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Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers from Tuesday’s season premiere of Chicago Fire. If you have yet to watch, head to a different TVLine story. Everyone else, read on…
Chicago Fire fans, have you wiped away your tears yet over Tuesday’s heartbreaking demise?
If not, executive producer Matt Olmstead tries to provide some solace below, with a bit of tough love thrown in — “You mourn it and move on,” he says — as he explains why Shay (played by Lauren German) had to die.
But don’t get too down — there’s some hope for a possible reappearance!
The EP also responds to fan reaction over the shocking twist and reveals that someone else was under consideration for a visit from the Grim Reaper.
TVLINE | I was surprised because I didn’t think the death would be someone as central of a character as Shay.
That was the intention. Going into it, we knew if we were going to do it, it had to be someone who was going to give us a big impact, as opposed to going for a lesser-known character, which would equate to a pulled punch. So, as opposed to approaching it with timidity, we thought we’d go for it.
TVLINE | Not to put a target on anybody else’s back, but you have a very big cast. Did you ever consider killing off a different character?
We did. In the writers’ room, we have [photos of] all the actors in character lined up just as a visual reference. We went down, one by one… It’s like a roster of a sports team when you’re having to make a cut. You’re having to weigh the pros and cons of each one. Some we moved off in two seconds, said that wasn’t going to happen. Others we debated, but we gave everybody a day in court. We came back to Shay because it affected the most people.
TVLINE | How far in advance did you tell Lauren the news? And how did she react?
There was some discussion that this might be happening, and she was very professional about it. She joked that she wasn’t going to miss the Chicago winters. She’s a California girl. So it was nice to know she was able to joke about it a little bit. My experience, having done this a couple times, is you’re expecting the worst and then you’re relieved [by] the professionalism and the graciousness of the actor. They almost know that you’re feeling worse than they are. It sucks, but it’s a job and a craft. This is what happens sometimes. You mourn it and move on.
RELATED Chicago Fire Premiere Recap: The Fallen
TVLINE | She still got to work on the season premiere in those flashbacks. Was that a welcome treat for Lauren? Or was it sad having to film those scenes, knowing she was leaving the show?
It’s the definition of bittersweet when you get to come back and see everybody, your extended family, but then you realize are you not going to see the people you work with, at least for a while. The character’s dead, obviously, so there’s no coming back. You’re also filming some emotional scenes… It was an emotional set in a lot of different ways.
TVLINE | Shay’s dead, but might we see her in more flashbacks?
There’s no flashbacks. When Derek [Haas] and Michael [Brandt] created the show, keep in mind, the show came on the year after Rescue Me ended. They were as cognizant as I was coming in as the showrunner that we didn’t want to draw too many comparisons to that show. One of the hallmarks of that show was the flashbacks and talking to ghosts and people who died before. So we weren’t going to go that route. At the end of the episode, Severide has a DVD of some of their memories, and for our purposes, there’s plenty of DVDs they recorded [of] their friendship and their life as roommates. Who knows down the line when he might pop one in to remember her when he needs to?
TVLINE | Some fans are miffed because Shay was one of the few female characters on the show and she was also a lesbian. Was that something you took into consideration when making the decision?
No, there was no agenda either way. All the characters were assessed on equal footing, so there wasn’t any kind of, “Let’s not do this for this reason, not do that for that reason.” As storytellers, you have to be unsentimental sometimes. Having done it before, when characters have been killed, absolutely, initially, there’s a very strong reaction, especially from the faction that was really into that character. My policy is really not to go right away and read the comments moments after. You’ve got to let it set a little bit and trust that strong storytelling is going to be strong storytelling.
By way of example, the first gig I ever had was on NYPD Blue a long time ago. There was an arc of the death of Jimmy Smits’ [character Bobby Simone]. It was unbelievable arc in terms of a death of a character, written by David Milch. At the outset, if you would have polled all the viewers, nobody wanted to kill Bobby Simone. He was a beloved character. But what it gave them emotionally and in terms of storytelling and then thereafter was worth it. Sometimes, you have to do that to bring more storylines into a show, and that’s what we decided to do.
TVLINE | From a writer/producer standpoint, what are you going to miss about Shay?
What I’m going to miss about Shay is what I’m going to miss about Lauren German, which is an extremely talented actress who can play both heavy dramatic scenes, but had a light touch and was funny and just likable. Having gone through a lot of casting sessions, a lot of shows, for whatever reason, only a few people really have it in terms of that kind of magical combination. She definitely has it. What’s great about her is you could write anything to her, knowing she would be able to hit it out of the park, whether it was heavy or that rascal-y aspect of her character. She was really a can-do-it-all actress.
Stay tuned to TVLine for Chicago Fire scoop on what’s ahead for Dawson, Severide, Casey and the rest of the team.
Killing off Shay was NOT cool. At all. My fave shows are usually female-led but I have a few sausage fest shows that I watch which have strong female characters, Chicago Fire being one of them. I always have to scratch my head when it’s one of the females they kill off or replace. I mean, really?! You have an ensemble cast with a male to female ratio of 9:2 and you subtract from the 2?! Ridiculous!
Hailey and Jones were killed off.
They were also female so it went from 9:4 to 9:1 then…
Exactly! I tend towards female dominated shows, but I watched this one because I think it would be cool to be a firefighter and I liked both Dawson and Shay. Women aren’t interchangeable, but that’s how male writers tend to write us. And that’s what this feels like. I’m out.
Is shay coming back
Where’s all the people who said Lauren probably wanted to be written off, lol.
And this show is a soapy procedural, defending killing her on ~artistic~ grounds is ridiculous.
I just feel like as a writer, if you’re already at the point two seasons in where you have to kill people off in order to open up stories then you’ve written yourself into one hell of a corner. It’s a lazy plot device.
Killing Shay was a big mistake. You can ask me that today, tomorrow, years from now. I know that I will never watch Season 3 Episode 1 ever again. Yes, we connected with her because she is that good. And now you stole that away. No, House 51 will never be the same. I don’t mean that in the way you want. I agree with the comments that you got lazy and wanted to kill someone off. You’re in season 3! Not 5, not 7, not 10. People are still catching on and you go and kill a main character. You could have taken any of the guys. And you “replace” Shay with another blonde who looks eerily similar to Shay. I think this decision will haunt you. I feel like I’m grieving the loss of a friend. I’m currently in the blaming stage and now after this lame excuse for an interview, I’ll contently stay in this stage. You killed Shay. Maybe Chicago PD can take you out. Or at least put you in front of Bad Judge. Lame and lazy!
Killing off a a main character just because the writers ran out of storyline ideas is lazy and short-sighted. Chicago Fire will always be less of a show without the Shay character.
Between Shay 47episodes, Hailey 10 episodes, and Jones 7 episodes this show likes it when women die. Because when women get killed it makes an impact.
Only male character that i remember dieing
Darden 6 episodes
Great! You kill off the one gay character in the show. So stereotypical! I’m really disappointed that this decision was made.. It had to be the one gay character….really? Loved the show….don’t love this move!
Done watching the show. You don’t need to kill off people for a plot twist. Good writing can handle that. So tired of shows doing this crap. Just lost a viewer.
Producers are silly some of the time and certainly in this case they were.To kill off a central character may be fun for them but not or the fans or Lauren! What they don’t get is the “fans” tune in to their shows because of the connection to the characters. without that there is no reason to watch the show. Killing off a main character for shock value is ridiculous and a senseless waste and I am asking myself if I want to continue on with the show.
“You mourn it and move on” well I’m sure the writers did immediately, I will never. The anger and bitterness I’m feeling is not something that’s strong right now because it just happened, I’ll never forgive them for this. They think they’re trying to be original but killing Shay was the most predictable thing they could do, they think they’re doing something groundbreaking by killing the lesbian? Oh no wait but they said that her being a lesbian has nothing to do with it right? except it does, it’s always that way, and no matter how many pointless excuses they make, that’s the real reason.
“Some we moved off in two seconds, said that wasn’t going to happen.” I believe those were Casey and Severide, of course they’d never kill the beloved straight white males even though that would have been the unexpected thing to do, that would have been something interesting, but then what on earth would we do without them? how could we survive without seeing them shirtless and sweaty every week?
This exactly! No harm no foul on Jesse and Taylor, but really the creator stepped in it big time. ‘Some people’ the show just can’t live without. Really? This kind of crap should be done when your actors want to leave! This will come back to hurt them when that day comes. It always does, and that’s why shows start to fail. Because they lose those qualities that made us relate to them, and made us want to watch.
If they wanted to create drama and a massive impact, they should’ve chosen Dawson. I’m sorry if you guys don’t agree, i mean i love her but she would’ve made the biggest impact. I would’ve preferred that no one died and everything was normal
First of all, Casey would be destroyed and basically where Severide is right now. In fact, they would switch their roles and Severide would be cheering Casey up, while also trying to cheer Shay up.
The firehouse has known her longer than they’ve known Shay and would’ve ultimately felt much deeper about her loss (i mean i swear that no-one showed much sadness about her death apart from Severide, Dawson, Casey and Chief cause the rest of them just went about their day basically, occasionally mentioning her and lowering their voices but nothing like Severide).
The thing i love about chicago fire and chicago pd is that they aren’t like a lot of spinoffs where a main character (or a few) from the base show get their own show and basically live their life far away from the base show because these two shows are so close and when something happens in one show, you hear about it the next episode on the other show. Shay’s death wouldn’t of affected chicago pd at all but Dawson’s certainly would. I would love to see her brother in a vulnerable place like episode two of chicago pd and Halstead might even be affected because of their fling back in season 2 of cf. This might even cause lindsay to become jealous or worried which could cause some sort of Linstead hookup.
I’m just wondering if they’ve had a funeral for Shay yet, i would love to see that (although i would love even more if Shay never died)
Yeah, didn’t they basically make the whole show last season about how Gabby was the center of everyone’s world? Really, even Mouch when standing in front of a gorgeous, half dressed Lauren German, said his ideal woman was Gabby. And great catch about the high impact for PD.
I really this was to lead to a Dawson, Casey, Severide triangle. And that’s one thing they could never do with the character of Shay.
Yes killing dawson must have caused a greater impact than killing shay, they are just blind to this option and saying like they have no other choice. What a shame.
I rather let the #chicagofire world stay in the last season and everyone is still fighting to save lives in my mind.
I have never been this desperated from watching a TV show. *Sigh*
I must say that the ending scene with Severide was my favourite scene in the whole series cause not only was i crying so much, i felt like my heart was wrenched out of my chest and smashed to pieces, thats how good of an actor Taylor Kinney is. It showed so much emotion and depth and it was so simple yet beautiful that i nearly had a heartattack.
Interesting. I thought the acting was pretty poor. Usually a person tries not to cry when it comes to it and then just can’t hold it back and to me it clearly looked like he was TRYING to cry…(so it was stage crying)…didn’t move me at all. Might have been because I had a lot of acting training but yes…
I think this was well done. Not too melodramatic, just the right amount of sentimentalism to get viewers involved in her death, but also to look forward to the future development of the other characters. Of course, it helps that I didn’t like her character, too immature for my taste, so I won’t be losing any sleep over this one.
I think they have just made a big mistake
It was such a great show, with shay in it. Once characters start leaving, the show starts declining. That is really going to suck because I really liked Chicago Fire, that is the old Chicago Fire with shay in it. Big Mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For it was Shaycago Fire…
Now it’ nothing.
I will move on… on Person of Interest.
Funny you should bring that up. I take turns watching POI and CF live and then come back to the other the next day. I watched CF on Comcast on Wednesday and my jaw dropped. One big difference between the shows and it’s treatment of key and recurring female characters. PoI had one lead female request to leave and PoI responded by bringing in not one, but two strong female leads. Chicago Fire seems to be making a habit of killing off it’s one female lead and recurring characters.
I think everyone should just stop watching the show and protect it until they bring Shay back
Um… she’s dead. Unless they decide to add a supernatural element to the show (at which point I will stop watching), they can’t “bring her back.”
Grow up.
My friend, this is not the Dallas. :)
protest
I think this was a huge mistake on the show part I personally have no desire to watch the show anymore lieutenant Casey severide the chief dawson and shay are the main 5 characters that should have never been touched I believe the show’s ratings depend on that I think the fans would rather see other drama with those 5 characters rather than seeing one of those 5 characters parish
I don’t know about anyone else but this episode was disappointing and heartbreaking to watch the fact that they killed her off was bad enough but the fact that they glazed over it and did not even give her a funeral was pretty disgusting I think that they could have done betterbuy her out of respect for this actress and furthermore for the writer of the show to say that killing her off was going to create the biggest impact and storyline I don’t see a story line here who cares to see dawson struggle to get over shays death and then sever ride struggle with it also the next several episodes are going to be a constant reminder that she is no longer with the show that’s not a good plot that’s outright depressing I am very disappointed this was one of my favorite shows but I will not be watching it anymore they took one of my favorite characters off the show and it’s bad enough that they took her from the show but the way they did it soabruptly makes it worse several ride and Shay are my two favoritesso long Chicago Fire this show is going to lose so many ratings now what a huge mistake I personally think they need to change the script and write this as a dream possibly one of the other characters getting hurt in the fire and in a coma and this last episode could have just been their dream and they need to bring her backI think they are going to lose a lot of viewers
everyone who is a Lauren German supporter better known as shay should boycott the show don’t watch it until they bring her back
and what kind of BF is you mourn it and you move on I think they owed her much more then a quick killing and then 6 weeks later let’s focus on the other characters that is ridiculous sounds like to me maybe there was a problem off screen with contracts or something else that made them get rid of her so quickly big big big mistake
Totally agree
I thought about that as well. What show doesn’t give a MAIN character a funeral.
and what kind of Bs is you mourn it and you move on I think they owed her much more then a quick killing and then 6 weeks later let’s focus on the other characters that is ridiculous sounds like to me maybe there was a problem off screen with contracts or something else that made them get rid of her so quickly big big big mistake
there is so much freshness about this show because it is still a rather new show meaning there is still so many things that could be written about the characters there is so many different story lines and different routes that this show could take it was not necessary to kill one of the main characters are they that desperate for ratings because now they just killed their ratings when they killed her one of the best parts of this show wasthe chemistry between shay and severide I honestly have no more interest in this show they made a huge mistake they think by writing her out was going to stir up more interest how is backwards is that she was one of the reasons why many people watched the show she was beautiful she was smart she was funny and sassy and she could hang with the boys she was a very well rounded and well likeable character you are not going to find anyone to feel her shoesthe show is done I would be so curious to see what the ratings are for next weeks show I guarantee the ratings will have dropped tremendouslyyou want to see your show take an incredible twist and gain ratings you need to bring her back
Sure they can have many other storylines WITH SHAY STILL IN it. As simple as new relationship of Shay can be a new line. Obviously Shay is the character who has been developed the least in the past season and still have lot of room to write. They just too lazy to write about it and one jerk come up with the idea of killing someone, then pick the one with most ease killed. I am so disappointed with such a cruel arrangement.
I will miss shay she was one of my faves other then Dawson but I also think that this show won’t be the same with out shay cause even Kasey is leaving the show so this show will be crap soon. I wish shay would come back. Watch there will be somone else who will take shay and Kaseys place I just think this show made a big mistake. But it’s not just there fault shay it’s shay fault to. They did the same thing on two halfe man
The writer just killed this show, the new story lines are not holding my interest.
OMGoodness, you are so right!! I don’t like the replacement at all!!! One dimensional!!! And Severide needs to pull it together, people are depending on him and Shay would be sad to see him this way!