Taylor Kinney, who has been the show’s leader since the first episode, was not there on Wednesday.
In January, a source close to the making of Chicago Fire told PEOPLE that Kinney would be taking a break from the show “to take care of a personal matter.”
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Lt. Kelly Severide, played by Kinney, was at “the best arson investigation training program in the world” on Wednesday’s episode, “Damage Control.”
Chicago Fire
Even though he wasn’t in the episode, Stella Kidd’s (Miranda Rae Mayo) wife could feel his absence in their empty apartment.
The Office of Fire Investigation’s Capt. Tom Van Meter (Tim Hopper) said that the program was a last-minute chance that Severide couldn’t pass up. Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker) is upset that he lost one of his best firefighters, but Van Meter tells him that Severide’s joining the program doesn’t mean that he has to leave the firehouse.
Severide quit the fire department after last week’s episode, in which he seemed to get a message that worried him about Van Meter. Kidd asked his wife what he was going to do about his phone after showing it to her.
Kinney’s character has become an important part of the show, and he or she has even shown up on Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med, which are also part of the One Chicago franchise