‘9-1-1’ Boss Reveals If [Spoiler] Is Dead & Answers More Premiere Burning Questions

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the 9-1-1 Season 8 premiere “Buzzkill.”]

Bees! Those insects have caused quite the buzz ever since it was revealed they’d be part of the opening emergency of 9-1-1 Season 8, but in the premiere, they’re not the only threat.

At the 118, Buck (Oliver Stark) is especially struggling with Gerrard (Brian Thompson) being captain (Peter Krause‘s Bobby is working as a technical consultant on a firefighter show), but he’s the one who ends up saving his life when a power saw from a construction worker at the firehouse flies his way. Last we see, Buck, Hen (Aisha Hinds), Chimney (Kenneth Choi), and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) are trying to save him. Could this mean that they’re free of Gerrard’s reign of terror?

“Sadly, he’s definitely not dead,” executive producer Tim Minear tells TV Insider. But don’t expect this near-death experience to necessarily lead to Gerrard realizing he needs to change his ways. “We will definitely see a change in some dynamics when he makes his return, but I just don’t know how redeemable Gerrard is on some level,” he admits. “It definitely complicates the situation.”

So what will it take for the 118’s rightful captain to get back where he belongs? Bobby “definitely wants his captaincy back, and it’s going to take more than just wishing it to happen. He’s going to have to work with his old team in order to try to get his rightful place back in the world,” Minear previews.

Disney/Christopher Willard

As for the bee-nado, that collided with the plane Athena (Angela Bassett) was on traveling back to Los Angeles with her fiancé’s killer, Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer); he’s being deposed before a grand jury for a sex trafficking case and someone wants him dead.

Bringing Jenkins back “plays into her dilemma in the first part of the season, which is she thought she had put all that behind her and it’s a struggle for her because she has to kind of balance the idea of compassion, forgiveness, and justice,” explains Minear. “This is her struggle and it’s how do you kind of thread that needle.”

But the bees that cause a smaller plane to crash into theirs is the bigger concern. “I’m sort of following the same pattern that I generally follow, which is you come in to a season premiere and you have some fun cases that then kind of lead to something bigger that’s maybe not an exact offshoot of the thing you were playing in the premiere episode,” the EP says. “The bee story collides with the Athena story at the end of the premiere and then it sort of becomes Airport 1975 at that point.”

And for those wondering when Athena and Bobby might be in contact, “In the end, Bobby’s always her lifeline. She’s always his lifeline,” says Minear.

Meanwhile, Eddie tries to talk to his son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), down in Texas with his parents after his father’s terrible decisions involving a doppelganger of his late wife, on his birthday over FaceTime, but it goes terribly and he barely gets a response. What will it take for that to get better?

Disney/Christopher Willard

“That is the question that Eddie is asking himself in the first part of the season,” according to Minear. “How does he repair his relationship with his son, who’s not even in the same state anymore and who’s not apparently real keen on communicating with dad? Eddie first has to kind of communicate with himself. It’s time for Eddie to take a look in the mirror literally and figuratively, and probably ask himself why the mustache.”

Yes, there’s more to that than just giving Eddie a new look in Season 8. “There is funnily enough kind of a reason behind it that he will reveal in, I think, Episode 6 I’m very excited about,” he adds.

While we thought that this could all lead to Eddie going back to therapy, as he did in Season 5, that’s not exactly the case. “He’s not going back to therapy per se, but he is definitely not bottling things up and he is finding other forms of guidance and communication,” Minear reveals.

The good news is that while Buck’s relationship with Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) is going well and that could have affected the time he has to spend with Eddie, that won’t be something else piled on him. “That’s kind of what I thought it was going to be as I went into the season,” Minear admits. “But kind of what I’ve discovered is Eddie also has a nascent friendship with Tommy, so it’s not like these guys are abandoning Eddie in his hour of need. Eddie is also finding other, like I said, sources of guidance in his life, but no, Buck is still very much Eddie’s best friend.”

Could that mean significant Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Eddie scenes this season? We have yet to see those two have a conversation! “It could mean that,” is all the EP would say.

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The Season 8 premiere also gave us more great Maddie and Chimney and Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms) content—all we need is a triple date with Bobby and Athena! We could “very possibly” get that this season.

Right now, Maddie and Chimney are fostering Mara since Hen and Karen’s foster license was revoked, due to Councilwoman Ortiz’s interference. They’re working to get it back, but Ortiz still has it out for Hen, who’s “going to try to say some things and then she’s going to have to take some action and it becomes even more formidable because Councilwoman Ortiz is running for mayor this season, which makes her an even more formidable opponent,” warns Minear.

Finally, some good news: There’s happiness coming Maddie and Chimney’s way and having Mara in their home could lead to a “conversation” about having another kid.

“Maddie and Chimney will be experiencing joy with some trauma thrown in for good measure, but Maddie and Chimney are in a really good place after they’re married, and I think the experience of hosting Mara in their home for a couple of months has had an effect on them, kind of seeing their daughter with a sister in some ways gets them to thinking,” teases the EP.

What did you think of the premiere? What are you hoping to see next? Let us know in the comments section below.

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