Last episode, 9-1-1 season 8 did the unthinkable: it killed off Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause). After that solid punch to the gut and a two-week break to stew on it, fans tuned in with baited breath for episode 16, “The Last Alarm”, and Bobby’s funeral. And, well… a funeral definitely happened. And it was, indeed, an episode. Here’s a recap…
Bobby’s death in the final moments of “Lab Rats” sent shockwaves across the internet, despite the fact that his funeral was literally livestreamed on TikTok by a random LA man just two weeks before. But still, it hurt like a sucker-punch to the face. 9-1-1 never kills off its main characters. That’s why many people watch it. It’s fun and silly and exciting and emotional, but its ensemble of fantastic first responders and the wonderful dynamics between them are what keep people coming back for more. The captain of the 118 dying – especially in a random episode in season 8, with a ninth season on the way – just didn’t make sense, which is why many viewers, including the one writing this, didn’t accept his fate and spent the last two weeks theorising about how he could still be alive. (Government biotesting lab, anyone? We still haven’t seen a body, and there was a delay in releasing his remains… something still feels suspicious to me.)After such a huge loss to the 118, it’s only natural that everyone will be feeling some kind of way about it. Unfortunately, much of that processing seems to happen off-screen, so let’s break down each character’s grieving process, one by one. First up is Athena Grant (Angela Bassett). As Bobby’s widow, Athena obviously has a hard time accepting Bobby’s death. This isn’t the first time she’s lost a partner, as we were reminded in the season 8 opening emergency as she transported her long deceased love Emmett’s killer to LA. She was always going to have complicated feelings around losing Bobby beyond the regular grief of a spouse. But the way she works through this loss is, for some reason, by getting stuck into a random side plot with a random woman looking for her dead son. Sure, her story encapsulates the same themes, keeps Athena busy and helps her work through her feelings, but it also takes up almost all of the episode.
No offence, but Bobby Nash is dead! Everyone is devastated! We don’t have time for these poignant but time-consuming shenanigans! Usually, I would be all for watching Athena set up camp in the kitchen with some lanterns and a portable printer, and going off-grid so she can solve an eight-year-old crime with nothing but a blank wall, some string to connect the dots and a really cool leather jacket. But time is really of the essence here. We’ve got three episodes of the season left, and about 50 million characters’ psyches to dive into.
The only person seemingly having as hard a time as Athena is Chimney (Kenneth Choi). As the guy who got the vaccine that could have also saved Bobby in “Lab Rats”, Chim is understandably distraught about the whole thing. He’s riddled with survivor’s guilt, and attempts to deal with it through taking up running and avoiding talking to his wife, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Chim is definitely the standout this episode. We don’t usually get to see him in this kind of headspace – angry and confused – and his classic one-liners hit with a little more venom through his grief, which adds an interesting layer. His episode arc comes to a head with him chugging a bottle of vodka on the fire station roof before the funeral, and spilling his guts out to Buck (Oliver Stark), who’s come to collect him. Chim gets MVP this week.