Here's Why Mouch Is Missing on Chicago Fire's January 22, 2025 Episode
Everyone's favorite "part-man, part-couch" was absent from this week's Chicago Fire.
Mouch McHolland (Christian Stolte) has been a fan-favorite Chicago Fire character since Season 1, and he's still killing it on the show 13 years later.
This season, fans have watched Mouch pursue and study tirelessly for the lieutenant exam to move up in the CFD; decades of curiosity from the firefighter inspired him to make career moves. In Fire's midseason premiere, all of 51 rejoiced after learning Mouch passed the test, celebrating his promotion at Molly's alongside his buddy Herrmann (David Eigenberg), who also passed the captain's exam.
The Firehouse 51 ranks have yet to change — Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), and Herrmann are still the acting lieutenants — but Mouch is now there to swoop in and save the day if his higher-ups falter or, more likely, any of them need to take a few days off. Mouch recently got a chance to lead Truck 81 amid Stella's recent absence, and it was a smash success, but he was noticeably missing from Chicago Fire's January 22 episode.
RELATED: What's Happened to Christian Stotle's Mouch on Chicago Fire?
Find out why Mouch wasn't with his Firehouse 51 colleagues on Season 13, Episode 10 ("Chaos Theory"), below.
Where was Mouch in Chicago Fire Season 13, Episode 10?
Mouch was recently absent from Firehouse 51 to take a class, leaving just as Stella returned from a trip to Baltimore.
"How was the acting lieutenant while I was gone?" Stella asked Herrmann.
"Mouch?" Herrmann asked, donning a playfully serious stare. "He was terrible. He's an embarrassment to the institution."
"You do know he isn't here today, right?" Stella asked, informing Herrmann that Mouch wasn't at Firehouse 51 because he was taking a required class at the Fire Service Institute. Firehouse 51 floater Chippy was there to help pick up the slack.
"Mouch is a natural," Herrmann finally told Stella earnestly. "It was good seeing him get in on the action."
Rest assured, Chi-Hards, Mouch will be back in action soon!
In a 2021 TVMeg interview, Stolte revealed a Chicago Fire memory he deeply cherishes.
"Take any moment in the back of that truck where we're laughing until tears come out of our eyes, and that's my favorite moment," Stolte revealed. "As far as the actual acting part, a lot of the cool rescues and stuff we did, those are hard-won moments. They take a lot of hard work from a lot of people to make those things happen, and they are rewarding in their own way."
Watch Chicago Fire on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
