Athena Grant Is Still in Mourning in '9-1-1' Season 8, Episode 17 Sneak Peek

We needn’t remind 9-1-1 fans that the 118 is in need of a new leader. Sorry, we’re not trying to rub salt in your wounds, but it stands as a fact that following the traumatic death of Peter Krause’s Bobby Nash, the captain’s chair is wide open. In a sneak peek of tonight’s episode, Angela Bassett’s Athena Grant can be seen pushing one of Bobby’s colleagues, Henrietta Wilson (Aisha Hinds), to throw her name into the ring. Over a glass of wine, Athena urges Hen to stake her claim, telling her, “The best thing for the 118 would be you as captain.” Unfortunately, Hen doesn’t quite see it that way and — like the mark of any good leader — simply doesn’t want the job.

But, that won’t be all the drama in the penultimate episode of Season 8, because, as a newscaster puts it in the teaser, “methane is on tap” in Los Angeles, with the dangerous gas causing fire to shoot from people’s faucets. Forced to put their grief on hold, the team answers the call and dash to extinguish the flames before it’s too late.

The poor team can’t seem to catch a break. It’s been one thing after the other since the latest season kicked off with a beenado — which is precisely what it sounds like. Just a few weeks ago, an accident at a lab turned the place into a biohazard, resulting in the untimely death of Krause’s Bobby Nash and now, the first responders are at their wits’ end dealing with another extreme crisis. To be fair, showrunner, Tim Minear, warned audiences that the final episodes of Season 8 would be all gas and no brakes, as he previously teased “a mass casualty event”. To the best of our understanding, we’re in mass casualty territory after an earthquake causes a methane leak which — in turn — leads to fires breaking out across the city.

Who Will Become the 118’s New Captain?

By the end of the sneak peek, you might completely forget that the teaser started with Athena and Hen chatting about the team’s next captain. And, according to Minear, that’s a question that will be put on the backburner until the procedural returns for its ninth season later this year. Previously speaking with TV Insider, Minear said,

"There is an interim captain there who is not going to be the captain going forward, but the last three episodes are not about who’s in Bobby’s chair. The last three episodes are about that chair is empty."

Check out the teaser for tonight’s episode of 9-1-1 above.