How ‘Chicago Fire’ Writes Out Boden, Plus Severide Receives Shocking News in Season 12 Finale

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Chicago Fire Season 12 finale “Never Say Goodbye.”]

“You made 51 a family, Chief, and this firehouse a home,” Cruz (Joe Minoso) tells Boden in Eamonn Walker‘s last Chicago Fire episode as a series regular. That sums up who Boden is perfectly.

He’s back, after helping out James, and determined to keep Chief Robinson from becoming Deputy Commissioner. (The other options? Not much better. As Boden puts it, “this is a disaster.”) He also catches up with Severide (Taylor Kinney), who filled in for him while he was gone, and the lieutenant remarks on how much of his job is counseling, something that Herrmann (David Eigenberg) has a knack for.

Then, at a structure collapse, Boden goes up on a ladder to help a foreman who’s hanging onto a rope off a suspended platform, only for the man to slip and fall—before the bag below is ready. With a head wound but still alive, he’s rushed to the hospital, but it’s not looking good. It’s Herrmann who steps up to remind everyone of the lives they did save on the call. (We’re sensing something about his future…) Boden, meanwhile, goes to see the foreman in the hospital. Seeing what he did made him think about what it is to lead, he tells the man who’s intubated and unresponsive. He put everything on the line for his men, but now he has to do something more: pull through. (By the end of the episode, the foreman is showing signs of improving.)

After that, Boden announces he’s putting his hat in the ring for Deputy Commissioner. While he’s tried to avoid the politics of the CFD, this is about the whole department, not him, he explains. Robinson won’t be happy, Severide remarks. “Good,” Boden says. But if he gets the job, he’s leaving 51 for good. So who will replace him? Boden knows the perfect person (as we thought): Herrmann. He’s not sure, but Boden assures him he just has to be himself, the person “who looks out for people, who listens, who always leads with his heart.” Herrmann tells him that whatever happens, he’ll never know how much that means to him.

But that’s dependent on Boden getting the Deputy Commissioner job, and Robinson’s feeling pretty sure of her chances with whose support she has. But she’s wrong, because Boden is the new Deputy Commissioner.

Everyone gathers in Boden’s office to congratulate him and see him off, even if he’s just going to be at HQ, in an emotional, heartfelt farewell. “There are people you say goodbye to and people you can never say goodbye to because they’ve become too much a part of who you are. They’ve shaped you, trained you ,taught you everything you know even,” Kidd says. Ritter (Daniel Kyri) recalls Mouch (Christian Stolte) bringing him here, where it feels like he was born because he didn’t know what being a firefighter or a brother was before.

“Now you get to do that for the whole CFD and they’ll see how lucky we were,” Severide says. The only words after that are “thank you, Chief, for being the best friend and leader anyone could ask for,” according to Mouch (who’s planning to take the lieutenant’s test!). And with that, everyone hugs Boden goodbye.

Meanwhile, a call in which a father brushes off his son’s burns and refuses any help from Truck or the EMTs leads to some serious trouble when Carver (Jake Lockett) and Damon (Michael Bradway) get into a physical altercation with the father and his other son. (Carver suspects one of them of burning the injured teen, which hits close to home because of his own burns.) Violet (Hanako Greensmith) thinks Carver reacted the way he did because he has feelings for Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and the father had gotten in his face. But he points out she’s the one who’s been keeping him at a distance and he’s no in love with Kidd “because I am stupid enough to have fallen in love with you.”

When Violet stops in to see Kidd at the end of the shift, the lieutenant reveals that Carver’s taking another furlough and accidentally lets slip why the call got to him. She tries to track him down, but when she stops by his apartment, he’s somewhere, sitting in his car and not answering her call.

As for Damon, he’s been impressing Severide by being a self-starter, but after that call, Kidd’s ready to send him back into the floater pool. Damon starts talking to Severide about it, but it’s not until after 51 says goodbye to Boden that he tells him why the call got to him and why he’s really at 51. The father at the restaurant was being mean and treating the younger kid like dirt, and he had a father like that, too, and his name was Benny Severide (the late Treat Williams). He’s Severide’s half-brother?!

Plus, after Brett sends a photo of baby Julia to Kidd, it leads to Severide admitting he’s thinking that they start a family, which he knows is a bigger decision for her. She wasn’t expecting that, but he’s been thinking about it a lot. That’s left unresolved.

What did you think of how Fire wrote out Boden? The reveal about Damon? Stellaride’s conversation about having kids? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Chicago Fire, Season 13, Fall 2024, NBC