show.