NBCSteven R. McQueen has put out his last Chicago fire on Chicago Fire. At least for now. McQueen, who joined the NBC series following his The Vampire Diaries tenure, had his last episode on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
After wrestling with accepting Boden's (Eamonn Walker) authority after the death of his brother, McQueen's Jimmy took matters into his own hands during a call and was badly injured.
"You can't have everybody always get away cleanly and safely and always have happy endings. That's something that we're always juggling and trying to balance and trying to deliver on for the audience," Chicago Fire co-creator Michael Brandt told The Hollywood Reporter about the decision to write out Jimmy with an injury.
"As you start to go through what are the big moves you're going to make each season and especially towards the end of the season, you take a hard look at everybody on the show in terms of all the characters and what kind of moves you want to make," he continued.
Brandt said the writers felt Jimmy would be one to act brash because he's young and emotional.
"We had met his brother when we first introduced the character. His brother was kind of a wild card if you remember, he ties Jimmy up with duct tape and pours alcohol on him and dumps him on the firehouse driveway…Ultimately, it comes down to creative in terms of who might be leaving the show and what we liked about this was Jimmy's repairing of his relationship with his brother and then ultimately that being the downfall of the character on the show. It wasn't out of the blue," Brandt explained. "It was motivated by his love for his brother and it was also motivated by the decision that Boden made which you know all those things always live in grey areas and they're always very complicated so it was just a creative [decision.]"
Brandt told TVLine there is a chance Jimmy could be seen down the line because "Character-wise, you can never burn bridges on a show too badly to not salvage them."
"He goes out fighting for what he believes in, and there's nothing wrong with that. At the end of the episode, there's a scene between him and Boden where you realize everything is OK between them," he said. "Boden respects why Jimmy did what he did. But that said, there are no plans right now to bring Jimmy back to the show."
McQueen joined Chicago Fire in 2015 after being part of The Vampire Diaries since 2009. His exit is just the latest in a long line of Chicago Fire shake-ups. Lauren German, Charlie Barnett and Dora Madison previously exited the series.
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Chicago Fire airs Tuesdays, 10 p.m. on NBC.