Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Sam Carver (Jake Lockett) have had a

complicated dynamic on Chicago Fire. They went from enemies to friends to really

good friends, and season 12 has seen them mostly avoid one another in favor of

other characters. There’s been some good Kidd and Carver action throughout the season, but the emphasis on their shared firefighting past was lacking in comparison to season 11– that is, until the new episode “All the Dark.” CHICAGO FIRE — “A Beautiful Life” Episode 1108 — Pictured: (l-r) Jake Lockett as Carver, Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd — (Photo by: Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC) / While the synopsis and promo for the episode made it seem as though it would be centered around a freak accident at a dialysis center, “All the Dark” actually had an ace up its sleeve in the form of a new character named Charlie. Charlie was one of the patients at the dialysis center, and prior to his retirement, he was a renowned training teacher at the firefighting academy.

He took both Kidd and Carver under his wing when they were just starting out, and both characters came to look upon him as a father figure. Under different circumstances, Kidd and Carver would have been content that they were able to stop a toxic substance from spreading through the air of the dialysis center. Instead, they chose to follow up on the case, and make sure that their old teacher was doing okay after he returned to his home. He was not. Kidd and Carver paid a visit to Charlie’s home and found him sprawled out on the floor of his living room. The firefighting duo rushed Charlie to the hospital, where it was determined that his veins ruptured after his dialysis treatment. Fortunately, with help from his former students, Charlie made a full recovery.

CHICAGO FIRE — “A White Knuckle Panic” Episode 915 — Pictured: Miranda Rae Mayo as Stella Kidd — (Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC) / Charlie is a widower without any children, as he spent most of his life mentoring the firefighters who came through his training program. Kidd and Carver recognize this, and bond in a way that we haven’t seen since last season. Some fans believe that Kidd and Carver got a little too close during season 11, and understandably so, as even the characters were hesitant to discuss their dynamic in the absence of Kidd’s husband, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney). While it doesn’t seem like the show will push the Kidd/Carver arc in the same, potentially scandalous direction as before, it’s nice to see them interact and continue to grow in different ways as peers and people who share a firefighting past.