Benny Severide’s death was especially shocking given that it wasn’t treated as a year-end climax. That was by design. “When you lay out a season, or even half-season, we’re always looking for something that is going to spark story and give us a boost, in terms of emotional storytelling that we can do,” Derek Haas told One Chicago Center. “A lot of times those bigger stories are left for premieres or midseason finales season finales [sic].” Some of the most devastating “Chicago Fire” deaths functioned as season-ending cliffhangers. Benny, meanwhile, made his final appearance in Season 7, Episode 5 before dying offscreen. Haas added, “So as we were laying out the season, we were like, let’s do something big and daring in the middle of the first half of episodes.”
In the immediate aftermath of Benny’s death, Kelly learns that his father had tirelessly advocated for him, thus undoing some of the damage he had inflicted during Kelly’s childhood. “Your father stepped in, Kelly,” Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) says in Episode 6. “Every bit of goodwill, every piece of political capital, every favor he was ever owed, he put it on the line to appeal to the Commissioner to back off of 51, and it worked.”
When Treat Williams died in 2023, Taylor Kinney left a heartfelt remembrance. “[He] was a father figure to everyone on set,” Kinney told People at the time. “I’ll always relish our conversations and his uncanny ability to light up a room. We all send love, he will be missed.”
