‘9-1-1’: 8 Things We Want to See in Season 8
Not only did the 9-1-1 Season 7 finale leave us with quite a few burning questions for the fall (when the drama will continue airing Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC), but it also set up a few possible future storylines.
For instance, after the cliffhanger, the 118 has a common goal and target to take down. Eddie (Ryan Guzman) has some work to do on himself following the heartbreaking decision made by his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) to go live with his grandparents due to his father’s actions after seeing his dead wife’s doppelgänger. Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Karen (Tracie Thoms) have to figure out a way to be able to foster again.
And sure, all of those (and other) storylines lead to some major questions that need to be answered in 9-1-1 Season 8. But they also left us with a list of things we’d love to see then as well. See those below.
9-1-1, Season 8, Fall 2024, ABC
Eddie in therapy
It’s something we’ve seen before, as part of Eddie’s powerful arc in Season 5 (which was some of Guzman’s best work on the series). And let’s just say he could use therapy again, after the events of Season 7. He ran into a woman, Kim (Devin Kelley), who looked just like Shannon, then had dinner with her, then kept seeing her behind his girlfriend’s back, until he finally told Kim the truth, only for her to come to his house looking like his dead wife to try to give him some sort of closure—and his girlfriend and his son walked in on them together. As that storyline kicked off, Guzman told TV Insider, “As far as we know, Eddie has always kind of had somebody to run to. He might not have anybody to run to anymore for Season 8. Yeah, there are things that are going to be happening in Eddie’s life that are going to leave him feeling isolated.” We saw that at the end of the finale, with Christopher leaving.
The 118 takes down Gerrard together
Bobby (Peter Krause) made the mistake of thinking he could insist on quitting then once he realized where he belongs just return to work (after being cleared following his near-death experience). Instead, he and the rest of the 118 were in for a major shock when the captain before Bobby, Gerrard (Brian Thompson), who is racist, misogynistic, and homophobic, revealed he was back. Now, we know that Bobby will eventually regain the captaincy of the 118, and we don’t see him just sitting idly by. But what we need to see is him, Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Hen, Buck (Oliver Stark), and Eddie working together—with an assist from Athena (Angela Bassett)—to not only get Gerrard out of the 118 but ideally out of the LAFD as well. (As the ones who had to work for Gerrard, Chimney and Hen especially deserve to have a hand in this.)
More 118 group scenes when Bobby's back as captain
There’s just something special when we get scenes with Bobby, Chimney, Hen, Buck, and Eddie together, whether in the firehouse between calls or on the truck on the way to one (or stuck, like in “Jinx”). We didn’t get nearly as much of that as we’d hoped we would in Season 7—the first three episodes did see Bobby and Athena separate from the others, on their honeymoon-turned-cruise-ship-disaster—but we’re crossing our fingers that changes in the fall.
More Madney happiness
Listen, these two have been through hell and back and hell and back again. But after Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney’s wedding, the two actually did get to be happy for the rest of Season 7 (a foreign concept for this couple). “They’ve had enough that was traumatic for this season. We’ll wait until Season 8 until they throw some more curveballs,” Choi told us after the wedding. Added Hewitt, “For the first time, we’re just sort of solid and the emergencies are going to happen around us, maybe at our jobs or with our friends, and we’re just going to kind of be the solid entity in the middle. I don’t know what Season 8 will hold. I always hope from the actor standpoint that there’s stuff, that there’s turmoil, or that there’s moments of things that kind of shake up the joy because it’s fun to play. But I am really happy right now to report that Maddie and Chimney are just kind of boring and stable and it’s lovely.”
Given their history, it’s impossible to imagine something not happening to shake things up, but let’s just hope there is more joy in Season 8—and that any trauma is something we see them get past together rather than something that might tear them apart.
Hen and Karen getting Mara back
Early on in Season 7, a man refused care and as acting captain at the time (Bobby was on his cruise), it was Hen who was investigated (and cleared)—and now held responsible by his mother, Councilwoman Ortiz (Veronica Falcon). She intervened and had Hen and Karen’s adoption hearing canceled, then their foster license revoked and has a file of “mistakes” that Hen has made on the job over the years. Maddie and Chimney got approved for emergency placement so they could take in Mara, who was removed from Hen and Karen’s home, but something tells us it’s not going to be an easy journey to rectify this problem. It is a tough situation because Ortiz’s grief is understandable, but where she’s placing the blame is not.
A major disaster that features the 118 together
One of our complaints about the Season 7 disaster is we barely saw the rest of the 118 rescue Bobby and Athena on the sinking cruise ship. Sure, the Season 6 finale saw them all at the center of the emergency and rescuing each other. But what we’d love to see is a major opening disaster that features the 118 working together similar to Season 2’s earthquake. And if any of them are in trouble, let us feel a sense of urgency and let there be fallout there just wasn’t with the Season 6 finale (there were surprisingly no major injuries).
Mixing up scene partners
One of the best parts of Season 7 is we finally got significant Hen and Maddie scenes as well as Hen and Karen with Chimney and Maddie. (Please give us more in Season 8!) And we’ll never say no to all the Bobby and Athena, Buck and Eddie, Buck and Bobby, Buck and Maddie, Eddie and Bobby, Chimney and Maddie, and Chimney and Hen scenes. But there have yet to be any Maddie and Eddie scenes (Tim Minear agrees “we do need [them],” and Hewitt and Guzman are both on board for them), and we could always do with more Buck and Chimney, Bobby and Chimney, Athena and Chimney, Eddie and Athena, and Eddie and Karen scenes.
More Ravi
Oh, Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody). We remember when he was first introduced, as a probie, back in Season 4 (“Jinx”). He’s still the newest member of the 118 and not in every episode, but we always enjoy seeing him (and loved seeing a different side when he hesitated in his recovery after a not-so-easy save in Season 6).
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