The season 8 winter premiere of the ABC drama concluded with guest star Abigail Spencer’s Det.
Amber Braeburn knocking out the 9-1-1 operator.
ABC
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for9-1-1season 8, episode 9, “Sob Stories.”
Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) gets kidnapped on ‘9-1-1’ season 8, episode 9.Credit:ABC
9-1-1knows how to keep fans on their toes.
Amber Braeburn) that Maddie and Athena (Angela Bassett) had been working with the whole episode.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You often take inspiration from real-life headlines.
Det. Amber Braeburn (Abigail Spencer); Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) on ‘9-1-1’ season 8, episode 9.Disney/HULU
Was that the case here?
I can’t stop myself, you’ll find her body here…." It is a real thing.
you might hear these calls on the internet, and we all thought that was super creepy.
So that was the starting point of it.
And then I just felt like it’d been a while since Maddie had been abducted, quite frankly.
[Laughs] It felt like it was time to get her out of the house.
Those phone calls are pretty intense.
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT:I was really excited about them.
Thank God for Tim.
I mean, truly, some people are afraid to do these things on TV.
They’re afraid to put characters in these situations.
This is who she is,this is how she came into the show.
Maddie is a feral woman with a lot of gumption, who is a fighter and a survivor.
She’s meant for these situations.
And they’re really fun for me to play.
That said, they scare the s— out of me.
Every time I’m like, “How am I going to pull this off?”
How did you pull them off?
Did you hear the distorted voice already or was someone just reading lines off screen?
I tried to picture things in my mind, but I didn’t know.
It’s usually our script supervisor who just acts their little butt off for me.
For this episode, we filmed all of the calls at once.
What did you think of Maddie telling the caller they should end their own life?
HEWITT:I think it’s ultimately crazy and not a well thought out decision on her part.
I don’t think, in the moment, she thinks of how much that will stay with her.
Disney/HULU
Let’s dig into that.
Was it always the plan to have Det.
Braeburn as the kidnapper?
MINEAR:Yeah, that was the plan from the beginning.
HEWITT:Well, when we started filming, we didn’t have the full script yet.
So [Abigail and I] kind of got to be surprised together.
I kind of knew, but not to the full extent.
So that kind of helped us not give anything away.
Now the secret is out, so what can fans expect in episode 10?
MINEAR:This was really the setup episode.
Everything will be unearthed in the next episode.
How involved is she?
And why is she?
And who was making those calls?
All of that will be revealed in the next episode.
It’s very tense, and I think possibly one of the darkest episodes we’ve done.
HEWITT:The audience is not ready.
I wasn’t ready.
It makesthe Big Bear episodeslook like [Maddie’s ex-husband] Doug and I went to lunch.
We just look like a little stroll.
We had some snacks.
[Laughs] It’s very intense.
It’s really crazy.
It is a real study on unresolved trauma, people’s trigger points.
I think to whatever extent people consider Maddie a fighter and a survivor, you really have no idea.
But it was also so fun.
It’s a really cool couple of episodes in that it’s driven by females.
Females are fighting it out, females are fighting like hell, females leave each other.
It’s directed by a female.
It felt really cool.
It felt like we were some badass bitches, as they say.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
9-1-1airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
