(NBC) — NBC’s “Chicago Fire” welcomes a familiar face in this week’s episode — the long-term chief of Firehouse 51 is back, but not under the best circumstances.

Eamonn Walker opened up about his return to the show. While it has taken most of this season, Chief Boden makes good on last year’s promise on this week’s “Chicago Fire”.

“There was a round of applause as I stepped onto the fire floor and, and I was like, OK, it is a little overwhelming, but it was great,” Walker said.

However, Walker needed a refresher with his dialect coach to disguise his British accent.

“It was amazing, we put the uniform on, the voice went on, and then all sorts of other things started to happen on automatic pilot,” Walker said.

Bowden returns to Firehouse 51 in his new capacity as deputy commissioner to investigate what went wrong with a blaze that left one of their own in critical condition.

“Who’s going to be responsible for the fact that a man was left behind?” Walker posed as the episode’s central question.

Walker says there is also a crackle in the air as the new chief meets his predecessor, Chief Dom Pascal, played by Dermot Mulroney.

“He got to watch how everybody is with Bowden, how people naturally are with Bowden and there’s a lot of love there,” Walker said. “And so, his character hasn’t got to that point yet.”

A connection Walker also enjoyed with his cast mates.

“For the actual filming, we’re very serious, but in between, it’s, it’s very, very funny,” Walker said. “That’s what I missed.”

But for one night, it is a Chicago welcome home.

Watch “Chicago Fire” Wednesday at 9 p.m. on NBC4.