Chicago Fire's First Looks Already Answer Some Cliffhanger Questions, But Can The Season 12 Premiere Work Without Casey?

Chicago Fire has been missing from primetime with new episodes for many months due to its longest hiatus since the COVID production shutdowns, but the wait is nearly over. With One Chicago arriving in the 2024 TV schedule in the not-too-distant future and no shortage of cliffhangers that need to be resolved, the Season 12 premiere of Fire is bound to be an intense experience. NBC has released early photos from the episode, called "Barely Gone," and some already work to resolve cliffhangers. Others... well, those make me wonder if the episode can work if Jesse Spencer isn't on hand as Matt Casey.

So, with the upcoming return of the original One Chicago show, let's revisit the Season 11 cliffhangers and check out the pictures that resolved them!

Will Severide Return As Squad Lieutenant?

The Season 11 finale ended with Stella determined to go and retrieve her husband after he secretly decided against coming back to Chicago; with no details at the time about whether Taylor Kinney would return as a series regular from his leave of absence, there was no guarantee that Severide would be back as the leader of Squad 3. Fortunately, early photos for Season 12 not only confirm that Severide will indeed be back in action as lieutenant, but he'll be helping Firehouse 51 in what looks like a serious crisis.

Welcome back to fighting fires in the Windy City, Severide! I'm not sure what this means for Cruz after he stepped into a leadership position to fill Severide's boots while he was out, but I'm definitely glad to have Taylor Kinney coming back to primetime.

Is Mouch Going To Die?

The Season 11 finale back in Spring 2023 ended with Mouch seemingly bleeding out in the hospital, with Herrmann shouting for help but no guarantee that Mouch would survive, let alone bounce back by fall. A lot has happened since then, not least the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike that pushed Season 12 back to 2024. News also broke back in November that Kara Killmer and Alberto Rosende were both set to leave Fire in Season 12. Unlike Brett, Gallo didn't have an exit strategy all lined up in the form of a proposal from somebody who lives across the country.

That fact combined with a severely burned firefighter in the above image, and I think that the question of if Mouch is going to die is more or less answered. For me, the question is if Gallo is going to die after Rosende opened up about a decision that "wasn't easy" for him. The injured firefighter on the gurney definitely doesn't look like Christian Stolte as Mouch or David Eigenberg as Herrmann; the only character other than Gallo who could really fit is Capp, and Capp isn't the one on the way out of the show.

Did this image definitively settle the question of if Mouch is going to die? Maybe not, but I feel a whole lot better about his fate than Gallo's.

What Kind Of Time Jump Is Coming?

Chicago Fire's season premieres often pick up where the previous finale left off before a major jump ahead, but I'm not sure that's possible in Season 12. Instead of returning in September or October as usual – a.k.a. before the Windy City weather turns frigid – the show will be back in January after production began in late November. Picking up where Season 11 ended doesn't feel like much of an option, and the above photo confirms that a big time jump is happening at some point for the first episode of 2024.

Sure, the foreground of the photo just shows Squad's Severide, Engine's Ritter, and Truck's Carver looking somber at what I have to assume is Brett and Violet taking the burned firefighter onto their ambulance, but if you look at the background, you'll spy some barren trees and snow-covered ground. This makes me more optimistic about Mouch being up and about before the end of the episode, assuming he survived, but also curious about what else we may have missed in the months of the extra-long hiatus.

Will Brett Say Yes To Casey?

While Mouch bleeding out was the life-or-death cliffhanger from the Season 11 finale, the very last scene was actually Casey going down on one knee and proposing to Brett. The episode ended before she answered him, and I had a hard time imagining a happily-ever-after for them before the news that Kara Killmer was leaving the series. I'm still not truly aboard the Brettsey ship, but based on the photo of Brett with Stella and Violet, that's not the case for her! If you look very closely, Brett appears to be wearing an engagement ring.

Personally, I've been wondering how Chicago Fire would address all the problems that broke them up in the first place that stemmed from Casey moving to Portland and Brett wanting to remain in Chicago, short of Jesse Spencer returning. Brett has roots in Chicago, and was in the process of adopting a baby girl when Season 11 ended, while Casey had to remain in Oregon a bit longer. I do think that a Brettsey happily-ever-after is how Fire will say goodbye to Kara Killmer, but I'm going to be a little bummed if all of these issues were worked out off-screen over the time jump.

Mouch can heal back to perfect health off-screen, if you ask me, but I'd hate to miss Fire showing what can make Brett and Casey work this time when they didn't before.

Can The Season 12 Premiere Work Without Casey?

And that leads me to a question that I've been asking and haven't stopped since back in May: can the beginning of Season 12 work without Jesse Spencer when he was part of the Season 11 cliffhanger? Admittedly, there's no confirmation that Spencer 100% won't appear in the episode, and I'll never rule out a Fire surprise appearance after the unexpected cameos of Monica Raymund as Dawson and Yuri Sardarov as Otis after leaving as series regulars. But I can't help but suspect that the payoff of the proposal cliffhanger will be underwhelming if Casey isn't present.

That said, this is the one cliffhanger that really could be helped by the need for a big time jump. It'd be easy to simply explain that Casey and Brett are back to long distance until they eventually tie the knot, meaning that there's no problem about Jesse Spencer not appearing in the premiere. And it technically hasn't been ruled out that he'll be a guest star in the first episode of Season 12, like he was in the above image from Season 11. Due to the time jump, I'd say that the premiere can work without Casey, but I'm probably not the only fan who wishes that the aftermath of the proposal could play out on screen.

Luckily, we don't have too much longer to wait to see all of the cliffhanger resolutions for ourselves beyond these early photos. Chicago Fire returns to NBC on Wednesday, January 17 at 9 p.m. ET for Season 12, between the Season 9 premiere of Chicago Med at 8 p.m. ET and Season 11 premiere of Chicago P.D. at 10 p.m. ET. You can also rewatch the finale for yourself ahead of time with a Peacock Premium subscription.