Has Dom Pascal lost his strongest ally at Firehouse 51?

During last week’s Chicago Fire, the chief was taken away by cops after he became the prime suspect in the murder of the man who killed Pascal’s wife, Monica, in a car accident. Lieutenant Severide stood by Pascal’s side, and he’ll continue to do so in this Wednesday’s season finale (airing at 9/8c on NBC). But even as the firefighter puts his job on the line by trying to clear Pascal, Severide will also have doubts about the man he’s defending.

“There’s a lot of mysteries that need to be solved and cards turned over to get this done, and I think Severide is a man on a mission to help Pascal,” showrunner Andrea Newman previews, “but he can’t help but has this nagging feeling that maybe he’s helping somebody who he shouldn’t be helping. Maybe he’s not going to get the answer he wants once he finally does turn over all those cards.”

Despite all the good things that Pascal has done to ingratiate himself with the 51 crew, he’s also proven himself to be something of a wild card, and he’s looking awfully guilty when it comes to this particular case.

“The one thing that we’ve learned over the course of the season is that Monica was Pascal’s Achilles’ heel,” Newman says. “When Bishop messed with Monica, all of a sudden, his garage was on fire. When Vale flirted with her, Pascal showed up at Vale’s door and punched him in the stomach. If anything’s going to set Pascal off, it’s anybody that does anything to Monica or talks badly of Monica.”

So Severide would “have to wonder” if Pascal did something bad to avenge his wife’s tragic death, Newman teases.

As the show unravels the mystery of what Pascal did or didn’t do, it will also be preparing to say goodbye to Sam Carver and Darren Ritter, whose portrayers, Jake Lockett and Daniel Kyri, will not return as series regulars next season. Newman isn’t giving up too many details about how the firefighters will be written out, but she is leaving the door open for them to return one day.

“Our characters have always — and this is the luxury of 13 seasons — but a bunch of them have come and gone and come back,” Newman said. “There’s still so much to be figured out with those two and those characters. We love the actors, we love the characters, and we want to give them some good, surprising moments and goodbyes, and then maybe hellos later down the line.”

Speaking about Carver and Ritter’s exits, Newman acknowledged that “there weren’t a lot of creative decisions behind it, because it all became this, like, ax falling across the network,” she shares. (Our sister site Deadline reported that budget cuts were responsible for the departures.)

“We love these characters and could play with them forever,” Newman continued. That said, “there’s always fun in bringing somebody new in, as well, and you have to shake these things up. And Pascal is the best example of that, because Pascal came in this year and kind of turned everybody spinning. It wasn’t just that character in the room, it was how everybody else responded to him that was fun to play. So mixing it up is always a good thing, and we’ll write to that next season… Change isn’t always good at 51, but then sometimes, it surprises you and lifts everybody up.”