Chicago Fire interview: Derek Haas teases Brettonio reunion, Casey – Dawson tension in upcoming arc
In order to better prepare you for some of the storylines coming up we spoke with the man who knows Firehouse 51 better than anyone in showrunner Derek Haas. Check out some of his thoughts on the big Ramon cliffhanger, an upcoming crossover coming later this season, and more.
CarterMatt – How did you come up with ending the first part of the season with the big Ramon cliffhanger?
Derek Haas – When we knew that we were going to be gone for two and a half months, we wanted to do something different from what we’ve done in the season prior where everyone had walked into a burning building and you didn’t know who was going to walk out.
We had built up Ramon over the course of almost 10 episodes and his relationship with Gabby, and we used the drama of him having talked to her right before that [ending] where she yells at him and says that he only cares about himself. We’re thinking about these sort of Good Samaritan stories where someone risks their life for someone else, and it felt like the most unlikely person to be involved would be Ramon Dawson, especially at this point in his life. He’s always been a screw-up and selfish. What would you do if you were a paramedic and you got to a scene and the stabbing victim turned out to be your father? That’s what we wanted to leave people with.
I know you guys are going to be graced with the presence of Jon Seda again. After hearing about his father, does that stop the tension that’s been going on with Antonio and Ramon for some time?
I think once lives are on the line, all of the petty arguments go out the window. Antonio always acts with his heart on his sleeve a little bit for being the tough cop that he is, especially when it comes to the family. In the opening teaser you’re going to see Antonio rushing to the hospital.
It was good for us, because this allowed for an opportunity to put Antonio and Brett back in a scene together. She’s rushing to the hospital trying to save this man’s life; she’s not even thinking about the fact that Antonio will show up. So, when she sees him in the waiting room, it’s a little awkward.
How fun was it to get Antonio and Brett back together? I know when you first paired them up you had no idea how the audience would respond; now, you’ve seen that people love the two together.
They do. I think we can pick up on real chemistry when we have it, and when you’ve got two actors who can take the work on the page and bring it to life in new and unexpected ways we sense it as writers. It’s always nice when the audience senses it too. It’s something that we’ve been wanting to do a lot more of. The problem, especially last year, was that Jon was starring on three different shows. This year he’s still starring on [Chicago PD] and trying to schedule these things is hard. But, I do love having them together.
Are you thinking about these five episodes ahead as a self-contained arc leading up to the Olympics?
Yes. That’s what is nice about doing the first six [episodes], and the [upcoming] five. We knew we were going to have some breaks, and it’s so much easier if you don’t have to do ten or eleven episodes is to do one arc where you can have a definite beginning, middle, and an end. This next batch of episodes, we’re going to focus on Gabby and her relationship with a teenage girl who is in trouble. You’re supposed to drop the patients off at the hospital and then forget about them, but Gabby never does. That’s going to effect the next batch.
How is that going to impact her relationship with Casey?
I think that issues are going to come because he just doesn’t want her to get hurt. That’s what happened with the Louie [situation]. He’ll never admit when it hurts himself, but he was committed to that, too. I think when he sees how Dawson is going [with this teenage girl] and how Dawson reacts to him, she’s anticipating his reaction more than probably what he’s giving. I think it definitely leads to some communication problems between the two of them.
Interestingly on this one, Severide was there when there was this girl in need of rescuing, so Severide is also invested. It makes for an interesting triangle — I don’t mean romantic, but it’s an [interesting dynamic].
I’ve made it no secret that I am a big Otis fan and the more Otis you put on the screen, the better. I know that he’s got a big storyline coming up with trying to start up Molly’s North and he’s interested in a woman who worked at the old bar Mac’s. What’s happening there now?
You’re going to enjoy what we’ve got for Otis. Molly’s North opens and it’s going to need an advertising push in order to reinvent itself; at the same time, Otis is romantically attracted to Lily. All of those things are going to swirl. I think you’re going to see Otis find someone who likes him for some of the same reasons that you like him and I like him, but in a romantic way.
So it Mouch going to start to become more of the old Mouch that we saw in the first five seasons, or is he going to keep any of the perspective or the characteristics that he had at the start of this season?
Not so much. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and he settles in to his spot. He’s the sage one of the Greek chorus; we love to do funny runners with Mouch, but we like to have him also be the surprising voice of reason much of the time when people get into trouble.
What’s the main theme that you guys are exploring for the crossover [later this season]?
What I think we’re doing differently about this one than in the past is that the police department is going to need to distract a man who has some information that they’re going to try to get. When Antonio does some research on this guy they learn that he has called 911 a few times in the past year because he’s had heart issues. As he’s looking at the list of paramedics that have responded to this guy, he realizes that Dawson and Brett [have done so frequently]. So Antonio comes to the firehouse and says to Boden ‘hey, we’d like to use your paramedics to go over and do a wellness check. Knock on this guy’s door and while they’re distracting him someone can go in the backdoor and do what they need to do.’
That’s the hinge between the two episodes, but there’s a much bigger plot that’s going on. I just love the fact that Antonio goes to Firehouse 51 and enlists Dawson and Brett to help on this police sting. Of course, Boden never wants his people in danger unnecessarily, and then Dawson is Antonio’s sister and he is interested in Brett. All of these relationship dynamics are playing into what’s going to be a really intense and exciting plot.
Stella and Severide had a moment of sorts at the end of the year. Where do they go from here?
I think they’re going to build up more romantic tension as they build up their friendship. The friendship is clicking. The way that these two actors act together is always funny and inspirational for a writer to watch on set. We love that they’re just friends, but there’s also this undercurrent of wanting it to be something more. I think they’ll be two ships passing in the night for a little while, but we’re going to build it up. Hopefully the audience is responding to it; we’ll keep going in that direction.
Are you already starting to think about the finale and some of what could happen there?
We’ve spent a lot of time in the writers room talking about what we want to do with the last three or four episodes and what the last big plotline is going to be. One thing I will say is that we’re very light on our feet if we feel like a storyline isn’t going the way we want it to or if we find an actor who is really popping. We have some big swings and some big ideas that we want to ramp up for the season 6 finale.
Finally, how are you feeling about season 7? Are you already thinking up ideas?
I always am thinking about it. I always want to keep going! Those decisions are out of my hands, but I just love this cast and this crew and the City of Chicago so much! It’s been such a part of my life the past six years. I’ll keep doing it so long as people keep watching and NBC says we can get going. I’m bullish, but you just don’t know [until it happens].
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