Spoiler alert! This story contains a big spoiler for 9-1-1’s April 17 episode “Lab Rats,” so if you’re not caught up, be sure to stream the episode with your Hulu subscription.
I feel like it’s going to take some time before 9-1-1 fans are truly over the major character death we witnessed in the latest episode to air on the 2025 TV schedule. Despite the characters of Ryan Murphy’s creation regularly finding themselves in harrowing situations, nobody foresaw original cast member Peter Krause’s Bobby being the one killed off. In fact, Angela Bassett said when the call came to inform her, she thought Athena was about to die.
The devastating loss of the 118 fire captain came at the conclusion of the series’ two-part “Contagion” event. Angela Bassett confirmed to THR that showrunner Tim Minear gave her and Peter Krause a heads-up that Athena was losing her husband Bobby Nash, and the news came as quite a shock, as she said:
Tim did pull Peter first and let him know. Then he pulled me and he gave me a call and was like, ‘OK, Angela, this is a big change in the season. We gotta do something really dramatic — and someone’s going to die.’ And then there’s a pause, of course. And I said, ‘Is it … Athena? Is it me?!’
Given all of the challenges Athena has been through in the past couple of seasons alone — the Season 7 cruise ship crisis, both Athena and Bobby nearly dying in a house fire and this season’s plane crisis, for example — it’s not hard to imagine why Angela Bassett would be concerned about Athena Grant-Nash.
However, even after Tim Minear told her Athena was safe, the Emmy-winning actress didn’t suspect she was losing her on-screen spouse. She continued:
And then I started going through the list: ‘Is it Hen? Is it Chimney?’ And I think finally, after about three or four names, I was like, ‘What?!’ — because it was inconceivable to me that it was Bobby. It was incredulous to me that it was Bobby, so it was just very surprising. Sometimes, you’re just struck dumb — and that’s one of those moments because their bond has been so wonderful and so strong these past four or five years. I didn’t see that coming. None of us saw that coming.
That’s certainly also true of Kenneth Choi, aka Chimney, who described “sobbing uncontrollably” after watching Bobby’s death — despite having been there when it was filmed. I’m sure this is hard for both the actors and their characters to comprehend (not to mention the viewers), and it will be really interesting to see how Athena copes, as well as everyone who depended on him at the 118.
I think this should serve as a warning to fans, though, that no one is safe.
At the beginning of Season 8 — following the plane emergency that had Athena piloting the craft after a mid-air collision — Tim Minear let us get comfortable regarding Athena and Bobby’s fates, saying, “I think for Bobby and Athena, they can breathe a sigh of relief for a moment,” and turning our focus toward what Eddie (Ryan Guzman) was facing.
That sigh of relief is officially over, so we’ll all take a week or two to come to terms with this loss before checking back in on Athena when 9-1-1 returns at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, May 1, on ABC.
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