911’s Peter Krause on That Season Finale Cliffhanger and What’s Coming in Season 8

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for 9-1-1, Season 7, Episode 10, “All Fall Down.” Read at your own risk!]

During a recent visit to the set of 9-1-1, Peter Krause likened the ABC procedural drama to a comic book about first-responders that has come to life. For seven seasons, the show has paid tribute to the real-life heroics of emergency service workers, but there is, perhaps, something even more superhuman about the way that the main characters have each been able to cheat death time and again.

In this season’s three-episode opening emergency, Krause’s character, Capt. Bobby Nash, faced multiple close calls on a hijacked and capsized cruise ship. Since then, Bobby has almost died of thirst, of heat exhaustion, of smoke inhalation, and, now in Thursday’s season finale, of a heart attack.

After saving himself and his wife, Sgt. Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett), from a fire that engulfed their family home in the penultimate episode, Bobby collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics were able to resuscitate him on their way to the hospital, but Bobby is placed on a ventilator at the start of the finale.

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Rather than waiting to see whether her husband will wake up with any deficits, Athena decides to spring into action and do the one thing that she can control: apprehend whoever is responsible for setting her and Bobby’s house on fire. While Athena initially goes after Amir Casey (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), the traveling nurse who still blames Bobby for starting the fire that claimed the life of his wife back in Minnesota, Athena quickly realizes that Amir is not the arsonist.

After Amir is picked up against his will by some men who tried to kill him and Bobby in the desert in Episode 7, Athena follows them in close pursuit to a warehouse, where she overhears the criminals admitting to torching her home. In an attempt to both save Amir and lure the criminals out of the building, where the police would be waiting to arrest them, Athena uses a lighter and some flammable liquid to set the place on fire. Once outside, Athena gets some even better news: Bobby has woken up and will be just fine.

“[9-1-1 is] sort of like a Looney Tunes cartoon with Wile E. Coyote blown up by TNT or falling off a cliff, and then they just limp away with some scratches,” Krause told TV Guide. “Whether it’s Chimney getting a rebar through his head or an entire fire engine falling on Buck’s lower body, we get up like the Energizer Bunny and keep marching on.”

But it won’t be quite back to business as usual for Bobby, who secretly resigned from his post at the 118 prior to his latest medical emergency. By the time he walks back into the fire station to take his job back, Bobby — as well as the rest of his team — learns that Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson), the bigoted former captain of the 118, has taken back control of the fire station.

The day before the finale, Krause jumped on a quick phone call to discuss that big, season-ending cliffhanger involving Gerrard, the emotional experience of watching Bobby and Athena’s house go up in flames, and how he felt about the big reveal earlier this season that Bobby’s struggles with alcoholism and addiction actually run in his family.

You said at the start of the season about how you thought Bobby should have died on the cruise ship, and showrunner Tim Minear has now put Bobby through three more near-death experiences. How much longer do you think Bobby will be able to avoid the grim reaper before he decides to consider retirement again?

Peter Krause: Boy, I don’t know. I mean, it might not be until the end of the series, given the language of the show. Everybody survives these awful accidents. It’s sort of like a Looney Tunes cartoon with Wile E. Coyote blown up by TNT or falling off a cliff, and then they just limp away with some scratches. Whether it’s Chimney (Kenneth Choi) getting a rebar through his head or an entire fire engine falling on Buck’s lower body, we get up like the Energizer Bunny and keep marching on. But that’s the language of the show, which I really like. And that doesn’t mean that we don’t go into the realistic, deep emotional territory like we did towards the end of the season this year with Bobby and with Bobby and Athena.

I think that was one of the most interesting arcs of the season — to start with romantic comedy aboard the Poseidon Adventure homage, the extended emergency adventure that Bobby and Athena were on, to the point where you see Athena terrified that she’s going to lose Bobby. [Athena’s reaction to Bobby’s unilateral decision to resign from the 118] comes out of the anger that he didn’t let her in about his inner world and share how sometimes his own negative reflection would spool out of control and have him have dark thoughts about taking his own life. That’s quite a ways away from being on a cruise ship and having some laughs with those two characters. [Laughs.] So, hats off to Tim Minear for putting together an incredible 10-episode arc to relaunch the show on ABC. He did a fantastic job. 

You and Angela were really given a lot to do in this truncated 10-episode season, and the fact that Athena has only just learned about an even darker part of Bobby’s past, like you said, has given you an opportunity to play a side of the relationship that we haven’t really seen since the early seasons. How do you feel all of the conflict and near-death experiences that they have gone through this year have changed their relationship?

Krause: I definitely think that the relationship between Athena and Bobby is deeper and stronger. They did have to go through some difficult things this season. In the beginning, it was trying to survive and help others survive above this sinking ship. And of course, in the wild storytelling world of 9-1-1, we’re also dealing with a dongle full of Bitcoin, some Russian mob members boarding the ship, which is all just so fun. But then we get into some really real territory about a relationship and about the importance of sharing and letting your partner really know you and know the bad along with the good, and they lead such pressurized lives as first-responders.

It was really interesting to see Tim write Athena and Bobby in that way at the end of the season, with Bobby wanting to hide some of this from her and her being terrified of losing him and again, it’s coming out of anger and all the very true human behavioral complexities that we go through in life. That’s a part of the 9-1-1 show as well. It’s not just [showing how] somebody’s got a tapeworm coming out of their butt or there’s 10 women giving birth at the same time in a yoga studio — and I love that. I love that Tim is energized about expanding the storytelling landscape of the show. And along with the characters on the show having struggles like people do in everyday life, we get to do these more heightened, wild and wacky emergencies. So, yes, it’s a piece of entertainment, but we do go deep sometimes, and at the end of the season, I think we went as deep as we ever have.

When we last spoke, you mentioned that Tim was looking to write an arc that sheds light on Bobby’s childhood in Minnesota. How did the childhood that you had previously envisioned for Bobby compare to the backstory that Tim created for the back half of the season, and what did Episode 8, in particular, which explores Bobby’s relationship with his late father, help you unlock in terms of your understanding of your character? Some people have suspected that alcoholism ran in his family, but it was almost jarring to see the way it played out, with Bobby having his first drink shortly after finding his dad’s corpse in their living room.

Krause: It all made perfect sense [to me]. Originally, Bobby’s addiction and dependency was rooted in a back injury and pain medication. There were some scenes that were scripted but that we never shot in the first seasons, and this [revelation about his childhood], I think, is much more interesting, even though that can still be a part of the story that did happen, and maybe we’ll revisit it. But first of all, I thought John Brotherton did a really wonderful job [as Bobby’s father, Tim] because when you look back, Bobby’s father is charming and loves his kid. And yes, he’s got issues and things like that, but in a very short time — both the way it was written and it was played — he was a compelling, rich character that wasn’t just one thing. He wasn’t, like, some abusive father. It wasn’t a cutout. It was a complex portrait of a dad. I thought John Brotherton was really funny at times in the flashbacks.

I don’t want to go into lengthy conversation about epigenetics, but when you mentioned something about generational alcoholism, it does speak to that. Some of it is genetic, so what do we pass down genetically and all that, but also then behaviorally, what do we pass down? And Bobby idolized his dad, and his dad was a drinker. So how do you ease the pain in your life? [You drink.] We address these things in 9-1-1. Like I said, along with all the fun, the comedy, and the action and all that stuff, we do go deep. And this year, we went deep about addiction and guilt and difficulties in relationships with Bobby and Athena. I think that Tim handled it really well, and we have such a terrific cast. I think you could cast an entirely different show with this bunch of people, and it would be a success. It’s such a wonderfully talented group, but also a supportive group of people, and obviously, that’s something who the characters are on the screen, but that exists in life as well [among] the performers in this show. So, if that somehow translates to the audience that this group of people supports each other through thick and through thin, then that’s also an important part of the language of the show.

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Bobby and his teammates now have to contend with Gerrard, the former captain of the 118, who has taken back control of his fire station. There’s going to be a clear shift in the power dynamic at the top of next season. Do you have any idea where Tim is planning to go with this cliffhanger?

Krause: Well, I don’t know exactly what Tim has in store, but certainly, Gerrard is positioned to hold a grudge against Bobby for taking over his firehouse and getting all these accolades. And as you said, he is drawn as sort of an oppressive authoritarian character. So I have faith that Bobby will prevail. I don’t know exactly what he’s going to have to go through to regain the captainship of the 118. [I don’t know] if Tim wants that to happen quickly and get back to the fun and the comedy and the action, all that, or if there’s something more involved that he has planned. I’m not sure.

Bobby and Athena both made it out of their house alive, but the truth of the matter is that their home, which was the site of so many of the milestones in their relationship, is gone — along with a lot of the keepsakes and material goods that were representative of their time together. What was it like for you to shoot the scene where the house goes up in flames?

Krause: It was very sad to play that scene with Malcolm, who was a blast to work with. To play that scene in the burned out house with Malcolm was really eerie. And playing the scene where I get Athena out of the burning bedroom — of course, there was this incredible wave of guilt that washed over me playing Bobby [in that moment] about the fire, and everything that was happening was sort of reigniting, if you will, his guilt. So then Bobby has a heart attack, and we go into Episode 10 with all that [angst]. I don’t know how to say this, except that it was strangely a relief to have a heart attack and be unconscious [laughs] and not have to go through this incredible sense of guilt that actions I took may have led to our house burning down.

Do you think we will see them go house hunting next season?

Krause: Tim and I talked about, perhaps, Athena and Bobby being in an apartment or a hotel and being confined together again like on the cruise ship, perhaps, for a little while at the top of Season 8 and reigniting a little romantic comedy, which I think is a good idea because, of course, their relationship is deeper and stronger now, and I think we can withstand some comedy. I had also pitched to him that maybe they go on an RV trip together as a second chance at a honeymoon. So I don’t know if that’ll ever happen or not, but I mean, it’s an RV trip. What could go wrong? [Laughs.]

I know better than to ask the question “what could go wrong?” with this show, but the idea of an RV trip is better than what I had in mind. I thought they may stay with one of the firefighters at the 118 for a little bit, but I’m not sure how they would all deal with living in such close quarters both at home and at work.

Krause: [Laughs.] [Bobby and Athena] staying with Hen and Karen?

Hen and Karen, or Maddie and Chimney. I don’t know what kind of chaos would ensue if we managed to have two couples living under the same roof temporarily, but it could be fertile ground for a funny story.

Krause: I was actually really looking forward to working with that dog that we had on the show a little while ago. I really got along with that dog, Hoover. We had this dog on the show that we passed around, so I guess, yeah, they could pass us around [too]. We could stay with people, but I would assume it’s more of a hotel or an apartment situation before they figure out if they’re going to rebuild, or they’re going to move somewhere, or whatever’s going to happen. But there’s definitely some storytelling road ahead for them in terms of their house and all that we’ve got going on.

All episodes of 9-1-1 are now streaming on Hulu. The show is set to return this fall with Season 8.