From Bee-nado to Emotional Depth: 9-1-1 EP/Showrunner Tim Minear Talks New Season

The bees touched down on 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 1, bringing with them a swarm of problems for the first responders protecting the vaunted streets of Los Angeles.

And while the bees were certainly creating havoc, especially for a seemingly always in danger Sargeant.

A lot happened in that first hour, from the aforementioned bees to Bobby’s new job and an exhausting old/new captain at the 118. And these new circumstances warranted a conversation with executive producer and showrunner Tim Minear.

The opening episode included the start of the bee-nado, as Buck so affectionately called it, which saw a swarm of bees exploding into the sky after a truck crash had the bees escaping containment.

From there, we saw some bee-related emergencies alongside the beginning of the character arcs set to take off this season.

While some stories were carried over from last season, others were brand new, and one involved taking a difficult look into the past.

Thanks to an informative and enjoyable chat with Minear, we’ve got the scoop on the characters’ various storylines for the season’s opening.

Athena’s Past Collides With Her Present

9-1-1 has always loved to bring characters and storylines from the past back to the forefront when the occasion calls for it. You truly never know when a 9-1-1 character from years past will pop up on the screen and what it’ll mean for the characters.

In the premiere, Athena was tasked with transporting Dennis Jenkins, whom you’ll remember Athena arrested after discovering he killed her fiancée, Emmett Washington, in Athena Begins.

“It’s always helpful once you have some canon built up. It’s always helpful if you can reach back into that canon so that you can kind of economically place your main character into an emotionally understandable conflict,” Minear explained when asked about the decision to re-introduce Jenkins.

“We did it a little bit last year when we brought back Norman and Lola. These were characters that had already had some interactions, but this is a much deeper thing for Athena, obviously.”

This being 9-1-1, what should have been a by-the-book prison transport turned into something else entirely when Athena realized someone was after Jenkins. This derailed their scheduled trip and put them on a different course.

This course led them onto a plane, which, as the episode’s end teased, will be in danger thanks to the bee invasion.

“I knew that I wanted, just logistically, to get Athena on a plane so that it could get hit by a light plane with some bees,” Minear explained. “I literally wanted the bee story to collide with the Athena story.

“Then, at that point, the question was, well, what is she doing on that plane? Maybe she’s transporting a prisoner or something like that.

“I think Kristen is the one who brought up Dennis, which immediately seemed like the right idea because “Athena Begins” is such a high point in the series.

“What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to do what David Fincher did with Alien 3, where you come in and you’ve completely erased the thing that came before it.”

Not only will Athena be battling the plane emergency, but she’ll also be coming to terms with many complicated feelings about a pivotal moment in her life.

“With a real understanding of honoring what she went through in Athena Begins, this is the next step of that,” Minear told us. “It’s like she spent 30 years not knowing who murdered her fiancé.

She finally found that guy, and though it was a bittersweet victory because she had to deliver this man with a family to prison, her sense of justice demanded that.

“So now she’s in a situation where her sense of justice is going to be battling with her sense of compassion and forgiveness, and I think that’s just a really interesting place for Athena.”

Bobby’s Hot New Gig

When the credits rolled on 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 10, Bobby was out as captain of the 118, having previously quit before his brush with death. And without a place at the 118, Bobby’s been designated for assignment.

Being a technical advisor on the television set of ‘Hotshots’ presents a unique opportunity for Bobby to get out of his comfort zone and a chance for the show to poke fun at itself.

“What you’ll see is, kind of, the fake firefighter world just makes Bobby want to get back to the real one,” Minear said about what we should expect from Bobby’s latest role.

“He’s obviously not somebody who’s going to get his head turned by Hollywood, but it really is something. When I watched that first scene in ‘Buzzkill‘ where we reveal what he’s doing, and he walks onto that set to give his advice, it’s like, wow, okay.

“So, there’s the TV star right there. Peter just has so much weight, charisma, humor, and all that stuff.

“I think putting Bobby in a ridiculous world and just playing his deadpanness against it was really appealing to me. Also, it’s obvious that we’re making fun of ourselves a little bit with that.”

Henren’s Adoption Woes Will Continue

Thanks to the wicked Councilwoman Ortiz, Hen and Karen saw their dreams of adopting Mara put on hold indefinitely last season.

Luckily, good friends Chimney and Maddie stepped in to foster Mara in the interim while Hen and Karen worked to get their foster license back.

The premiere didn’t dive too deeply into this, but it’s safe to assume there won’t be a quick and easy solution to the couple’s predicament, a sentiment Minear confirmed.

“The Wilsons and the Hans have become almost an extended family within the larger framework,” Minear previewed for us regarding what we’ll see next from this emotional storyline.

“Councilwoman Ortiz is going to rear her mean old head before too long, and it’s just not going to be as simple as Hen had hoped. She’s going to have to put on the gloves.”

Buck and Gerrard Square Off

As previously mentioned, Captain Gerrard was back, bringing his no-good, nasty attitude with him. He made quite the impact in the premiere with his brash demeanor, letting everyone at the 118 know he meant business at various times.

The precarious relationship between Buck and Gerrard will most likely change after Buck stepped in to save his life (assuming he makes it!)

But before Buck’s heroic move, Gerrard took a particular interest in going after him, perhaps because he had a different reaction than his peers to the changing of the guard.

“You’re entirely correct that Buck is the focus of Gerard’s awfulness,” Minear said. 

“The reason we went down that road was there were a lot of different ways to approach Gerrard taking over for Bobby. Obviously, Hen had worked under him; Chimney had worked under him, and even Tommy had, right? Eddie hadn’t.

“But I didn’t want to replay the conflict between Hen and Gerrard or Chimney and Gerrard. That had been played. And it felt to me that at this point in their lives, they were different people, too, right?

“Like Hen has her own problems. She’s got to focus on trying to get Mara back. Chimney’s newly married, has a young daughter, and Eddie was in the military. So, it just seemed like Buck, who kind of views Bobby as his surrogate dad, would have the biggest problem with this.

“He’s never worked for another captain. He started with Bobby. It just felt like poor Buck was the one that needed to be the focus of Gerrard’s ire. It made the most sense.

“It almost feels like he’s always the kid brother in some ways. And it feels like the other three would understand that sometimes you just have a shitty boss. And maybe Buck’s never had a shitty boss before.”

Even with Gerrard’s insults and dismissals looming over him, Buck proved himself to be a tremendous firefighter with great instincts, something we already knew about him. His extensive bee knowledge was paramount in helping out in both bee emergencies.

The series toyed a bit with Buck’s interest in being a captain one day in a past season, so is that something we could see down the line?

“I think Buck would probably be a good captain, but I still feel like even though he’s, however old Buck is, I still think he’s a big kid in a lot of ways,” Minear answered for us. “I still think he’s got a little more maturing to do.

Eddie Looks In The Mirror

In the aftermath of Christopher’s departure to Texas to stay with his grandparents, we met an Eddie in the opening hour who was still coming to grips with not being a part of his son’s life in the way he’s used to.

Eddie’s video-call birthday party for Christopher, complete with Buck and Tommy, cupcakes, and party hats, doesn’t go as he expects, leaving him feeling the chill from being left out in the cold.

With this change, what should we expect to see from Eddie as he reconciles with the events of last season? Will he start to move forward?

“Yeah, I mean, Eddie has to with Christopher away and not being very communicative, and Eddie lamenting that and trying to figure out how to repair his relationship with his kid at a distance,” Minear clarified.

“Eddie’s left with himself and doesn’t have a romantic interest right now. He doesn’t have his kid at home, who has been his raison d’être , raising that kid and making the world safe for that kid.

“And when he realizes that he was the thing that made it a little unsafe for Christopher last year, he’s got to now look in the mirror and figure out who he is before he can repair that relationship. So that’s Eddie’s struggle.”

In the past, we may have seen Eddie retreating in on himself, not letting others in to help, or simply not acknowledging the problem.

But Minear assures us that won’t be the case this time.

“No, he’s not retreating,” he shared. “That would’ve been what he would have done, probably, in the past. He’s definitely sharing with his friends, colleagues, and his kind of found family, but he is also finding other opportunities for guidance in other places.

 “He’s definitely not avoiding the struggle. He’s trying to figure out how to deal with it.”

***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***

You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.