Jesse Spencer returns to NBC’s Chicago Fire on Wednesday night as Matt Casey, the firefighter with a huge heart who thankfully can’t seem to stay away since moving to Portland.
In this week’s episode, titled “Danger Is All Around,” Casey goes home for both professional and personal reasons. Professionally, he’s leading a top-secret task force and he needs to pick a local representative — someone he trusts — to hold things down in Chicago while he remains committed to the Portland FD.
“Casey gets involved with the Department of Homeland Security in Oregon because there have been potential domestic terror attacks across the United States, something he discovers after finding evidence of where future attacks could take place,” Spencer told Deadline during an interview Monday. “So he gets involved with the FBI, the DHS, and becomes a special liaison for first responders in case these attacks do come to fruition. That’s why he goes to Chicago, to brief first responders to hopefully be able to prevent one or stop one in progress. It’s a pretty serious mission for Casey. He’s had a lot of serious missions before but this one concerns national security. He still considers Chicago home so, he has a special interest in coming back and picking his liaison there.”
His personal reasons for returning are a little more complicated. Before Casey left for Portland to care for Griffin and Ben Darden, sons of Firehouse 51 legend Andy Darden who died in the series premiere, things had finally gotten hot and heavy with Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer). They tried the long-distance thing but reality hit when Casey returned for the Stellaride wedding in the Season 10 finale, leaving him and Sylvie agreeing to split up.
When Casey returns tomorrow night, he’s anxious to see Sylvie and find out what she’s been up to.
“He’s also back because he wants to see everyone at Firehouse 51, and obviously, catch up with Brett, see if she’s single or not,” said Spencer. “He’s not told her he’s coming so it’s a bit of a shock to her but they get talking and he finds out that she’s dating someone. But he’s in Oregon, of course, but it feels like his time there is coming to an end. The Darden boys are getting older, doing really well, and are moving on. It feels like he’s there to sniff around Chicago and his old flame and maybe rekindle that fire.”
With Casey’s time looking to conclude in Oregon, could Spencer be coming back full time?
“I cannot… answer that question,” Spencer said after a long pause. “The potential to come back would be awesome. I’m always open to that but you know, the ball isn’t really in my court. I always told [series co-creator] Derek Haas that if there were episodes that he thought would be appropriate for me to come back, then I’m totally open to that because I want to see the old gang and I love working there. But in terms of me coming back full time or something, I have no idea.”