‘9-1-1’: Jennifer Love Hewitt & Kenneth Choi Talk Maddie & Chimney’s Emotional Wedding, Latest Trauma

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 6 “There Goes the Groom.”]

Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney’s (Kenneth Choi) first date was postponed when her abusive ex-husband, Doug (Brian Hallisay), stabbed him and kidnapped her. There was no way that 9-1-1 was going to have them get married without something going wrong. But that resulted in an episode filled with what makes the show so good seven seasons in: the right mix of heart and trauma.

But in this case, the groom simply goes missing because he can’t remember he’s supposed to be at his own wedding, thinking it’s 20 years ago because of viral encephalitis after an encounter with a patient on a call. It’s all hands on deck to try to find him, while he’s wandering around Los Angeles, hallucinating Doug taunting him and then Kevin (James Chen) guiding him home—to the Lees (Freda Foh Shen and Kelvin Han Yee), who get him to the hospital … which is where Maddie and Chimney ultimately get married, surrounded by their loved ones.

Below, Hewitt and Choi take us inside the wedding, tease what’s ahead for Maddie and Chimney (no more trauma, right?!), and more.

The Very Appropriate Madney Wedding

It was “very them,” Hewitt tells TV Insider with a laugh. “It’s where it needed to be. [Showrunner] Tim Minear is a genius. I could have pictured it a million different ways, but I don’t think there’s anything better than the way that it ended up.”

Disney / Chris Willard

But while they enjoyed filming it, Hewitt and Choi both point to the logistics of having that many people in a small space and the fact that they actually met some of the actors in the scene for the first time—and in her case, “it’s one of the only times in the series ever that I have been in a room with literally every person on the show.”

“It was lovely to have that energy there,” says Choi. “I think there were 20, maybe 25 cast members there, and we have that many people in a circle, you have to do a lot of coverage. So we had to do many, many, many different camera angles, and you have to do a lot of takes per camera angle. And it was highly emotional for Jennifer and I, and having 20, 25 people looking at you, people who really genuinely love you personally, helps with that sort of emotional resonance that you have to have in that scene because we did it over 30 times and sometimes the tears wear out, but we were able to get there every take. And a lot of that had to do with having all those people there.”

Maddie and Chimney didn’t recite their own vows, but Choi suspects that if the wedding had gone as planned, they likely did. “I loved having Peter [Krause, whose Bobby officiated] give that speech though,” he adds. “Just looking in his eyes, that was most of where I got my emotion, was watching this guy profess what it means for two people to join together. And because Maddie and Chimney’s relationship has been so fraught with turmoil, it was lovely to see them finally commit to one another officially.”

Madney Coming Back Together

For the most part, Maddie and Chimney spend the episode apart, only reuniting once he’s in the hospital for three scenes: deciding to get married there, the wedding, and after, taking a moment for themselves.

“The whole episode was a wild ride, and it was so interesting because when we came together for that day, Kenny was like, ‘You will not believe all the stuff that I’ve been through,’ and I was like, ‘You will not believe all the stuff that I’ve been through,'” recalls Hewitt. “We very much felt like Maddie and Chimney because they really shot the episode in two parts and then kind of put it together. We were separate the whole time, so it was fun to come together and figure that out.”

Disney / Chris Willard

She continues, “I love that scene. It was really sweet and felt very them, and we were so excited to get to high five each other with our wedding bands on. Yeah, it was perfect.”

Choi shares it was great filming those three scenes in one day. “We’ve developed this wonderful relationship on and off camera, so we were cracking each other up as much as possible,” he says. “And so it was one of the best days I’ve ever had because Jennifer and I did really good work, but we had such a fun time in between all the takes and that helps with the relationship.”

The scene ends with the couple joking about a honeymoon and Bobby and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) capsized cruise ship as well as Chimney asking the same question fans have been since the beginning of the series: Why is he called Chimney? But don’t think that hints any problems with his memory going forward.

“I think that it’s just a fun ending,” says Choi. “It was the best way to cap off the whole episode, having the amnesia and most audience members wanting to know why he’s called Chimney. To have Chimney also wondering was ironic and funny. It was a little wink to the audience is what that was.”

9-1-1 Version of Chimney’s Angel and Devil

Having Chimney hallucinate Doug and Kevin made for some great scenes and brought back Hallisay and Chen.

“It was terrific to have James back for one scene. I think we had him for a few hours and then he had to fly back to New York. As soon as we saw each other, we were just back in that Kevin-Chimney kind of mode,” he says. “And it brought me back to ‘Chimney Begins,’ which was a very, very emotional episode. And the same can be said with the scenes with Kelvin and Freda, who play the Lees. When I see them, we just have this immediate emotional connection.”

Related

Will ‘9-1-1’ Go There With Buck & Eddie?

It’s never a fun time when Doug shows up for Chimney, but it is for Choi. “Having Brian there is always a joy because Brian, being Jennifer’s husband, we’ve become good friends as well. And I love when they bring him back because it’s always to torture Chimney,” he shares with a laugh. “He’s so good at torturing Chimney. I personally wish there were more scenes where he had blood on his face. I don’t know if that was a note that it was too much gore, but I loved it because it was very disorienting, which it should be.”

Will Maddie and Chimney Go on a Honeymoon?

“We will definitely not be going on a honeymoon,” Hewitt says. “I don’t think it’s wise. I think Maddie and Chimney should just stay at home for a while and go to work and then come back home again.” But “maybe in Season 8,” Choi suggests.

Maddie Meeting Tommy

Maddie’s brother Buck (Oliver Stark) brings Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) to the wedding as his date—and he doesn’t even need to announce him as such considering the soot that transfers onto his face after he greets the other firefighter with a kiss when he meets him in the hall.

“I was hoping that I would get to meet him on-camera to s what that would look like, but I guess we met off-camera,” says Hewitt, who says that Maddie is never going to judge a person’s relationship given her past. “Maddie has always been Buck’s biggest fan and biggest supporter, no matter what. I think she’s had some moments of, ‘Is this the best choice? What are we doing here?’ But only out of care and love for him.”

She continues, “And I think that this moment that he’s in, for however it’s going to turn out and whatever it’s going to be, Maddie is excited that Buck is exploring a choice and a real decision in his life that could bring him joy because I think he is a person who’s never really settled into who he truly is. And I think she’s excited for that in whatever it looks like and however it happens. If Buck really likes Tommy, Maddie’s going to like Tommy until Tommy messes it up, and then Maddie’s going to have some words, so Tommy better watch his back. But I think that for now, she’s happy that Buck is happy.”

That being said, she’s looking forward to some substantial Maddie and Tommy scenes if he sticks around.

Disney / Chris Willard

Why Maddie & Hen Scenes Make Sense Now

Hen (Aisha Hinds) may be Chimney’s ride-or-die, but she and Maddie haven’t really spent any significant time together until recently. Last season, they finally cleared the air just before the proposal. And now this season, they’ve worked together to locate Bobby and Athena’s missing cruise ship and Hen assured Maddie that Chimney wasn’t stressed about marrying her in this episode.

“I think for Maddie it’s really big that she is open this year to having relationships with the people in Chimney’s life. Obviously she came in very private, hiding and honestly on the run at the beginning of the show. Then they got pregnant very quickly and she was sort of in a new relationship while still dealing with all the Doug stuff, and so I think that maybe wasn’t the time for her to integrate herself into the 118 and those friendships. And then Covid happened, everyone was separate. Postpartum happened, she was not herself obviously, and then caused such deep pain to Chimney that I think even trying to be friends with hen at that time would’ve felt really hard,” Hewitt explains.

“And I think she felt very judged as a mother possibly. Like Karen [Tracie Thoms] is such a great mom, and I think Maddie probably would’ve felt like, ‘What are they going to think about me as a mother at this point?'” she continues. “And so that moment when Hen says, ‘We’re here for you and you can lean on us,’ I think, for Maddie, was really a wake-up call to be like, ‘Oh my God, I want a family. I came here because I didn’t want to live a life of secretly alone anymore, and I have so much joy to share. Why am I not leaning on these people?'”

She loves being able to have the “Haddie” relationship, as she calls them, onscreen now. “It has been really beautiful and really fun, and Aisha and I have never really had the chance to bond in real life because we always work separate and I’m honestly in love with her,” she raves. “She’s the greatest human. We have the best time, and it’s just been a joy. And I feel like we are always just calling Tim going, ‘Please, just let them be together forever.’ We love them.”

What did you think of Maddie and Chimney’s wedding? Let us know in the comments section, below.

9-1-1, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC