Chicago Fire Boss Breaks Down [Spoiler]'s Fate After That Warehouse Blaze — Plus, Was This The Last Of Pascal?

The following post contains spoilers for the "Chicago Fire" Season 15 premiere.

We'll start with the good news about Wednesday's "Chicago Fire" premiere: All members of Firehouse 51 made it out alive from last season's West Pershing warehouse fire cliffhanger. Whew.

But there's some very bad news as a result: Joe Cruz (Joe Miñoso) stayed behind to help a pair of civilians get out of the building, and a beam crashed down before he could make the rescue. Both civilians perished under the debris, and Cruz badly fractured his spine, leaving him currently unable to walk — and discouraging MRI results later confirmed that Cruz will likely never fight fires again.

It isn't a total surprise that Cruz is feeling the biggest impact of the warehouse fire — the biggest physical impact, anyway — given that Miñoso's forthcoming exit from "Chicago Fire" was reported back in July. Nevertheless, viewers now have a clearer picture of Miñoso's farewell storyline as the character struggles to accept that his career as a firefighter is all but over (and Herrmann struggles to overcome his guilt about the warehouse fire, since he offered to rescue those civilians, but Cruz insisted it should be him).

Elsewhere in Wednesday's season opener, Severide faced a little more doubt about his professional future, Novak and Vasquez acted extremely not-normal with each other after a romantic miscommunication last spring, and Dermot Mulroney made his final appearance as Dom Pascal. Below, newly instated "Chicago Fire" showrunner Victor Teran breaks down all of those developments — and more! — for TVLine; read our Q&A, then grade the premiere in our poll!

TVLINE | You left us all in suspense at the end of last season regarding who from Firehouse 51 may or may not have survived the warehouse fire. Ultimately, everyone did. Did you toy with the idea of not everyone making it out OK?
Candidly, we always think about it, because as we talk about in the writers' room, this happens. People die. This is a real dangerous job, so we're always tempted to honor that and also keep the audience on their toes, because this is the reality of the job. But in the end, it felt like it would have been a little cruel to the character, and to our audience, to do that. We did have a character in mind [Cruz], as you saw in the episode, and instead, we decided to create another storyline that is still very true to the dangers of the job and the extreme risks that they take. It allowed us to zoom in on that with one of our beloved characters.

TVLINE | I know you can't divulge exactly what will prompt Cruz leaving the show, but we do know more about his condition now: He won't be a firefighter again, it's unclear if he'll ever walk, he's got twins on the way, and he's not in a very optimistic place when the episode ends. What can we expect to see from him emotionally as his story winds down?
I can tell you it's a rollercoaster, as this kind of thing always is. This is such a deep part of Joe's life. Just the thought of giving it up — or being forced out of it — is almost like a death for him. He'll be grappling with that, and with the immediate health impacts on his life, for the first five episodes.

TVLINE | When Cruz and Herrmann talk at the end of the episode, Cruz isn't quick to reassure Herrmann that none of this is his fault, which is exactly what Herrmann was afraid of before that conversation. How does all of this linger with him in the episodes to come?
It's going to weigh heavily on him. I'm glad you caught that, because it speaks to something that we are consciously trying to do this season, which is not shy away from the real conflict that can arise between characters in these situations. Even though they're family and they love each other, real things come up for them, and this is definitely one of those things. Cruz could let him off the hook, but the truth is, he does feel some resentment. And it's not about what Herrmann thinks it's about, and we'll see that unfold. They'll eventually just have to try and work through it.

TVLINE | Throughout all of this, we have Severide in a leadership role that he's realizing will not allow him to go rogue anymore, or at least not go rogue and sweep it under the rug. So when Stella tells him that he needs to evolve, how is he going to internalize that? What will that evolution look like?
This is definitely going to be his journey this season. He's trying to understand what that means, and what he's meant to do with his career. We left him at this real fork in the road at the end of last season, and in a way, his decision-making process was interrupted by this extreme event that befell not only him, but the entire firehouse. He's dealing with the fallout of that, but he's going to have to get back into that conversation with himself about the kind of leadership he sees for himself in the CFD. That's going to take up the whole season, really, for him.

It always relates to Kidd, too, and how they're going to be leaders together at 51 and work together, and how that impacts their home life. This is all going to be rich fodder that we're going to be digging into all season.

TVLINE | You mentioned their home life, and there is a very quick mention in this episode that Isaiah is not living with Stella and Severide, but with his mom who moved back to town. Do you plan to bring Isaiah back, or is this meant to be the end of that storyline?
It would be nice to see him occasionally, but the truth is, we did want to wrap up that storyline. We want to give Kidd and Severide and their little family its due in this way. We left some conversations unaddressed, if we're being honest, about having kids and what all of that means to them, how important it is to them. That's what we'll eventually get to at the end of the season.

TVLINE | What can you say about how Pascal's time on the show will wind down, now that we know Dermot Mulroney is set to depart early this season?
We're not gonna really see him beyond Episode 1. We really intended to close him out at the end of last season, and we brought him back for this episode to be the conscience in Severide's head about becoming a chief, which is what he wanted for Severide. He started sending Severide into this new chapter with his words of wisdom at the end of Episode 1.

TVLINE | Let's turn to Novak and Vasquez, who have picked back up awkwardly after they were on different pages, romantically, last season. Novak tells him that she can be normal about it if he can, but can they ever be?
Here's the truth of it: They're both hurt. We wanted to build a little bit of a mystery around why that is, and it will keep building for, really, the first half of the season. Eventually we're going to find out what really happened that night, and hopefully, that will be a nice surprise that shifts everybody's perspective on that.

TVLINE | So the conversation they had in the finale, where Novak said this would be more than just fun for her — you're saying more happened after that?
Correct. I am saying that.

TVLINE | Am I right to have picked up on something between Novak and Burke, one of the new probies?
That was definitely an intentional thing. What we don't know in Episode 1 is if she's being flirty Novak to mess with Vasquez, or if she's feeling something. We're going to leave that open. We'll play with that. He's obviously very handsome, and he's charming, he's got a lot of charisma — we love Da'Vinchi, who's playing Burke. He's very magnetic, and she's going to feel that. But who knows where that might lead?

Your turn, "Chicago Fire" fans! How did you feel about the events of Wednesday's premiere? Grade the episode in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full reviews of the opener!