Taylor Kinney's final episode of Chicago Fire has aired, and we finally know how his character Lieutenant Kelly Severide has been written out of the show temporarily.
Wednesday March 1's episode opened with Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) in their apartment, and she looked around as she left by herself for work. The episode then cut to Firehouse 51 and Captain Van Meter walked into Deputy Chief commissioner Wallace Boden's office where they exchanged tense words.
Severide has left Chicago for the 'best arson investigation training in the world'
"I want to explain," begins Van Meter to which Boden retorts: "Why you took my squad Lieutenant out of commission on a day's notice?"
"To be fair he could have said no but this is the best arson investigation training in the world, hands down," Van Meter continued, "a last minute opening like this is the opportunity of a lifetime for Sevreride. After seeing him hunt down that EV charger evidence last month I couldn't think of a better man."
"It doesn't mean he's planning a transfer to OFI," Van Meter then insisted, before sharing that he felt the expertise Severide will bring back will "benefit the whole department".
It later emerged that the training was taking place in Alabama.
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Van Meter came to 51 to defend his decision to ask Severide
Last week's episode ended on a cliffhanger, with Lieutenant Severide entering Molly's bar, where his wife Lieutenant Kidd works, and sitting at the bar.
As Stella approaches him, she says: "I got your message about Van Meter, what's going on?" Captain Van Meter (played by Tom Hopper) is the head of Chicago Fire Department's Office of Fire Investigation, and he has been calling on Kelly to join his team for years. Without responding, Kelly showed her his phone and although viewers did not see what was on the phone, Stella looked up at Kelly and said: "Wow, what are you going to do?"
Taylor confirmed in January he would be taking a leave of asence from the show in order to deal with an undisclosed personal matter. The cast and crew have been informed of Taylor's upcoming absence and scripts are being rewritten to reflect the changes.
Having starred in Chicago Fire since the very first episode aired in 2012, fans will no doubt notice the actor's absence in future episodes.
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