Season 8, episode 15 of the ABC first responder drama ended in many, many tears.
Showrunner Tim Minear breaks it all down.
Disney/Christopher Willard
The core9-1-1team has always been indestructible…until now.
Peter Krause as Bobby on ‘9-1-1’.Credit:Disney/Christopher Willard
Thursday’s episode of the ABC first responder drama picked up in the middle of a contagion crisis.
In the final moments of the episode, his body is removed from the lab in a body bag.
In case you’re thinking it’s all a fakeout,9-1-1showrunner Tim Minearpromises it’s not.
Peter Krause in a promotional shot for ‘9-1-1’.Disney/Justin Stephens
Though, he tellsEntertainment Weekly, we haven’t necessarily seen the last of Bobby on the show.
Disney/Justin Stephens
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long had you been planning to do this to all of us?
TIM MINEAR:I would say since last season on some level.
Well, I would say even before that.
He’s done it before!"
So it just felt like it needed something like that.
Why did it have to be Bobby?
The decision about who to do it to, that was the hard one.
And so it’s Bobby, right?
Bobby (Peter Krause) and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) help Chimney (Kenneth Choi) on ‘9-1-1’ season 8, episode 15.Disney/Christopher Willard
I mean, that’s going to affect everybody.
It also made sense for me in terms of it not being an arbitrary death.
In a way, it is the tragic, logical culmination of his arc.
Buck (Oliver Stark) mourns Bobby on ‘9-1-1’ season 8, episode 15.ABC/Youtube
He came to L.A. with a death wish, and then he learned to love life again.
It is true redemption.
So everything about it lined up.
Athena (Angela Bassett) and Bobby (Peter Krause) on ‘9-1-1’ season 7.Chris Willard/Disney
It really is a shocker, because there’s no indication leading up to the reveal.
He holds the fire fam together."
So that was me kind of hinting a little bit about what my intentions were.
What did Peter Krause say when you told him?
He understood creatively why I was doing it, and I was only doing it for creative reasons.
Peter loves working on the show.
But he was great about it.
He really understood it.
He knew all about it when we were shootingthe Leslie Ann Warren episode, and probably even before that.
What about the rest of the cast?
I had to call all the cast, who would not believe me.
They all tried to bargain with me.
I am a benevolent God, but I just felt like it was something that needed to happen.
I really credit him for his professionalism and his friendship.
We’ve now known each other for quite a while.
In fact, this is not his last appearance this season.
It is9-1-1, after all.
How will this play out as everyone grieves?
Well, I think it’s going to have reverberations forever.
It’s certainly going to shape season 9.
What I did not want to do was make it a season finale.
He’ll be back, he’s not really dead."
So the next three episodes are all about this loss on some level.
You’ll see Athena trying to deal with it in episode 16.
And then you’ll really see the fallout for Chimney in episodes 17, and particularly in 18.
They all have fallout, but Chimney in particular.
Chimney was the guy who kind of pushed him toward maybe continuing to live, not just suffer.
And now here’s Chimney alive because Bobby isn’t.
So that’s going to have a particular ramification for him.
Bobby’s death also leaves a leadership vacuum as the 118 doesn’t have a captain.
Yes, there’s a leadership vacuum that will not necessarily be solved this year.
That’s going to be a big part of season 9.
ABC/Youtube
Buck’s final moments with Bobby were heartbreaking.
What went into writing that scene?
It’s like he’s losing his father, so that was obviously important….
Normally in [writing] something like this, we would have all the characters together at the end.
But there was something that interested me about the fact that everyone is completely isolated.
It’s hard for the center to hold when you take out the thing that’s keeping it together.
Chris Willard/Disney
How will Bobby’s impact Athena’s role in the9-1-1family?
That’s all I really can say about that.
9-1-1season 8 continues Thursdays at 8 p.m.
