Spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 15 – “Lab Rats” – are forward! To catch up, you may stream the ABC drama with a Hulu subscription. New episodes of 9-1-1 return on Thursday, Might 1 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
The newest episode of 9-1-1 to air on the 2025 TV schedule concluded the nerve-wracking two-part “Contagion” occasion, and never everybody made it out alive. Between Chim being uncovered to a virus, Hen coping with a punctured lung, and everybody’s oxygen operating on empty, time was ticking. Finally, Buck and Athena managed to snag the vial with the treatment and arrest literal mad scientist Moira, who needed to make tens of millions off it. Though Chimney was saved, Bobby was not, and showrunner Tim Minear revealed why that was the case. Whereas his reasoning is smart, I nonetheless hate it.
After many of the 118 made it out of the lab as soon as Chimney was injected with the treatment, Bobby revealed to Buck that he was uncovered to the virus and had hidden it from the group. After a tearful goodbye to Athena and placing her via much more, Bobby spent his closing moments praying earlier than finally being carried out in a physique bag.
It was a shocker, particularly since 9-1-1 has gone eight seasons with out killing off a principal character. And the truth that it was Peter Krause’s Bobby, 118 Captain and father determine to everybody, was much more surprising. Nonetheless, Minear defined to Leisure Weekly why it needed to be Krause’s beloved character:
The choice about who to do it to, that was the arduous one. However I simply felt like, ‘If I am going to do that, I must do it in such a means that it’ll have the utmost impact for each character story.’ And so it is Bobby, proper? I imply, that is going to have an effect on all people.
Bobby is the glue that retains the firehouse collectively. Each time he leaves, nobody is aware of what to do. Now that he’s useless, I am positive everybody shall be at a loss.
Plus, 9-1-1 has actually delved into Bobby’s backstory, between dropping his household and blaming himself, fighting dependancy, and likewise dropping his AA sponsor, his street to restoration, after which this sacrifice. Excited about this character’s whole arc, Minear went on to share his reasoning for killing him off, and it’s comprehensible:
It additionally made sense for me when it comes to it not being an arbitrary dying. In a means, it’s the tragic, logical fruits of his arc. He got here to L.A. with a dying want, after which he realized to like life once more. After which when he lastly has to make the sacrifice, it is not as a result of he desires to go, it is as a result of it is the factor he has to do. It’s true redemption. So the whole lot about it lined up.
That being mentioned, simply because it is smart doesn’t imply I’ve to agree with it. Clearly, with 9-1-1 being a procedural, there was all the time a danger {that a} principal character would die. However that’s the place 9-1-1 was totally different. Certain, characters would continuously nearly die, however the important thing phrase was nearly. Killing off Bobby adjustments the sport.
In the meantime, Bobby was all the time there for his 118 household. He was like a father, a buddy, a brother; he was greater than only a boss. It’s going to be arduous to see 9-1-1 transfer on from this, particularly because the present has been renewed for Season 9. After all, exhibits have misplaced principal characters earlier than, however this one is unquestionably on one other wavelength. Moreover, I will miss Peter Krause’s interactions with the solid.
Followers must wait to see the aftermath of Bobby’s dying. 9-1-1 gained’t be returning till Thursday, Might 1, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, nevertheless it’ll give viewers extra time to grieve, watch previous episodes, dwell in denial, and fake that Bobby Nash continues to be very a lot alive.