9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 15 Review: I'm Still Speechless After That Shocking Death & I'm Convinced 9-1-1 Will Never Be The Same Again

Showrunner Tim Minear, the co-creator of the 9-1-1 franchise, along with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, has done a few interviews to explain his decision to kill off Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) at the end of "Lab Rats." His reasoning essentially boils down to a sense that he needed to shock the audience, to inject a sense of life-threatening danger into the catastrophes that the 118 can face, to make them second-guess themselves a little bit more the next time a fan-favorite main character is at death's door.

I don't know if Minear is right to kill off Bobby. That depends entirely on how the show changes, or doesn't, heading into season 9. But he is right to say that the audience needed to be shocked. Even as the filming of Bobby's funeral surfaced online, the general response from many viewers was that there had to be some sort of twist that would allow for the 118's leader to still be alive.

Even just last week, in the review for the episode "Sick Day", I was dismissive of the idea that anything would happen that would fundamentally change what 9-1-1 is. In fairness, as the saying goes, shows teach you how to watch them. Up to this point, 9-1-1 has taught us that its main characters are indestructible.

9-1-1 Wraps Its Two-Parter Before Bobby's Farewell

It's An Improvement Over Last Week

Before it can get into the business of shocking the audience, "Lab Rats" has to go through the motions of addressing last week's cliffhanger. Dr. Moira Blake (Bridget Regan) has the anti-viral, which is the only thing that could save the infected Howard (Kenneth Choi), albeit Athena (Angela Bassett) and Buck (Oliver Stark) are able to find her easily enough. Moira wants to sell the cure to a pharmaceutical company, making millions and becoming a hero for solving the global pandemic that she created. The executive she makes this pitch to pretends to be interested long enough for Athena and Buck to arrive and apprehend Moira.

It's a bit more lively than the first half of the two-parter. Athena and Buck have to dodge the FBI, who would rather let everyone trapped in the lab die, while also looking for Moira. It is also amusing to see Athena, who can be so infuriatingly pro-law enforcement, break just about every law when she feels like it. At one point, they turn to Karen (Tracie Thoms) for help in learning about Moira. At another, Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) cameos to offer an assist with evading the feds. In the end, Howard receives the cure. He's saved.

As new details surrounding 9-1-1's second spinoff emerge, it's clear that 9-1-1: Nashville plans to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors.

 

 

 

Tommy's reappearance, in which he says that he helped out for both Buck and Chimney, could be bad news for the Buddie hopes that have quieted in the last few episodes. I did like that they didn't have either side apologize for their respective outbursts the last time they saw each other in "Holy Mother Of God." They clearly meant what they said on some level, and it'll be interesting to see how Tommy responds to the coming reunion between Buck and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) since all three will be around for Bobby's funeral and the aftermath.

The only glaring issue with this part of the episode, besides the utter reality of Athena and Buck facing zero blowback for their actions, has to do with Moira herself. "Lab Rats" can't dispense with its central villain fast enough, with the microbiologist seeming indifferent to the fact that she'll spend the rest of her life behind bars. It can be forgiven, in this case, since there are more important things in the episode. But it's the second time in just weeks, after Abigail Spencer's Detective Braeburn, that 9-1-1 introduced an intriguing antagonist in the first half only to drop the ball later.

Bobby Sacrifices Himself

We Should Have Seen It Coming

Even without the speculations and the denials about Bobby's fate in the weeks leading up "Lab Rats", there's something slightly concerning about how the episode unfolds. Bobby gets a final moment with Howard, Hen (Aisha Hinds), and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody). It's arguably his final moment with Howard, as they talk about Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her pregnancy, that clinches Bobby's decision. With only one dose of the cure, Bobby decides that Howard will be the one to live.

Bobby got infected with the virus. He tells a horrified Buck that it probably happened during the explosion, which left a gap in his breathing supply that left him vulnerable. Before taking off his protective mask and before locking himself in the lab, Bobby reassures Buck: “You’re gonna be okay, Buck. Remember that. They’re gonna need you. I love you, kid.”

More than a lot of the last words that Bobby shares with 118, more than so much of the overt grieving that 9-1-1 will be doing in the coming episodes, these few lines fall like a bag of bricks. It is a perfect send-off to a lovely father-son relationship that, while never as explicit as it could have been, was deeply significant to the person that Evan Buckley has become.

Bobby then says his last words to Athena, connecting everything back to those accidental deaths that Bobby can't ever fully forgive himself for. He says that he's felt like he's been living on borrowed time, telling his wife that “L.A. was supposed to be my penance, not my home.” Athena agreed to go to dinner with him, all the way back in season 1, and he started to feel differently. As the show has explored in the past, quite movingly, Bobby forgot that he's supposed to suffer. He doesn't want to die, but he's also at peace with it, having saved his team.

As moving as it is, as wonderfully as Krause performs it, I'm again struck by the smaller choices made in the episode. I'm struck by Bobby turning away from Athena as he's coughing up blood, not wanting to let that be Athena's final memory of him. I'm struck by Bobby making the active choice to kneel and pray in his final moments. I'm left, most of all, with something that didn't even happen in this episode.

It's a throwaway scene in the previous episode that is now the last time we see Athena and Bobby happily together. They're making plans in their new home, with Athena teasing May (Corinne Messiah) and Harry (Elijah M. Cooper) about how they can come visit but shouldn't stay too long. Bobby is all smiles, assuring his stepchildren that they'll always be welcome. He meant it, although he was probably looking forward to kicking back. Maybe he was eying retirement in a few more years. He definitely would've wanted to spend more time with his estranged mother, as the two had only recently reconnected.

For eight seasons, across two networks, led by a few different showrunners, 9-1-1 has been the kind of show that would have given Bobby all of that. A crowbar sticking out of Howard's head was never really a concern, nor was Buck getting struck by lightning or Eddie getting shot by a sniper or Maddie getting her throat slashed. The status quo would always reset, with the characters having learned a valuable lesson as they march on to their happy endings with the people that they love.

It's not that show anymore. Whether or not Bobby's death is justified, whether or not it means anything beyond the goal of shocking viewers out of their expectations, rests on what happens next. But the idea of Bassett having to portray Athena as she returns to the home that she was hoping to share with Bobby, and having to face it alone, sounds like enough fuel to make 9-1-1 season 9 one of the best.

9-1-1 season 8 returns Thursday, May 1 at 8 PM ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.