Lab Rats

As Peter Krause said in an interview at the end of the previous season (S7, 2024);

"The characters in the show have survived so many horrible and life-threatening accidents, like characters from Looney Tunes cartoons - none of which ever died. So in keeping with the language of the show, we are incredibly resilient characters. We go through things and we come back ... We want to speak to people's resilience and, in Bobby's case, redemption. So, I don't know if killing off characters is necessarily a part of the language of the show - at least not the main characters."

... and yet, here we are.

I love you, Cap.

I gave this a three and I really only did so because the main cast, particularly Peter Krause, Angela Bassett and Kenneth Choi were fantastic and deserve their flowers for their amazing performances.

9-1-1 used to be my comfort show. I could tune in every week and watch my favourite characters go THROUGH it and still know that everybody would be okay in the end. That's what set it apart from other shows. You knew the main cast were safe.

Killing Bobby Nash of ALL characters, is just such a baffling and ridiculous move. He is the soul of this show. The one all other characters turn to for support and guidance. If this had been done because Peter had wanted to leave, that would be one thing. But knowing that isn't the case now from reading post episode interviews, and that it was a creative decision? Well. Big mistake.

And to do it in this way? With Bobby isolated from everyone and dying alone in a horrific way, with nobody there to hold his hand? Particularly cruel.

And on that, I must address the Eddie of it all, or lack there of. He deserved to be in this episode. Bobby and Eddie had their own relationship. Eddie saw him as a friend and mentor. The fact that he was completely kept out of this episode, and the last? Completely insane and stupid. And dare I say it, cruel. He is a MAIN character. Could they not have spared 10-15 seconds in that ending montage to show him reacting via phone call? Instead we saw Tommy, a side character that much of the audience cares very little for? Insane. I and I'm sure many others would have much preferred to see Eddie take Tommy's place in that sequence. We deserved to see that. Instead we're told that, like much of Eddie's story this season, takes place off screen. Infuriating.

Peter and Angela bring in a LOT of viewership and therefore, ratings. I hope the creative team and writers take note of the criticism they are receiving in spades after this arc, and make some serious changes. I'm giving them until the end of this season to make a decision about whether I'll return for season 9 or if I let this show go completely. I'm positive I'm not alone in that thinking.

Farewell Bobby Nash and Peter Krause. You deserved better than this, thank you for 8 years.

He's got zero clue about who his audience is, what they like, why they're watching the show. He doesn't understand his characters, either. And he especially seems to hate his actors. He needs to leave this show and go straight to superhell. This episode was extremely poorly written and makes no narrative sense. Shock value death is so lazy, and completely out of tune with the show. There's been nothing realistic about this show (and especially not this episode) since day one and that's what's kept everyone watching. It's low stakes! That's why we like it. No matter how absurd the story gets, everyone makes it home! It's a comfort show, you don't kill off main characters in a comfort show! You barely even kill side characters. Once again, Tim Minear has no idea what's he's doing.

I think the real issue that we're experiencing right now is that Tim Minear doesn't understand his audience. Most people watch 911 as a comfort show. We watch for the silly emergencies and the found family feel. There are a thousand other shows we could watch if we wanted our main characters to be at deaths door. The fact that they always got out of the most impossible situations alive is why people watch. There's comfort in knowing everything is going to be okay. Tim wrote the show he wanted to write but forgot the audience he was writing for. When people talk about this show in the future this is the episode that people will point to and say 911 jumped the shark.

I made an account on this godforsaken website just to rate this episode one star. The decisions made in this episode completely undermines and betrays the covenant the show has built with its viewers over the last eight years. If tim wanted to make a different show, he could've created a new show. This was our silly wee woo show - 9-1-1 provided levity, comfort, and found family to its viewers, and the reaction to this episode shows just how out-of-line this was - is there not enough suffering in this world? This episode was nasty in a way that just felt especially and needlessly cruel to the viewers who have invested their time into a stable and comforting show.