Chicago Fire and P.D. bosses talk Severide’s dark days and romantic future

That Chicago Fire-Chicago P.D. double-whammy was quite a journey for Severide, eh? After finding out he could no longer donate his bone marrow to Anna and going into an epic downward spiral that landed him in jail and suspected of vehicular homicide, it’s hard to imagine that the pride of Firehouse 51 is going to be walking on the sunny side of the street anytime soon.

EW caught up with executive producers Matt Olmstead and Derek Haas to rehash this heavy crossover and discuss what’s down the pipeline for Taylor Kinney’s character.

MATT OLMSTEAD: I would agree with that. He’s given a lot of great performances; obviously, the guy is a star. But it’s pretty riveting seeing him there, and just the way he tracked this defiant, indignant, pissed off, and this dawning realization of “Man, I might’ve done this, and if I did, don’t come for me,” and then the relief and gratitude later.

Even after he realizes the accident wasn’t his fault, he’s still beating himself up. Are we going to see more of that?
DEREK HAAS: I can say that continues forward into the next Chicago Fire where he takes some serious punishment for the benefit of someone else. Anna (Charlotte Sullivan), in particular.

Are we going to see her more?
HAAS: Yes. We’re not done with that. Her treatments were going terribly in the episodes that you just watched but there’s going to be an improvement, which is going to give Severide the chance to donate. But there are complications that are going to involve some serious pain on his part, and Severide, in the place that he’s at following these two episodes, welcomes it.

Seems like this is also setting up a bit of a romantic situation there with Anna.
HAAS: Your instincts are dead on.

Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) took being the emergency contact really personally and seriously. Are they going to reconnect?
HAAS: Yes! We really liked the Severide-Kidd pairing that we had going toward the end of last season, into the beginning of this season, and then for plot reasons they separated. But we thought as we were developing the second half of the season, an interesting two characters to follow would be Kidd’s feelings toward Severide as Severide’s feelings grow toward this patient that he’s trying to save.

Why would Lindsay (Sophia Bush) pick Severide up from prison instead of Kidd?
HAAS: When we were devising the two hours, the second hour definitely focused on the question of Lindsay’s judgment perhaps being compromised by the fact that she had gone out with this guy who could’ve potentially had a vehicular homicide. And the way that played with her interactions with both Voight (Jason Beghe) and Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), it seemed proper for the story to have her be the one who picked him up at the end because she was the one who believed in him all the way down the road in that second hour.

Are there going to be further ripple effects on that for Lindsay and Halstead?
OLMSTEAD: No, we’re really happy with the chemistry and the storyline of Halstead and Lindsay. We played obviously the Severide-Lindsay storyline early on in the show. Who knows? We could have another ripple, but right now there are no plans to revisit Lindsay-Severide.

HAAS: Practically speaking, it’s hard because we have two actors who are in just about every scene of their own shows, and then trying to bring them over to do crossovers within episodes that weren’t big crossovers was very difficult.

Given their history — and the history of the shows — it was nice to see Casey (Jesse Spencer) and Voight and their drama popping back up.
HAAS: Matt Olmstead, who is sitting next to me, was the original writer of that third episode of Chicago Fire, and in a lot of ways, that scene where Voight sits across from Casey in that diner and slams his hand on the table and says, ‘I’m not asking!’ — that honestly launched four seasons of another show. So anytime we can go back to Casey and Voight and their complicated, complicated relationship, that’s very fun for us.

OLMSTEAD: Really the first time that there was some civility was the beginning of this season on P.D. when, at the crime scene, Casey extended his hand and said, “I’m sorry to hear about your son,” who had died. And that meant a lot to Voight. … When they do cross, there’s got to be some meaning behind it because it just can’t be a casual, “Hey, how’s it going?”

On the P.D. side going forward, what is it going to take for Burgess (Marina Squerciati) to prove herself to Olinsky (Elias Koteas)?
OLMSTEAD: Having now seen and been a part of the scripts going through episode 16, there is a full arc. It’s not just open-ended discord and hostility. Initially, she realizes, “This is a test, and he has articulated why he thinks I may not be ready, and Al’s treating me in a way that either is sincere or might also serve a dual purpose of trying to push my buttons and see if I’ll actually confirm his suspicions

That Chicago Fire-Chicago P.D. double-whammy was quite a journey for Severide, eh? After finding out he could no longer donate his bone marrow to Anna and going into an epic downward spiral that landed him in jail and suspected of vehicular homicide, it’s hard to imagine that the pride of Firehouse 51 is going to…