‘Chicago Fire’ Sneak Peek Reveals Casey’s Troubled Marriage

A newly released Chicago Fire sneak peek reveals that the series will be tackling a troubled marriage between Matt Casey and Gabby Dawson.

In the preview shared by TV Line, Casey (Jesse Spencer) is seen talking to Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) about the long-distance relationship that he and Gabby (Monica Raymund) are currently in.

As fans will remember, Gabby and Casey married before Raymund announced her exit from the show so now the couple is trying to make things work while Gabby is doing volunteer work out of the country and Casey is back home.

It appears that, in the season 7 premiere, the two have had trouble communicating.

“When she told me her two-week mission was going to extend a month, I didn’t protest,” Casey confides in Severide. “When that month became two, I blew up a little. Maybe a lot.

“We started out Facetiming, then phone calls. Now it’s pretty much just two-word texts,” he goes on to add. “I think I’m more angry than anything else.”

Severide then offers some insight and advice, but it’s not quite what Casey was hoping or expecting to hear. “If you want this long-distance thing to work, you might wanna step it up,” he states, to which Casey then notes the irony of taking relationship advice from someone who used to be a renowned playboy.

The changes to the Casey-Dawson dynamic was something fans new would have to happen once Raymund revealed she was leaving the show, and it gave the writers and producers quite a challenge as well.

“I was definitely caught off-guard that [Raymund] was not going to come back. That’s not to say that she didn’t give us plenty of time, because she did. But in my head, that was all just end-of-year negotiating or whatever,” Chicago Fire showrunner Derek Haas recently revealed, later joking, “I didn’t think that she really wasn’t going to come back.”

He also stated that the plan, for now, is to explore the nature of a long-distance relationship and the toll that it takes, rather than have the couple divorce right away.

“A realistic thing happens sometimes when a partner in a marriage takes a long-distance job, and so then you have to deal with a new reality to your relationship. That’s what Casey’s dealing with,” Haas explained. “We actually did a lot of research about the modern long-distance relationship, and how those are dealt with and/or overcome and/or fraught with danger.”

Chicago Fire season 7 is scheduled to premiere on Sept. 26 on NBC.