[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the 9-1-1 Season 9 premiere “Eat the Rich.”]
9-1-1 kicks off its ninth season with an episode that features a billionaire being swallowed by a whale — then rescued by the 118, of course — and sends two of its own to space. Yes, Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Athena (Angela Bassett) are leaving Earth. “It’s very on brand for 9-1-1,” Oliver Stark says.
But he does agree it’s not like there’s much the 118 can do about the trouble coming for Hen and Athena, whose trip to space comes after the paramedic helps save the billionaire (Mark Consuelos). “It’s not really within the 118’s abilities to help them in space, but there are other people down on earth and characters within the show that can offer a little bit more to try and help that situation,” Stark says as part of TV Insider’s 9-1-1 aftershow, First Response. “There are plenty of people down on the ground that are going to end up needing help and in kind of classic 9-1-1 style, the most bizarre ways you could possibly imagine.”
The 118 this year is moving on without Bobby, and the firehouse is dedicated in his memory. It is now the Robert Nash Memorial Station. Filming that dedication was “emotional,” admits Stark. “It was a real moment of clarity in the sense that this is the show now. It is different here, but it was also kind of beautiful, and it was honoring, obviously, Bobby Nash on the show. But I think anytime we have a huge scene like that with all the characters and a scene of that nature, we were honoring Pete as well and what he meant to us. And so yeah, it was a mixture of emotions — it was sad, but it was also a celebration of him and I really hope that it comes across like that and that we are paying tribute to everything that they both were to the show.”
As for how Buck’s doing without Bobby this season, “it comes and goes,” the star shares. “I don’t think you see it having too much of a negative effect in the first few episodes, but then there is an episode later on in the season where you do start to see Buck get really in his head about it again.”
Elsewhere in the episode, with Chimney (Kenneth Choi) now interim captain, Eddie (Ryan Guzman) and Hen are working together, while Buck’s partnered up with Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody). And, to no one’s surprise, given how Buck has acted in the past when Eddie grows close to someone else, he’s not exactly happy with the “dream team” his best friend is part of with someone else.
“I think it’s just that he wants things to be normal. We’re talking about him adjusting to Bobby or the loss of Bobby. So, now it’s just that something else is different, something else has changed, and I just think he wants to cling onto everything that he knows and kind of keep that as close to his chest as he can, and this is just another thing that he has to adjust to,” explains Stark.
Watch the full video aftershow with Oliver Stark about the premiere, the space emergency, Buck’s jealousy of Eddie and Hen’s friendship, what’s coming up in Buck’s love life, how he feels about a new captain, and much more.
9-1-1, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC