'Chicago Fire' Season 8: How long is the show going to explore Sylvie Brett's story in Indiana?
Sylvie Brett (Kara Kilmer) had quite the season on 'Chicago Fire' last year. After Gabby Dawson (Monica Raymund) left it looked like Brett and Casey (Jesse Spencer) might be a thing after it looked like both harbored feelings for each other. Neither of them told the other and in the meantime Brett also dated chaplain Kyle Sheffield (Teddy Sears) for a while until they broke up. However, Kyle when showed up in the season 7 finale he proposed to Brett and she accepted.
When 'Chicago Fire' returned for its eighth season last week we were shown Brett in Indiana three months after the boiler explosion gave her a broken arm. Now, the cast has come off and Brett considers applying to the town's local fire station. When she goes in to interview for the position and submits her resume she is told that her experience from one shift in Chicago is more than what she will see in Indiana. Later, when she speaks to Kyle about it he says that he did not think she should go back to work, saying that being a chaplain's wife is a job in itself. The episode had been generally somber with Otis's death and while we could attribute Brett's low demeanor to that she did not look too thrilled to be back home in Indiana.
The synopsis for the next episode suggests that Brett will be sticking around in Indiana for some time. It tells us, "Brett realizes life in Fowlerton will take some time getting used to". So this will mean that Brett will not be going back to Chicago anytime soon, as fans wanted. This is a new direction for the show, exploring the life of one of its main characters in a place that is not Chicago and it would obviously not make sense unless Brett ostensibly comes back to Chicago. The question is, how long will the writers keep at it?
So far, it looks like Brett is going to try and adjust to this new life -- it is probably her way of dealing with Otis's death feeling too heartbroken to return to the family that possibly feels incomplete. But Brett is a good paramedic, she is great at her job and she was ready to get back in it as soon as the cast was off. She was clearly disappointed that Fowlerton would not be as exciting as Chicago, professionally at least. Brett left home once before and she probably feels she has to try and stay and not run away again. But it is only a matter of time until she realizes that she cannot just be a chaplain's wife.
The writers will probably explore Kyle's and Brett's relationship more, considering it is what took her to Indiana and prevented her from leaving. Unless that relationship gets to the point where Brett feels she can no longer stay away from Chicago, she is going to continue feeling that she has to stick around in Fowlerton and viewers could possibly see this go on for at least two or three more episodes. Perhaps, it is during the 'One Chicago' crossover event, set to air mid-October, that Brett makes her return to Chicago. And Brett could be who Joe Cruz (Joe Minoso) needs to deal with his grief over Otis's death.
'Chicago Fire' airs on NBC on Wednesday nights.