Jake Lockett on Sam Carver's Surprising Return to 'Chicago Fire'

The Chicago Fire Season 12 finale saw a lot of departures from Firehouse 51, including fan favorites Chief Wallace Boden ( Eammon Walker ) and Sam Carver ( Jake Lockett ). Boden’s exit is permanent, he received a promotion that took him downtown, but happily, in the Season 13 premiere, Carver returned, but he didn’t come back alone.

After telling Violet Mikami ( Hanako Greensmith ) that he loved her and being rebuffed, fans were hoping that Violet would come to her senses and apologize to Carver. She did come to her senses, but she hasn’t been able to tell him how she really feels, because he returned from Texas with his former high-school girlfriend Tori ( Holly Hinchliffe) in tow.

“I know that we dated in high school, we were high school sweethearts, and we don’t talk much,” Lockett tells Parade of the new woman in his life . “We didn’t talk much about why it ended, but generally as high school things do, they’re a little bit dramatic and not easy to deal with. Everything feels bigger when you’re that age, so that’s kind of how I see it. Looking back on it, it probably feels a little dramatic. But she fills a certain void, as you would assume, and allows him to not have to dig too deep into certain aspects.”

During his time in Texas, Carver was supposed to be working on his anger issues, which was why he was given leave. He seems different initially when he returns, but the question is if he really worked on his issues or just took the time off to have fun with Tori.

“After the first few episodes, I think there is definitely some awareness of some Band-Aids being used,” Lockett says. “Having gotten with Tori, whether or not he went back and did the work he needed to do is a good question. I think there’s a world where maybe he tried, maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t. But I think, in general, this whole situation, we’ve put a Band-Aid on it by allowing him to have this person who just lets him be the status quo, who doesn’t push him in different directions. And Tori is her own whirlwind as well, so I think there’s a lot he could still learn.”

So, what does that mean for Carver and Violet? Violet drunk texted Carver one night and then worried because he never responded. She came to find out that’s because he never saw the text. Tori deleted it and then told Violet, “I lost him once. I’m not going to lose him again.” Of course, Carver is clueless. Having told Violet that he loved her and she, with her own issues, having rebuffed him, they're now in the situation where they are having to work together. But feelings of love don’t automatically disappear.

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“I think that’s what happens when you put yourself out there and it doesn’t feel reciprocated, you’ve got to deal with that loss,” Lockett says. “I think that’s what’s hard. You see this person in front of you that you have such strong feelings for, but at the end of the day, they burned you. He’s got to deal with how to manage that on a professional level.”

And that’s what they’re both doing. On a professional level, they are handling it. When lives are at stake, they put their personal feelings aside and they do what they have to do to save a life, but when it comes to the firehouse on a personal level, it’s a bit messy.

“It’s like high school,” Lockett says. “We don’t really talk about things and they haven’t really talked about stuff. So, it kind of forces us to deal in the muck of it all and deal with the fact that he’s not willing to really talk about it. In fact, he shuts it down in Episode 1, right? He’s like, ‘Let’s just essentially forget the last year and move on like we never knew each other.’ It’s like, ‘Well, come on, guy, you’re going to have to talk at some point,’ but so far no.”

During our chat, Lockett also talked more about what he’d like to see happen for Carver this season, what it means to him to be portraying a first responder, and if he could save a life in real life.

We thought we were going to lose Sam Carver. Was there ever any doubt whether or not he was coming back, or did you always know the story?

Until it’s official, nothing’s official, so there’s always a little bit of healthy doubt. But it felt good from the moment I saw the script; I had a lot of love from this team and they made sure I knew what was happening. So, it felt good right from the start, but I’m glad it was the way it was. It’s always nice to be able to grow and change with the character, and I feel like that’s exactly what Sam is doing.

What would you like to see for Sam this season? Do you want him and Violet to eventually get back together? Do you want to see more heroics on fire calls? What are you looking for?

I love doing stunts and I love action, so getting to do even more than what they already give me, which is great, would be awesome. I would love to see some death-defying stunts fall into place. I know in Season 1, or early seasons, Severide ( Taylor Kinney ) was literally hanging off a 23-story building and I’m like, “That would be fun, that would be exciting.”

As far as just seeing what Sam does, I think there’s some beauty in taking time. I think not rushing anything would be great. If they get back together, I love working with Hanako, so having those two get back together, we have great chemistry, and to be able to allow those two characters to come together, I think a lot of people want it. If you look at social media, there’s a lot of people being like, “Who is this girl? [meaning Tori] What are you doing? Get your head on straight?”

So, I think there’s a lot of love for our relationship, so hopefully that does happen at some point. And if it doesn’t, that’ll be fine too, we’ll figure it out. I think as an actor it’s difficult but fun to deal in the unstated, and that’s really where we’re at with Sam, so I’m hoping they keep doing that. It’s a challenge for me and it’s exciting to deal with that on camera with other great actors. I’m very lucky.

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Violet has her own baggage, so it’s not just Carver that has to change, she has to change as well.

That’s right. I take it on the chin for Sam because Sam is who I deal with in front of the camera. But I would agree as an outside observer that Violet has her own mess that she has to sort through, and we’ll see if she does. I think that’s the fun of this. As much as, yes, happily ever after is exciting, at some point that’s where we resound. So right now, dealing with the struggle, dealing with the difficulty, the discomfort, the awkwardness is really where I want to keep living. I think it’s a fun place.

You mentioned hanging off a 23-story building, how much of your own stunts do they allow you to do? And how much do the stunt people do?

They’re pretty generous, they let us work, you know what I mean? And I like that, I like playing in the stunt world. Obviously, that doesn’t always get to be. For instance, Darren Ritter getting blown out of that window. Daniel [ Kyri ] would have loved to have done that stunt. But there’s certain things that are just outside of the scope of what they’re willing to let us do, which is probably for the best.

The guys doing those stunts are trained, they’ve dealt with the power that comes with dealing with a stunt like that, whether it’s that pulley harness jerking him out that window or whatever, they understand how to take that better than one of us actors do. But as actors, we always want to get as close to the real thing as possible, so whenever they let me, I do it.

Whenever we’re on that ladder, whenever we can hang over a building or doing that stuff, I’m always down. Because that allows me as the actor to deal with it, you know what I mean? You want to feel it. It’s so much easier, to be honest, to actually deal with the terror that could come with any of those crazy stunts.

That was quite something watching Daniel blow out that window.

Man, the behind the scenes of that, if you look at some of Midwest Stunts stuff or the One Chicago stuff, I think they showed some behind the scenes, and he just disappears. The stuntman just disappears out of view when they show you from inside the building. It’s pretty amazing.

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The firehouse has a new chief. Boden’s (Eamonn Walker) gone, and Chief Dom Pascal (Dermot Mulroney) is taking his place. How does that change things? And is Sam good with the new guy or is he taking a wait and see attitude?

I think anytime something comes in and shakes up the dynamic, I think Carver’s good with it. I think he appreciates and respects his lieutenant, Stella ( Miranda Rae Mayo ), but at the end of the day, a challenge is good. He’s always up to deal with a challenge. So, the new guy is not Chief Boden, and no one ever could be. Carver and Chief Boden, even though it may not have shown a ton on screen, they had a really good dynamic and I had a really good dynamic with Eamonn.

So, I think there’s a lot of loss there for him, but at the same time having someone come in, shake things up, push the group to be better, is always a good thing. I think Sam’s always about that. Someone puts a wall in front of me, it’s like, “How do I get through this wall?” It’s not like, “Well, there’s a wall in front of me, I’ve got to stop.” He’s like, “There’s a way through, how do I do it?” That’s one of the things I love about playing him, there’s never an obstacle too big for him, he’s going to figure out a way.

Before I started watching Chicago Fire , I had never seen the jaws of life or any of the ways that the first responders do rescues. What’s that like for you as an actor watching these things? Because the stories are all taken from real life.

I think it’s always important to get to see those inspirations that the writers use for sure. Working with those tools is no joke, those are the real tools, they’re the tools they would use, maybe in a less updated version, but they’re the tools they would use nowadays in actual rescue scenarios. It also shows you the power that’s needed to rescue people sometimes.

Those things can cut through the beams inside the doors of vehicles, they can rip open doors on vehicles, they can separate things that are crushing someone. You can use them to push the dash away from the floorboard if there’s been a crushed situation. I think it was in Season 11, there was a huge concrete I-beam that was on top of a car, and we used the jaws to lift it up just enough to depressurize it. Those things are powerful. It’s so humbling to watch what you need to save a life.

This past summer, we went down to ISFI, the Illinois Fire Safety Institute, and we did some work with real firefighters, volunteer and career firefighters, and there’s a lot you’ve got to take in. Especially nowadays with airbags, if you cut through an airbag, that’s an explosion you’re going to set off that could kill the person inside the car, or kill you. When you look at electric vehicles, there’s power running through that whole vehicle, so if you cut through one of those, it can kill someone.

I think the thing that I really try to hold close is how I can represent those people the best. Those men and women that are out there actually doing this in real life, they take a lot of pride in what they do because it is lifesaving. So being able to show them respect by living in the reality of the power of those tools and how it is they have to be used to save lives is really, really something I take close to heart.

Have you learned CPR? If you were somewhere and somebody needed CPR, could you jump in?

Yeah, I could jump in with CPR. I’ve kept my CPR cert for years. I used to be a personal trainer, so it is something that has allowed me to stay fit but also understand a little bit about life-saving care. So yeah, CPR I could do. I don’t want to do it because it’s a rough day to have to do it, but if I had to do it to save a life, I could do it.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

Next, Chicago Fire Will Heat Up When It Returns for Season 13 With a New Fire Chief for Firehouse 51