SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago Fire Season 14, Episode 8.

When Chicago Fire left off with Kelly Severide in a burning house, fans of the NBC series knew it would return with another installment of Severide as the world’s best arson investigator. “A Man Possessed” is exactly that, with the added emotional component of making it very personal for Severide. Along the way, viewers get a reminder of just how talented actor Taylor Kinney is.

The writers have carved out a great niche for Severide as a part-time arson sleuth—something which pops up at least once a season. And it’s perfectly fine that it does, because he’s incredibly good at it and these episodes add an extra dimension to the show as a whole. They serve as detective stories. The unique element to this one is that the fire injures Captain Van Meter, who’s become a friend to Severide. That twist isn’t unexpected; an easy way to create stakes on any TV drama is to hurt a secondary character. But it works here, because viewers have spent enough time with Van Meter that they also care what happens to him.

The scene in which Severide learns that Van Meter has been placed into a medically induced coma is an example of how Taylor Kinney has been underrated as an actor. He gets a lot of deserved praise for his action work (which is also featured in this episode), but his reactions in that scene say so much with very few words. Audiences can see and feel Severide’s anguish. Most of “A Man Possessed” is what viewers know and love about the character, as Severide works to unravel the story and eventually gets himself kicked off the case because he loses his temper with the prime suspect. But it’s so true to Severide that it doesn’t matter that audiences know where it’s going; it’s where they want the story to go.

The subplots vary in their degrees of success. The main one is the planned decommissioning of Engine 51, which would also mean the exit of Mouch from the department. On one hand, it’s hard to get superbly concerned about this because Mouch has been at risk multiple times and always pulled through, including having been technically dead. On the other hand, the plot twist of Annette Davis going full Lady Macbeth on Chief Dom Pascal is intriguing. It adds a whole new frustrating level to that potential relationship, and Annabeth Gish is a great choice to be a frenemy. Her performance is reminiscent of Michelle Forbes much earlier in Chicago Fire‘s run.

What doesn’t work is yet another hint that the writers are pushing Violet Mikami and Sal Vasquez together as a couple. Violet calling Vasquez “unique” to Lizzie Novak seems like foreshadowing (at least Novak thinks it is), and frankly neither Violet nor Vasquez need that right now. Violet has honestly been shortchanged relationship-wise; the death of Hawkins is still a controversial choice, and then viewers invested time into Violet and Sam Carver, only for Carver to be written out of the show. Putting Violet together with Vasquez a half-season after Carver’s departure feels fast, and in Vasquez’s case, he doesn’t need a relationship right away. He barely has himself figured out. It’s fine for both these characters to be single for a while, and then if their chemistry persists, a relationship would feel much more genuine.

Stella Kidd also returns to Chicago with her and Severide’s foster son Isaiah, and the latest update on Isaiah’s mom is that she’s improving. This is great news—to a point. If this is leading to Isaiah’s mom getting better so that he disappears off to Cleveland, that will be a letdown for Stellaride shippers and Chicago Fire fans as a whole. After getting their hopes up about Stella’s pregnancy, it would be a second cold shoulder to get invested in Isaiah and have that just be a short-term plot, too.

Yet ultimately, “A Man Possessed” is a Kelly Severide story, and one in which he does what he does best. It takes the time it needs to check in on everything else going on in the Chicago Fire world, which makes it feel well-rounded, but it lets Taylor Kinney lead the way—and he does wonderfully. Now the only caveat is that Van Meter had better not be killed off later; the dramatic effect has already been achieved by his injury, and he’s too valuable a character to get rid of.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.