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Throughout\u00a0Chicago Fire<\/a><\/em> Season 13, the assumption was that Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg<\/a>) would, in the near future, take over as Firehouse 51\u2019s battalion chief, following Wallace Boden\u2019s (Eamonn Walker<\/a>) promotion, even with Dermot Mulroney<\/a> coming in as Don Pascal in the position. But by the end of the finale, he not only revealed that he didn\u2019t want the job, he also stepped back from being an officer, leaving an open lieutenant position for Mouch (Christian Stolte<\/a>).<\/p>\n Now, ahead of the Season 14 premiere on Wednesday, October 1, on NBC, Eigenberg explained that decision while on the new One Chicago Podcast<\/em> hosted by Brian Luce, a former Chicago police officer who\u2019s now a producer and technical consultant on\u00a0P.D.<\/em><\/p>\n Eigenberg appreciated that \u201cit doesn\u2019t look like [Herrmann] can pull off the whole chief thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI like that. They were like, \u2018You want to be chief on this?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Whatever you guys want.\u2019 I\u2019m a hired gun. I do what I do. I don\u2019t have enough ego in the game probably in my life, but I love people. I love being around. I want to stay for as long as I can, so I enjoyed that kind of journey. Everything\u2019s always about ascension.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he added, \u201cThere was a great book called The Knockout Artist<\/em><\/a>, and it was a book about a guy who was a great boxer, but he had a glass chin, and sometimes you\u2019re just born with a glass chin. It\u2019s who you are. You can\u2019t change that. And for people who don\u2019t know what a glass chin is \u2026 you get knocked out real quick. They go down, and it\u2019s not because they\u2019re not man enough, it\u2019s not because they don\u2019t have enough heart. \u2026 I like seeing that sometimes it\u2019s not always about the ascension and making it home. It\u2019s not always about getting the golden goose. Sometimes it\u2019s about just getting on with it. That\u2019s what firefighters and PD are about.\u201d<\/p>\n After the finale, showrunner Andrea Newman<\/a> told TV Insider<\/a> that the pressure, Mouch returning from his injury in the previous season, and Pascal showing him what being chief actually entailed (standing back during the action, not being boots on the ground) factored into Herrmann\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cBoden had said, \u2018You\u2019re the one to take the throne,\u2019 essentially. And that coming from Boden, who Herrmann worships, is heavy pressure. And then on the other side, you have Mouch who had come back from his injury in the previous season, \u2018Call Me McHolland,\u2019 like a totally rejuvenated firefighter on a war path. \u2018I\u2019m not going to be the couch guy anymore.\u2019 So Herrmann\u2019s kind of caught between these two things. And the one thing he never asks himself as the snowball starts rolling down the hill is, \u2018Do I want this?\u2019 And I think Pascal senses that and sensed that from the start, and so he\u2019s sort of testing him along the way,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was something we wanted to see, is Pascal turning the screws a little bit. And is he doing it for his own purposes or is he doing it to help Herrmann was always the question. And I think that\u2019s what leads all those roads to the finale and the decision that Herrmann makes.\u201d<\/p>\n And now, ahead of Season 14, as part of our One Chicago Fall Preview<\/a>, Newman shared, \u201cMouch really steps up and takes over,\u201d which will complicate things once he\u2019s Herrmann\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n