‘9-1-1’: The 118’s Captain, Eddie in Therapy & More Burning Questions for Season 8
Someone call 9-1-1 for the 118! The ABC drama is heading into its eighth season with a familiar face but one we’d hoped to never see again now captain at the station, following Bobby (Peter Krause) quitting (though he realizes where he belongs).
But the hierarchy of the firehouse and what it means for the first responders is just one of the unresolved plot points ahead of 9-1-1 Season 8. Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) personal life fell apart after he ran into the doppelgänger of his dead wife. Hen (Aisha Hinds) had a call from earlier in the season come back to haunt her when it comes to her and Karen’s (Tracie Thoms) attempts to foster. And Buck’s (Oliver Stark) new relationship may seem to be working out but will that remain the case?
Below, we take a look at the burning questions we have after the finale. Check them out, then head to the comments section to let us know yours.
How long will Gerrard be captain?
Bobby returned to work after his near-death experience to find that he couldn’t just slip back into the captaincy like nothing happened. Rather, Gerrard (Brian Thompson), who’d made the 118 a pretty uncomfortable place to work for Hen and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) before he got there, was waiting to inform him that there was some concern downtown of a leadership deficit in the house and he’d agreed to come back and put things in order. (He also informed the others of Bobby quitting, which he hadn’t told anyone.) Time hasn’t changed him, as the penultimate episode showed with his interactions with Chimney, Buck, and Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), so something tells us no one’s going to be happy at the 118 until he’s gone once again. But what will that take?
How will Bobby regain leadership of the 118?
Chief Simpson (Richard Brooks) hadn’t wanted to accept his resignation in the first place, and we don’t think he’ll necessarily keep him from returning but will he help him possibly jump through some hoops to get back ASAP? Something tells us that it might take more than one episode to get Bobby back as the 118’s captain.
When will Christopher come home?
Oh, Eddie. This became quite a mess. After running into Kim (Devin Kelley), who looks exactly like Shannon, Eddie essentially started dating her without any interest in anything romantic and it spiraled—to the point that after he told her about his late wife, she showed up at his door looking exactly like her to help give him some sort of closure. Then Eddie’s girlfriend Marisol (Edy Ganem) and his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) walked in on them together. Christopher figured out pretty quickly his mom wasn’t alive and called his grandparents, who came to L.A. to bring him back to Texas with them. Eddie tried to fight it (and tried to get Buck to help), but he still left. What will it take for Christopher to want to come home? And what will it do to Eddie the longer he’s gone?
Will Eddie return to therapy?
We thought that this arc could lead to Eddie returning to therapy when it first started, and given where it left him at the end of the season, we now think it has to. (But should we be concerned about how having Gerrard be the 118’s captain right now might affect that?) We also think that he shouldn’t even attempt another relationship until he does.
Will Buck and Tommy last?
It was in Season 7 that Buck realized he’s bisexual and started dating Tommy, and sure, there was a bit of a bump in the road on their first date when he hid it from his best friend, but since then, things seem to be going well. Buck brought Tommy to his sister Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) wedding, and the two were last seen in Season 7 having dinner at Buck’s. But so far there’s nothing to suggest they’re necessarily serious, just that Tommy’s good for him (as Bobby notes to Buck at one point), so we’ll have to see where things are when Season 8 begins.
What will it take for Hen and Karen to bring Mara home?
It was in the penultimate episode that Hen faced off with Councilwoman Ortiz (Veronica Falcon), whose son died in “Rock the Boat” earlier in the season after refusing care at the scene of a car accident). First, Hen and Karen’s adoption hearing was canceled, then Hen learned that Ortiz had compiled a file of the “mistakes” she saw that Hen had made over the years—right before their foster license was revoked and Mara taken from them. The good news? Maddie and Chimney were approved for emergency placement for Mara, so she can stay with them until they figure out how to get her home to Hen and Karen. The bad news? It doesn’t seem like Ortiz is going to let up anytime soon, so that might take a while.
Will Season 8 begin with another multi-episode disaster?
The seventh season, just like the second, third, and fifth, kicked off with a three-episode disaster—Bobby and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) honeymoon cruise—but will the eighth follow suit? (With Gerrard in charge, we’re not so sure how we’d feel about that, though it could be just what is needed to get Bobby back where he belongs.) And whatever it is, how will it rank against previous ones?
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