Chicago Fire (12x7) ⁞⁞ Episode Spotlight

Episode 7 of the twelfth season of the NBC firefighter drama Chicago Fire featured a subplot for gay fireman Darren Ritter (Daniel Kyri). He arrived at the firehouse, while chatting with his pal Violet. When he got a mysterious text that he didn't want to talk about, Violet (Hanako Greensmith) pressed until he revealed that he was seeing someone new and he slept over. He also revealed that he left his wallet and his new beau was offering to drop it off. An excited Violet demanded to meet him, but they were interrupted before Ritter agreed. The episode saw the firehouse crew responding to a house fire where they uncovered a large hidden cache of money was found. While talking about it with his colleagues later, Ritter witnessed their annoyance with the police response, highlighting an adversarial relationship with the cops. This seemed to give Ritter pause. That evening, his new beau Dwayne (Samuel B. Jackson) showed up and Ritter met him outside. They shared some flirtatious banter while making plans to see each other again, just before temp firefighter, Chippy (James Shinkle) came out, seeing them. Ritter cut off the conversation and walked away. Chippy later asked if the guy was his boyfriend, catching Ritter off-guard. He lied, telling him that it was a distant friend returning his wallet. Chippy felt Ritter's discomfort and walked away. He later found him at the bar and assured him that he didn't have a problem with Ritter being gay. Ritter told him that his new relationship was a secret he was keeping from the crew. Chippy figured they all knew about Ritter. That was when Ritter realized that Chippy thought he was talking about being in the closet. Ritter corrected him and then confided that his secret was that Dwayne is a cop and he's not sure the crew will be so happy learning he's gotten involved with one. Chippy agreed to keep his secret.