Chicago Fire season 7 episode 17 return date hopes; what lies ahead?

Chicago Fire season 7

If you love Chicago Firewe come into this piece bearing some rather unfortunate news: Tonight’s the last episode for a while. How long are we talking? Think, at least, the next few weeks.

NBC has confirmed already that for March 6 and March 13, Firehouse 51 is going to be on a break. Think of this as a time for them to relax, catch their breath, and enjoy a little bit of firehouse chili. As we explained in the Chicago Med return date piece, the earliest the show could return following tonight’s episode is Wednesday, March 20 … but it could also be later.

There are a lot of factors that go into figuring out when a show is coming back on the air. Take, for example, where it is in production — the crew behind the scenes needs proper time in order to film stuff! It takes far longer than a week to shoot new episodes, and you need to also give the editing/post-production team time to get it all together. Just because it’s a well-oiled machine does not mean that it’s one that moves about at some crazy-rapid speed.

Also, NBC wants to save some episodes for its most-popular advertising months. Think in terms of May, which is a valuable sweeps period. If they burn all of their episodes now (fire pun intended), they clearly won’t have as many to air down the line!

Be sure to come back later tonight — if NBC has an official premiere date announced, we’ll add it to this piece.

For some video Chicago Fire coverage… – All you gotta do is look to the bottom of this article for our recent crossover conversation! Subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more and remember to check out our One Chicago playlist. That’s the best way to keep track of all things Chicago and you don’t want to miss an update.

What do we want to see from here?

Moving forward to the finale, it’d be nice to just have something that is stable, and a little more definitive for Severide and Stella. We’ve been playing this will they/won’t they game for a while and in the end, it feels like time to shift things around into a totally new direction. A hopeful one that can last for a while. Every One Chicago show has their prevalent ‘ships and this one is really high up the food chain.

Romance aside, we do want to see more battles with Boden and Grissom now that Gary Cole’s around with greater regularity. The endgame for this show should be that eventually Boden ascends to the highest possible place … at least without taking him away from the core cast. That’s why there’s no rush for him to take Grissom’s spot — you root for the man to succeed, but fear losing the character. Firehouse politics are just such an enigma to most of us and there’s a lot of great material that can be mined with that in mind.

Finally, let’s just have some more firehouse fun! Things have been heavy this season in between losing Benny, Dawson’s permanent exit, and even some of the stuff that the supporting characters have gone through. We live for the lighter moments with Mouch, Cruz, and Otis and need more of that to continue. The humor is what makes this show such a unicorn — sure, it can deliver that world-smashing drama and all of the tears in the world, but it also makes you laugh and makes you want to be a part of the firehouse yourself … even if you’re like us and would have zero clue what to do there except eat the chili.

What do you want from Chicago Fire season 7 episode 17 and beyond?

Share in the attached comments! (Photo: NBC.)

Love TV? Be sure to like Matt & Jess on Facebook for more updates!