Okay, first — let’s be honest. We’re not all that surprised to see Jesse Spencer return to Chicago Fire. Even if it seems to be just for one episode. Matt Casey always seemed like the kind of character who could never truly leave Firehouse 51 for good, and Jesse Spencer left the door pretty open when he left, so it all seemed to be more a matter of when not if.
But we will admit this is a weird time for him to return. He and Brett have broken up. Not just that, she’s now dating Dylan, and that went from casual, to her freaking, back to Brett being all in. This show has been a little wishy-washy with her love life in general — they really have no clue what to do with her, right? — but this still feels like a lot of drama for the sake of drama. Unless they don’t even cross paths, which makes zero sense.
Then there’s Casey returning just when Severide is not around. If we wanted to see something, it was Casey and Severide back together! And that’s really out of the show’s control, in a way, with Taylor Kinney taking a leave of absence, but, but … we still want what we want. And that’s Severide and Casey, together again.
Don’t get us wrong, we’ll take Casey and probably enjoy his return. But, eh …why is he even around? Will this complicate Brett’s love life again? Where is he staying? Is he going to call Severide and be like hey, dude, why are you not around when I come to visit? And what is bringing him back to Chicago now, of all times?
All good questions, we feel. We’ll have our answers in the 18th episode of the season. And at least questions mean interest, so in that regard, Chicago Fire has won.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays on NBC.
The big question here would be: is this just for one episode? From what is online it does not appear that he will be a series regular for the remainder of this season. However, could this mean he returns as a regular for Season 12? I would be very happy if he was coming back for next season and after 2 years away the Darden brothers may not need him, which would be easy to explain. There are a number of reasons why he could return just for a visit.. The one reason that I don’t want to see, but we can not ignore is that Cindy passes and he has come to Chicago for her funeral. In that scenario, I think his impact on Sylvie would be lessened.