Spoilers ahead for the Season 7 finale of 9-1-1, called "All Fall Down."
While the title of 9-1-1's season finale may have been a bit obvious after the penultimate episode was called "Ashes, Ashes," not much else about the episode was so easy to predict! "All Fall Down" had to pick up the cliffhanger of the penultimate episode with Bobby's heart giving out after saving Athena from their burning house. Not only did the finale address the unanswered questions for that storyline, but it set up an entirely independent crisis for Station 118 that I didn't see coming for Season 8 later in the 2024 TV schedule.
So, with the show already renewed before the finale aired on ABC on May 30, let's look at what went down and what's set up for the eighth season!
How 9-1-1 Resolved Bobby And Athena's Cliffhangers
"All Fall Down" picked up with Athena no worse for the wear thanks to Bobby's heroics, but the 118 captain was unconscious after his heart had stopped for fourteen minutes, and the doctors couldn't promise Athena that he'd wake up. Not content to just sit idly by and wait, she instead decided to go after Amir, who she was convinced had set the fire.
In their confrontation, Amir insisted that he hadn't set the fire and was impressively calm and collected with Athena pointing a gun at him. The truth came out when members of the cartel arrived and abducted Amir, after he pointed out to the LAPD sergeant that they were probably the ones who had burnt down her house.
Athena was not one to give up. Despite at least considering killing Amir shortly before, she mounted a rescue mission that couldn't wait for backup. In some justice so poetic that I really hope she doesn't face repercussions for it in Season 8, Athena deliberately set fire to the warehouse where the bad guys were keeping Amir, driving them out and rescuing the man she'd previously thought led to her husband's death via arson.
And the wins kept coming! Athena returned to the hospital to find Bobby surrounded by his firefighters from the 118, alive and looking as well as could be hoped for a man who was recently unconscious after nearly a quarter of an hour with his heart stopped. Bobby, Athena, and the kids were ready to pick up pieces of their lives by the end of the hour, and that storyline seems to be over as of the end of Season 7, despite my previous suspicion that at least some part of it would carry over.
Which may be for the best, because a big new plot was set up for the 118 in the final moments of the finale! Here's hoping Bobby and Athena at least catch a break from epic life-threatening emergencies in Season 8 this fall after dealing with a capsized cruise ship and burning home.
The New Problem For Season 8
I have to applaud 9-1-1 for ending its first season on ABC after being cancelled by Fox on this particular twist, because it was both hard to predict in advance but also clearly foreshadowed in hindsight. Bobby quitting the LAFD in the penultimate episode (which you can revisit streaming with a Hulu subscription) was overshadowed in the aftermath by his possible death, but it came back to bite him – as well as Hen, Chimney, Buck, and Eddie – with the reveal that neither Bobby nor Hen will be acting captain at the 118. No, it is the dreaded Captain Gerrard.
Captain Gerrard, a.k.a. the LAFD captain who has been mentioned throughout the seventh season, appeared in the penultimate episode, has a bad history with Hen and Chimney, and arrived with this speech to suggest that the firefighters aren't going to enjoy having him around:
I'm captain of the 118... There was some concern downtown about a leadership deficit in this house. I agreed to come back and put things in order... Why would they say anything to [Bobby]? He quit two weeks ago. Or did [he] fail to mention that? Line up in inspection in ten.
Suffice it to say that the mood went from celebratory in honor of Bobby's return to gloomy in a matter of moments! I do feel like it's a safe bet that Bobby will return to his status as captain of the 118 at some point in Season 8 as long as Peter Krause sticks with the show, but it could be a rough ride for the firefighters in the meantime. I can imagine one big upside, though, if 9-1-1 wants to go in this direction!
Could This Mean More Tommy In Season 8?
Many of the nods to Captain Gerrard have been associated with Tommy this season in some form or other, with him pointing Gerrard out to Buck at the medal ceremony in the previous episode. That was a pretty tense encounter all around with Tommy, Chimney, and Hen throwing shade (and some very dirty looks) with no clue that Gerrard was just one episode away from becoming leader of the 118. Now, Tommy is no longer a firefighter at that station, but the setup for Gerrard in Season 7 has been so closely tied to his character that my fingers are crossed that this storyline means more of him come fall.
I'm admittedly a little biased due to my love of his relationship with Buck, but 9-1-1 really has set the stage. In "All Fall Down," Tommy said this about Gerrard to Buck over dinner:
When I was at the 118, I had Gerrard, which did not make me a better person. Come to think of it, Captain Gerrard was like having the dad I already had.
Captain Gerrard seems to be the one topic guaranteed to put Tommy in some kind of mood, and I'd be interested to see how he reacts to Gerrard being in Buck's life. We don't know as much about his interactions with the captain back in the day compared to Chimney and Hen, but it's a safe bet that Tommy doesn't have any regrets about losing Gerrard as his captain.
For now, though, we have a long summer hiatus ahead to speculate about what the change in captains means for the 118, as well as Tommy. For now, you can always revisit all seven seasons of 9-1-1 streaming on Hulu, as well as all four seasons of 9-1-1: Lone Star so far if you want to check out the spinoff. Lone Star won't return to Fox until the fall, which is when 9-1-1 is also slated to return to ABC.
