How ‘911’ Finale Set Up Show’s Future After Bobby Nash Death

[This story contains spoilers from “Seismic Shifts,” the season eight finale of 911.]

Is Howard “Chimney” Han (Kenneth Choi) about to succeed the late Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) as the following captain of the LAFD’s Station 118?

That appears to be the query on everybody’s lips within the season eight finale of 911, the buzzy ABC procedural drama which wrapped up its most heart-wrenching season so far on Thursday. Ever since Bobby died after being injured in a biolab explosion and contracting a deadly pressure of CCHF within the episode “Lab Rats,” the surviving members of the 118 — in addition to Bobby’s widow, Sgt. Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett) — have been reeling from dropping the seemingly unshakeable middle of their private {and professional} lives.

Whereas persevering with to reply to outlandish calls from Los Angeles residents, every character has been trying to course of Bobby’s dying in their very own approach, resulting in some anticipated pressure and friction between the once-tight-knit group. Athena, specifically, has been holding an comprehensible grudge towards Chimney, who Bobby selected to save lots of over himself within the lab, however the two are compelled to work collectively amidst a mass casualty occasion.

Within the finale, an explosion triggers the structural collapse of a downtown high-rise residence constructing in Los Angeles, leaving lots of of inhabitants trapped below the rubble. Athena, who was responding to a disturbance name on the residence constructing, narrowly missed being trapped below the particles herself on the finish of the penultimate episode. She jumps into motion to save lots of Graham a.okay.a. the notorious grocery retailer “cart cop” (Sam Roach) and Donnie (Adam Hagenbuch), who have been arguing with one another within the basement-level laundry room on the time of the explosion. After studying that Athena was tending to a few victims contained in the constructing, Chimney volunteered to help her, regardless of the fractured nature of their private relationship.

In the meantime, Eddie (Ryan Guzman), the previous member of the 118 who had returned to Los Angeles for Bobby’s funeral, was planning to return to El Paso, the place he was set to start his coaching with the native fireplace division the next morning. At an impromptu barbecue along with his former group, Eddie acquired his firefighter helmet and turnout gear as a touching going-away current. Whereas packing his luggage, Eddie and his teenage son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) see the wreckage of the constructing collapse on the native information.

Eddie comes strolling onto the scene like a runway mannequin in his LAFD gear, prepared to help his former group by any means mandatory. Taking a web page out of Bobby’s e book, Eddie reaches the highest ground of the constructing throughout the road from the residence complicated and cleverly fires a line gun to create a form of zipline between the 2 buildings. Eddie’s fast pondering permits Buck (Oliver Stark), Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) and an aged man named Flint to zip line to security, simply as the ground of the residence constructing begins to fall out from below their ft. Eddie, Buck and Ravi then be part of Hen and one other firefighter to interrupt down a wall of particles to get to Athena and Chimney, who have been trapped within the basement with Graham and Donnie.

However because the firefighters start to take away the particles that trapped each victims, they uncover that Graham has been bleeding internally for the reason that constructing collapse. Graham confesses that he basically sacrificed himself to assist save Donnie — a not-so-subtle parallel to Bobby sacrificing himself to save lots of Chimney in “Lab Rats” — however Chimney refuses to let Graham meet the identical destiny.

Because of some sensible paramedic work (and sheer luck), Chimney is ready to revive Graham, who is straight away despatched to the hospital for surgical procedure. After Athena says that he was single-handedly chargeable for preserving Graham alive, Chimney humbly insists that it was a group effort. “You realize, that used to make [Bobby] loopy,” Athena tells Chimney in an emotional heart-to-heart dialog exterior the collapsed constructing. “He all the time stated you by no means gave your self sufficient credit score, however he knew that you just have been a wise, gifted, succesful paramedic — and an incredible chief. He’d be so happy with you. So happy with you.”

Earlier that day, at Eddie’s going-away barbecue, Buck revealed that he had utilized to switch out of the 118 as a result of “it’s only a quantity now” with out Bobby. Hen (Aisha Hinds) defined that she didn’t need to be captain as a result of she thought it could be one other obligation added to her plate as a spouse and mom. And with their interim captain Gerrard (Brian Thompson) leaving the station once more to function a guide on the firefighter-show-set-within-a-show Hotshots, there was no clear favourite to succeed Bobby.

Chimney takes Athena’s phrases to coronary heart, getting into that much-needed management position again on the fireplace station (not less than, briefly). Chimney stops the remainder of his group lifeless of their tracks earlier than any of them can get modified, and he snatches Eddie’s cellphone out of his arms when Eddie says he’s searching for one other flight again to El Paso within the morning.

“No one’s transferring out, and no person’s staying in Texas,” Chimney says in an impassioned, captain-like speech, referring to Buck and Eddie, respectively, after Gerrard says goodbye. “That is our firehouse. That is the 118. And it’s not only a quantity — it’s us. And also you’re proper, Buck. Issues are by no means gonna be the identical once more as a result of Cap is gone. However leaving received’t change that. It received’t make you’re feeling any much less unhappy. It simply implies that you’ll be unhappy on their lonesome.

“Bobby died in order that I may reside, and it has screwed me up in ways in which I can not absolutely specific, however the fact is … he would have achieved that for any one in all us. You see, he knew that simply coming into work on daily basis, there’s an opportunity that a number of of us wouldn’t make it residence, and his job above every part else was to guarantee that we did. And we’re all standing right here proper now due to him,” he continues. “This group, we are his legacy. So we are able to miss him, and we are able to mourn him, and we are able to even curse his identify, however we’re not going to disrespect him by throwing away what he constructed proper right here. So that you grasp up your turnouts, you hit the showers, you go residence and also you get some relaxation, ’trigger we’re all going to see one another on our subsequent shift proper right here, collectively. Understood?”

In a flash-forward on the finish of the finale, Athena is getting ready to promote the dream home that she and Bobby had been planning to reside in and develop previous in collectively, presumably as a result of the home now not appears like a house anymore with out Bobby in it.

As Athena makes her strategy to the hospital to satisfy a brand new member of her prolonged household, the episode provides a short glimpse into the private lives of Bobby’s beloved crew:

It stays to be seen whether or not 911 will be capable of get better from the lack of its beloved patriarch — notably with the launch of a brand new Nashville-set spinoff starring Chris O’Donnell and Jessica Capshaw this fall — however the present would definitely be clever to lean additional into the discovered household dynamic that has remained its lifeblood for the higher a part of the final decade.

All eight seasons of 911 at the moment are streaming on Hulu. Season 9 will premiere this fall on ABC.