{"id":830518,"date":"2026-05-29T17:27:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/830518\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:27:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:27:52","slug":"9-1-1-creator-tim-minear-reflects-on-season-9-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/830518\/","title":{"rendered":"9-1-1 Creator Tim Minear Reflects on Season 9 \u2013 INTERVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Minear breaks down significant season 9 moments and offers new in-depth behind-the-scenes insight.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

9-1-1 explores the high-pressure experiences of police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers, drawing from the real lives of first responders and the situations that they regularly face. Before the procedural drama\u00a0returns for its tenth season, I spoke with co-creator, executive producer, writer, and showrunner Tim Minear about the season 9 finale, deleted scenes, \u201cMother\u2019s Boy,\u201d the holiday episodes, character dynamics, and much more. <\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

What made you decide to lean more into the brotherly dynamic between Buck<\/strong> and Harry<\/strong> this season? I\u2019ve really enjoyed their one-on-ones throughout and even having them paired in the finale.<\/strong>
Part of it was it just makes sense. The more tortured answer would be, I wanted the characters to evidence a little piece of Bobby for each of them. And so for Buck<\/a>, obviously, it\u2019s Buck kind of stepping into that mentor role for Harry; he\u2019s giving back what he was given. That\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Even though Chimney<\/strong> now has this season of being a captain under his belt, are there any other obstacles, possibly parallels to Bobby, that you want him to face going forward?<\/strong>
I don\u2019t know yet. I mean, he\u2019ll always be comparing himself. But I don\u2019t want the show to kind of turn into a constant meditation on that particular loss. I felt like this season needed to be, for sure. But the capstone for me was the Buck rehab episode.<\/p>\n

That was a beautiful episode.<\/strong>
I mean, that may have been sort of the culmination of it, and I just wanted to make sure that the last couple of episodes weren\u2019t just rehashing Bobby.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I really liked that he went to Chimney<\/strong> and was actually seeking help rather than having it get to a place where he couldn\u2019t backtrack, or someone caught him doing it. <\/strong>
I avoid reading social media. I used to do that, and it was not good. But I know that there\u2019s been some criticism that, oh, that just was so slapdash, it happened so quickly. Well, that was the whole idea for me because it\u2019s so easy to get hooked on to something like that, which we say in the episodes, but I wanted to tell the story of somebody who nipped it in the bud.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s sort of me. I went to rehab when I was 20, and I\u2019d only been sort of abusing substances for maybe a little over a year. So, I was 20 years old when I went into rehab; I wasn\u2019t even old enough to drink. By the time I was old enough to drink, I had stopped. So it is possible.<\/p>\n

Missing moments <\/p>\n

I loved that final sequence in the episode where everyone is helping him through his detox. I feel like there were a lot of small details for each of the characters while they were helping Buck. Was there a small detail or a moment between the characters that was your favorite?<\/strong>
No, it\u2019s sort of all of a piece. I mean, it\u2019s so funny that act was, this happens a lot, but the episodes will often come in kind of longish, and this year they were usually around 20 minutes over, which is a lot, right? That\u2019s basically half an episode, and that act, if I can recall correctly, I think was like 15 minutes long. It\u2019s six minutes now, and there are a couple of scenes that I actually just cut out that I didn\u2019t feel like you needed, that I loved.<\/p>\n

I loved all the scenes, but it was really important for me that that whole sequence was allowed to breathe. Also, that song that we had in there, that needle drop, which didn\u2019t clear until the last second, I had a whole other standing by, but I just knew it had to be that because that\u2019s what we edited it to, that particular needle drop. It\u2019s the whole thing together. I don\u2019t know if you can kind of pull out one particular thing.<\/p>\n

Were there any deleted scenes that you wish had made the final cut, but unfortunately, just timing-wise, you couldn\u2019t add in at any point this season?<\/strong>
Well, there are a lot of examples of that throughout the season. I mean, the scene that had to go, which I really did like, was a scene between Buck, Maddie, and Chimney, kind of establishing that we\u2019re going to come to your house and we\u2019re all going to help you through it. So there was a whole scene, but that was a scene that was saying what you were about to see, so I figured it\u2019s better just to see it anyway. But that was a nice scene that we had to lose. And then, there was this one scene in \u201cMother\u2019s Boy\u201d that I really miss.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

That episode was a masterpiece. That\u2019s my favorite episode of the season,<\/strong> and it\u2019s one that I\u2019ve gotten to rewatch and appreciate the smaller details of. <\/strong>
In that episode, which was like 25 minutes over, the trick for that was, how do I set this thing up in one act? Because I knew I wanted the car crash to be at the end of the first act. And so, it\u2019s like, you have to go through a lot of setup before you get there. But I figured, well, the audience will bear with it because it\u2019ll be fun. They\u2019ll be on a road trip, and it\u2019ll be fun. There was a much longer version of them driving across country in the car, and I think actually it times out about right. Like, much more of that, you start to get weary of it.<\/p>\n

But there was a scene in there where Eddie <\/a>looks over, and he sees that junker car that says for sale on it. There was a scene where he was haggling with the guy who was selling it. He\u2019s offering less than on the thing, and I think it was for sale for $700 or something. He said, \u201cI\u2019ll give you $500,\u201d and it\u2019s like, well, that wouldn\u2019t even cover what I put into it. Then, you see a sheriff\u2019s deputy car coming up the road, and Eddie kind of just looks away. The car passes, and the guy clocks that Eddie\u2019s hiding from the cops. He\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019ll give it to you for $7,000,\u201d and then Eddie has to Venmo him seven grand just to get the car. So I was sad that had to go.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Ryan<\/strong> was really funny in that scene.<\/strong>
He was, yeah.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother\u2019s Boy\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you tell me about filming that sequence with Eddie and Buck saving each other towards the end, and the significance of that overall?
<\/strong>Well, shooting it, Jonathan Lawrence directed it, and did a fantastic job. He\u2019s a guy that I grew up with, making Super 8 films with from the time we were about eight or ten. He\u2019s now directed two episodes of the show. In terms of when I was writing it, I mean, this is what I generally try to do: I generally try not to have anyone be a damsel in distress.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s Maddie or whoever it is, needs to aid in their own rescue. So once I sort of landed on the idea that Buck is willing to say, sacrifice himself, and \u201cI\u2019ll do whatever you want, just don\u2019t hurt him, just let him go,\u201d they\u2019re both kind of looking out for each other. But yeah, I try not to make those moments too complicated. First of all, you\u2019re going to run out of time. It\u2019s not going to be good. So you have to choreograph that very specifically on the page and really understand that there\u2019s a couple of big moments here.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

One is that she\u2019s going to pull the gun on Eddie. Eddie\u2019s going to disarm her. But then, the ex-husband is going to appear with a rifle, like a sniper across the way. I just made very sure to at least see the cattle prod once in the greenhouse. I think he takes it away and puts it down or something, but you remember that cattle prod, so that Buck can zap the guy with it. It was also important to me that I didn\u2019t see Buck get out of his restraints, crawl up the hill, or something. That\u2019s also a bit of a gamble, because people might feel like that\u2019s a cheat, but I don\u2019t think it plays that way at all.<\/p>\n

When we pick back up, Buck insists that he\u2019s fine, and Eddie\u2019s<\/strong> trying to check in, see what\u2019s going on, and make sure he\u2019s going to therapy. Obviously, that leads us into the dependency storyline, but do you think they had a conversation about their different experiences in terms of what Buck went through and all that Eddie did to find him?
<\/strong>They probably did, I would think. There was definitely, I don\u2019t know what I say, like a three-or four-week time jump, so they probably did. On the other hand, they\u2019re men, so maybe not.<\/p>\n

Putting grief front and center <\/p>\n

I know that Ryan<\/strong> spoke up to make sure that Eddie was involved in the human trafficking storyline with the migrants, and you rewrote it to include him. I was curious if you<\/strong> collaborated with him at all for the \u201cD\u00eda de los Muertos\u201d episode. Was there a reason that you wanted to give Eddie that spotlight for the holiday episode this year? That was, again, such a beautifully done episode and one of my favorites.
<\/strong>Mine too. Yeah, there was a very specific reason. I mean, there\u2019s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, like the air dates got pulled up by a week. But before they were pulled up by a week, I was trying to make this space thing, right? My director, Brad Buecker, who\u2019s the producing director on the show, was off in Nashville <\/strong>shooting a 9-1-1: Nashville <\/strong>episode. He always shoots the big disaster episodes, right? So, he was off in Nashville <\/strong>doing that, and it was taking longer than we had anticipated, and he wasn\u2019t going to be back in time. I was going to have to roll into the next slot before he got back.<\/p>\n

So, some of the space stuff got put on hold, and then I had to scramble and come up with an episode five. But luckily, Keith Tripler, who works for me, was going to direct that. So he was easily put into the slot. It didn\u2019t screw up the director\u2019s schedules, let\u2019s put it that way. I looked at the calendar, and this is before the air dates got pulled up, and I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is going to air the day either before or after Halloween, so we should do a Halloween episode,\u201d which Kristen and I were both like, \u201cOh, God,\u201d because our Halloween episodes are cursed. They\u2019re always the hardest episodes. They\u2019re always a bitch to shoot, and they often don\u2019t come out well.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Oh, I love the Halloween episodes.
<\/strong>I have a couple of examples. First of all, everyone thinks that \u201cFull Moon\u201d is a Halloween episode. It\u2019s not, but it could have been. That first year, we were midseason, so we weren\u2019t even on during Halloween. But that was like the first creepy, spooky episode that we did, and it was great. And then, in season two, we did \u201cHaunted,\u201d the one with the horse. I was never satisfied with that episode.<\/p>\n

That was a perfect example of an episode that was way too long, and I had to cut out stuff that I did not want to cut out, and I had to leave in stuff I did not want to leave in. So there was a whole thing where bats attack this haunted house, and it just amounted to nothing, and I was like, let me just take that out so that I can keep in this Hen [stuff], because I had a whole bunch more Hen stuff with Karen, and kind of dealing with her father, who was on life support. But the network at the time was Fox; they were like, \u201cNo, you can\u2019t cut out a case. Cut out talking, don\u2019t cut out action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halloween fun <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, that\u2019s what the fans want: those talking scenes.
<\/strong>Yeah, exactly. I mean, they want both. If you have too much soap, then you\u2019ll get criticisms like, \u201cThey don\u2019t do enough calls on this show.\u201d It\u2019s like, well, okay, whatever. But I really wanted to take out that haunted house thing because I felt like the Hen stuff got kind of short shrift. Now, I\u2019m not saying I don\u2019t feel anything in that episode, but it was a lot more emotional before that stuff got cut out. Also, Loni, who directed it, did a great job directing, except for one thing.<\/p>\n

He never got a shot of the goddamn horse. Like, the horse is there, but there was never a big, wide drone shot looking down on the people around because we had an actual horse on its side. An animal, this giant animal, that everyone was around, and there was not one wide shot to capture that image. So everything was in pieces, and that just drove me nuts, because I edit every episode. So, that one, it came out fine. It has a great needle drop at the end, and Hen unplugs her father, and then Buck writes a letter to Abby, and he realizes he\u2019s the ghost haunting the house, and that was all right.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

The next season, the Halloween episode was so troubled. So troubled that I brought in one of the studio executives, I\u2019m like, \u201cYou need to come down to the editing room and look at this.\u201d I brought her in, and Kristen and I were there; I think it was a Sunday. I made this executive drive from her house, and I\u2019m watching this thing, and I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is so bad. I don\u2019t know how to fix this. Can we just not air this?\u201d Which of course, was not [an option]. By the way, this is also what I do every time I edit an episode. I go in, and I\u2019m just like, \u201cThis is a disaster. This is the end of my career, and this will never be good.\u201d Not always, but generally. I mean, it was definitely like that with the finale this year.<\/p>\n

So there was a whole sequence in that Halloween episode that we took out. It was the biggest sequence in the episode. It was a big montage, and there was like a Halloween party in an office. Our crew shows up, and there\u2019s a woman who goes into the bathroom, and a squid like the facehugger from Alien either comes out of the vent or the toilet, I can\u2019t remember, attaches to her face, and then, she comes out, she\u2019s going to die, and they have to get this thing off. It was very Alien, and it was so bad.<\/p>\n

It was basically this woman going, ah, with this rubber thing on her face, and it was just terrible. Everything about it was terrible, and I\u2019m like, I just got to take this out. Oh, and then there was the thing with the crows at the beginning. I had to send that director back three times to shoot that because I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s very simple what I want. It\u2019s The Birds. Just go look at The Birds.\u201d You\u2019re on our people, and you\u2019re dollying back, you\u2019re carrying them. And then, you\u2019re in a dolly, and you\u2019re moving toward the birds on the jungle gym, right? I need those two things.<\/p>\n

The thing I always tell directors is point of view, point of view, point of view. You need to be in the characters\u2019 heads. So that means a shot of them looking at something, and then a shot of the thing they\u2019re looking at from their point of view. Sounds simple, right? It\u2019s the thing I\u2019m always trying to scrape together in the editing room. So I had to send that director back three times, and then we finally had to bring that damn little shed that the kids are hiding in to the Fox lot and shoot all the coverage inside. We couldn\u2019t do it at the location because they kept running out of time, and eventually, we got it. <\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

So anyway, the thing that I think made that episode actually work is the story of the woman who runs into the cyclist, and he\u2019s sticking out of her window because that spans the episode; it kind of held it all together. Maybe my standards were also higher, because now, when I\u2019m looking back at season three, I\u2019m like, man, if I had all those things in an episode now, I\u2019d be like, \u201cGreat.\u201d But back then, I just thought, \u201cThis is a complete failure.\u201d So anyway, the Halloween episodes are always cursed, right? But I\u2019m like, we\u2019ll do a Halloween episode.<\/p>\n

I always wanted to do Day of the Dead, and then the air dates got pulled up, and I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is now going to air after Halloween. Damn it.\u201d So it literally aired the Thursday after Halloween. But the reason it\u2019s Day of the Dead is because the rule I was going by this year is if I could do a story and Bobby didn\u2019t need to die for that story to resonate, I\u2019m telling the wrong story. Which is why Day of the Dead, which is why Eddie wrestling with his faith, because that was something he shared with Bobby or something that Bobby held dearly, but they shared in common, they\u2019re both Catholics.<\/p>\n

So that was why Day of the Dead, and also why I felt like somebody needed to die, which is why Abuela\u2019s number came up. So, yeah, I wanted to do something specifically for Eddie, and I wanted it to be about his grief about Bobby, which presents itself differently than in another character. I mean, Eddie\u2019s been in war, Eddie\u2019s suffered loss. Eddie is taciturn in his way, so it just felt like a kind of more lyrical way to do that than Eddie having some big breakdown, like Buck might.<\/p>\n

Tales of a giant pumpkin <\/p>\n

And you did have the Buck parallel in that episode, too, with how they were both handling their grief differently, which was wonderful.<\/strong>
That\u2019s right. Buck, of course, was hoping that Bobby was haunting his house. But maybe Bobby was haunting his house because that guy needed to get to a meeting, and Buck\u2019s eventually going to need to get to a meeting. There was also another thing in there that I took out, at the very end of the episode, I think, it may have been in the montage, I don\u2019t remember, but it was something like the picture starts to move and then moves back.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

I had this thing in there, but then I just took that out, because it was kind of lame. But Keith directed that. He did a great job. I love that episode because it\u2019s got a giant pumpkin, which is one of my favorite things ever. That was one of those things we found on a viral video; one of those things got loose from a used car lot, and it was just this giant thing. It may have been a snowball or, I don\u2019t know, it may have been a pumpkin, it may have been Halloween.<\/p>\n

But it just looked hilarious, and I think Kristen was like, \u201cRemember this?\u201d Because we had tried to do it before, and I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s pretty great. We should do that.\u201d But I thought Keith shot the hell out of it, and my directive to him was, \u201cYou have to play this thing like it\u2019s The Blob, even though this thing would not actually injure anyone, you have to play it as though everyone is running and screaming in a \u201950s horror movie.\u201d You know, it\u2019s like the girl on the scooter, and it\u2019s coming up behind her.<\/p>\n

And then my favorite thing in there is something I created in the editing room. There\u2019s two cops drinking coffee, and they don\u2019t see the thing, but it rolls behind the car. That\u2019s not the way that was shot at all. They see it in the sideview mirror, and they look, and I\u2019m like, we have to find moments before they called action where they\u2019re just sitting there with the cups, because I think what would be funny is if it just rolled behind them and the music cue just stopped for a second, they don\u2019t even see it, and then we just pick it up with the music cue. So, all that I created in the editing room.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I love that episode. I thought the exorcism stuff was good and scary. I thought those people were great, and when we went to cast Abigail, the girl who\u2019s possessed, we were looking at dancers. We needed somebody who could physically \u2014 because there\u2019s some great stuff where she\u2019s like, literally arching, her back is arching up, like in The Exorcist. She could do all this stuff, and so we put the episode together, and I\u2019m watching it, and I\u2019m like, \u201cDo you think this girl can act? Because I want to bring her back. I have a feeling she can act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

She had no credits. She was basically cast as a stunt performer, almost. But Keith really thought she could, and I thought, I think she\u2019s acting here, I wonder if I bring her back, if that could be a thing. So I just kind of rolled the dice and brought her back, and boy, could she act. I mean, it\u2019s so funny. When I worked on Angel, Amy Adams was in an episode of Buffy, and I remember Joss was like, \u201cShe\u2019s going to go somewhere,\u201d and that\u2019s kind of how I feel about her.<\/p>\n

I feel like, oh, she\u2019s probably going to have a career. That\u2019s happened to me one other time, too, when I did this short-lived show on Fox called Drive. This one actress came in and read for this part, and I\u2019m like, boom. She walked in, and I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s her. We don\u2019t need to see anyone else. This girl is fantastic,\u201d and it was Emma Stone. It was one of her first jobs.<\/p>\n

The firefighter auction <\/p>\n

Bringing up Abigail, a lot of fans felt like there was a connection between Abigail<\/strong> and Eddie with their faith, but also feeling repressed. Did you make that connection? Is that why you paired them for a storyline? Was there anything there in terms of why you thought Abigail<\/strong> would latch onto Eddie and why he would feel so protective and want to help her?<\/strong>
Well, I mean, I brought her back specifically to service Eddie\u2019s character, yes. Also, I don\u2019t know; I just thought there was something kind of dangerous about it. We said she turned 18, but I just thought there was something kind of great and <\/strong>Lolita-ish about this young girl with raging hormones, who fixates on him. I mean, if you picked up that I was kind of going for a little sexual uncomfortability, then you would be correct.<\/p>\n

We did get a new couple this year: May and Ravi, which fans really did want to see. What has it been like to see that relationship form, especially with the finale? I really love that May asked Ravi to go with her and how he was there to support and protect May throughout the whole thing. How did you go about finding that dynamic? Did you have any conversations with the actors?<\/strong>
I did let them know. When we were breaking the auction stuff, which I just cursed myself for, that was another episode that was like 25 minutes over, and the auction went on for forever. It was also intercut with Hen on the road with Karen. It\u2019s not intercut like that now. That\u2019s not what you saw. But what it was originally was they\u2019re on their way to the auction. I put in some loop lines to kind of fix the timeline, but they\u2019re on their way to the auction.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t show up, and Hen was supposed to bid on Eddie, but she\u2019s not there, so he texts Maddie. It was very convoluted. So I stripped all that stuff out, and also Eddie\u2019s story with Abigail was not balanced correctly in the cut. It all was over way too quickly. So I just figured if I could pace out the Eddie thing and just have it culminate, and then make act six this fun act where there\u2019s an auction, I think we\u2019ll be okay, and that\u2019s what we ended up doing. But when we were breaking that story, I\u2019m like, all right, so we have to answer the questions.<\/p>\n

It was Silas who pitched the firefighter auction, like, \u201cThat\u2019s fun. The audience will love that.\u201d And then, I\u2019m trying to like, wedge it into this Fatal Attraction story, and it\u2019s like, oh God, what have I done? I just dreaded the whole auction thing. I\u2019m like, who\u2019s going to bid on everybody? At one point, I\u2019m like, \u201cCan Buck just bid on Eddie?\u201d And they\u2019re like, you can\u2019t do that, you\u2019ll be queer-baiting. I\u2019m like, fine. <\/p>\n

It was originally going to be Alex. Alex was going to bid on Eddie. In fact, I brought her in thinking, maybe this is a potential love interest for Eddie, and I just didn\u2019t see any chemistry there at all. So I pivoted. I mean, yeah, I brought her in early just to see if that character would work with him. I didn\u2019t want to commit to it, and I just had to pivot. I\u2019m like, who\u2019s going to bid on Eddie? And then, Kristen had the idea, what if Eddie just bids on himself, because he doesn\u2019t want to do this in the first place?<\/p>\n

He even offers it at the beginning; he\u2019s like, \u201cWhat if I just write a check?\u201d Which is what he ends up doing. Then, I\u2019m like, but I do think that the knitting circle people need to buy Buck, and I think Athena probably has to bid on Harry<\/a>. Actually, there was a lovely scene that I had to cut where Hen is practicing driving again after her illness, and Athena is there with a clipboard, helping her, and complaining that she never gets to see Harry.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

So there was a little subplot in there of Athena trying to spend time with her son, but he leaves before she gets up; they just don\u2019t see each other. She ends up bidding on him in order to have dinner with him, which would have been great, it\u2019s just the episode was way too long, and to keep in any of that scene of Hen and Athena, I mean, that scene went on for three minutes, which doesn\u2019t sound like it\u2019s long, but that\u2019s really long because the whole act of the show could be like five minutes long.<\/p>\n

Eddie wasn\u2019t discovering that Chris was still at home until the end of act one, and I\u2019m like, \u201cWe can\u2019t do that. I think we have to reveal this right up front. I think it needs to be the end of the teaser,\u201d which I think it is, because we\u2019ve been off the air. It was a bit; it was kind of a mid-season finale, if I\u2019m not mistaken. Everyone\u2019s going to expect that we\u2019re going to come back, and we\u2019re going to be doing the Chris is missing episode, just like the Harry is missing episode, or the Maddie is missing episode, and I never wanted to do that.<\/p>\n

So either they\u2019re going to be really disappointed that, like, wah, wah, just kidding, he wasn\u2019t really abducted. I think they\u2019ll forgive it more if that card is turned over earlier. I don\u2019t remember what I made the first act break, but as you can tell, I move things around in post all the time. It\u2019s also been a challenge to find ways to incorporate May\u2019s character, right? I wanted them both to be regulars, which they are. She\u2019s wonderful, and she\u2019s been around since the very beginning, and obviously, it\u2019s easier to kind of get Harry into the action because I made him join the 118, which is the way to keep Athena having emotional stakes tied to the firehouse now that Bobby is no longer there. It was actually Corinne\u2019s idea for May to pursue nursing.<\/p>\n

She called me, and she\u2019s like, \u201cHere\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking.\u201d She was very nervous. \u201cWhat if she wanted to be a nurse and she could help people. It kind of goes back to the tsunami episode where she had to hold that woman\u2019s neck.\u201d I don\u2019t know what she was expecting, but like, \u201cI think that\u2019s a great idea.\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cReally?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah.\u201d So we decided to go down that road, but I didn\u2019t want to spend a lot of screen time on that until I kind of found a place to make a story about, what does May want to do in her future?<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been trying to include Ravi more. I mean, because Eddie was busy with his Day of the Dead, Buck needed someone to have his s\u00e9ance scene with. I\u2019m like, it should be Ravi, and for whatever reason, I\u2019m like, \u201cI think he has to show up dressed as Raggedy Andy.\u201d Everyone in the room was just like, \u201cWhat?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cIt\u2019s just this image in my head of Buck opening the door, and there\u2019s Ravi dressed as Raggedy Andy.\u201d Anirudh did not want to do it.<\/p>\n

Alayna, the costume designer, was like, \u201cNo, no, people are going to love this. It\u2019s great.\u201d She kind of talked him into it, and of course, you should do it, because it\u2019s great. So I had these two characters that kind of get the short end of the stick, right? My feeling was like, I think they\u2019d be a cute couple, and this would be a way to kind of fuel inject both of those characters by putting them together. So, that was the thinking there.<\/p>\n

Character relationships: new and old<\/p>\n

They really do make a cute couple. <\/strong>
They\u2019re about the two most beautiful people I think I\u2019ve ever seen. I think they\u2019re both unbelievably good-looking. And, yeah, so I like them together. It suddenly makes Ravi a more interesting character, and it makes May a more interesting character. But I think it benefits Ravi more in a way because often he\u2019s there to round out something, which is why last year when Eddie went to El Paso, I just had a lot of fun writing Buck trying to buddy up with Ravi, trying to replace Eddie with Ravi, and Ravi\u2019s just like, \u201cIs there a camera on? Are you trying to punk me?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a great dynamic, too, I have to say<\/strong>. They\u2019re so funny together. <\/strong>
And I love now that we have Hen and Eddie. Then also, you may not even realize it, but the idea of making Maddie, Chimney, Karen, and <\/strong>Hen kind of this extended unit, we had not done that before. I just started that when Mara was introduced. That was really the first time that I started putting Maddie and Hen <\/strong>together was, I think, in the cruise ship episodes. You didn\u2019t really see scenes, and they love having scenes together. So, I really just started expanding that as late as season seven, and now everyone thinks of the Han Wilson families as this extended unit, like they\u2019ve always been that, but in fact, they have not. It makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Buck\u2019s next chapter <\/p>\n

Buck is not only going to have to learn how to be a parent, but also deal with the fact that he\u2019s stepping into the role because of the death of his friends. Why do you think that this was the right time in terms of him being ready to start navigating what it means to be a parent? Obviously, he\u2019s always been good with kids, but throwing him into this new role is very challenging. Where are you kind of hoping to start with that process next season? <\/strong>
To me, it really does roll off of Bobby\u2019s death story. Buck can\u2019t be the kid anymore. It\u2019s just a metaphor, right? It\u2019s a metaphor for, like, you can\u2019t be the kid anymore. Your father figure has now kind of gone, and he\u2019s left you with all kinds of gifts, and it\u2019s time for you to grown up up, <\/strong>right? So it\u2019s a metaphor for that. Honestly, I always say these kinds of things in interviews, and then people are like, \u201cSee, I knew it,\u201d but I make it up as I go.<\/p>\n

The story needs to talk to you a little bit, and there\u2019s a million reasons why you do one thing and not another. Sometimes it\u2019s because the actor\u2019s not available, or the thing you thought you could do, you can\u2019t do. Here\u2019s a perfect example. There was a scheduling conflict at the end of this season, and Angela Bassett was not available to me for the month of March. So I had to shoot everything that she was in in the last two episodes at the beginning of April.<\/p>\n

I needed a story where she didn\u2019t have to talk a lot, so I shot the shit out of her, right? I\u2019m like, we put her on a gurney, we do The Godfather, where they have to move The Don <\/strong>from one room to the other, and we can put a photo double on that gurney with an oxygen mask, and no one will ever know that it\u2019s not Angela. And then, I\u2019ll write some scenes that we could shoot in that one week we have left.<\/p>\n

Everything in episode 17, like the scene upstairs in the loft where they\u2019re going through the clothes, and she looks down and sees the kid, all that stuff in the loft was shot weeks later. I\u2019m like, we\u2019ll part this out, which is also a thing we do all the time when somebody has to be on one unit and can\u2019t be on the other unit, but you still have to shoot. You just save a piece of it for later in the schedule. So all the stuff in the loft was shot separately, and I\u2019m like, I\u2019ll put her in a dream where she\u2019s talking to McCluskey; we can shoot that quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Her piece in the party at the end, like that whole party thing, was shot over the course of a day or two; she wasn\u2019t there. And so, just the little piece where she flashes the detective\u2019s badge, that was shot later. So, there\u2019s a million reasons why you do what you do.<\/p>\n

To me, what\u2019s happening in that [Welcome Home, Theo] scene is that we had mentioned that she had found emergency housing for Theo until the next of kin were kind of located or whatever. So, Buck is the next emergency placement. He\u2019s going to foster him, right? But it\u2019s an emergency placement. Without repeating the whole four-year-old story that we played with Hen and Karen, there\u2019s going to be complications. I mean, to me, it\u2019s a gold mine of story. It\u2019s a big change for him, and it seems like the right change-up for me.<\/p>\n

To me, it was a way of giving Buck a new love interest because I\u2019m never going to make anybody happy. You bring in a woman, they\u2019re going to be pissed. You bring in a guy; they\u2019re cockblocking Eddie. Like, \u201cOh, we hate that Tommy.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter. We sort of dealt with his sexuality; we\u2019ll continue to, but not every love interest has to be romantic in that way, and I mean, I just can\u2019t tell you how lucky we were in casting those twins.<\/p>\n

As you might imagine, often my casting department has to work very quickly because it\u2019s like, \u201cOkay, what\u2019s shooting next week? Well, I think I\u2019m doing this. I don\u2019t have a script yet. I need Kathy Bates. I\u2019m doing Misery,\u201d and every single actor turned it down. Time was of the essence, and we still had nobody to play that part. Then, Shawn, my casting director, recommended the actress that we cast. I just went off his recommendation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like, I think she\u2019ll be good? And she was perfect. Like, perfect. I had gone so many different directions, like, old battle-axe, this kind of comedy actress. Some actresses that I worked with before in the past, I pitched them the story, and I\u2019d get to the cattle prod, and they\u2019d be like, \u201cI don\u2019t think I want to do this. It sounds too dark.\u201d But then, the actress that we cast came in, I spoke to her, and she really understood it.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine anyone else in that part, because she\u2019s playing it straight. She was perfect. She was also young enough that you believed that she\u2019d have enough energy to keep him immobile. Also, I told Oliver, \u201cYou have to play this like you\u2019ve got three cracked ribs and you have internal bleeding, because otherwise the audience is not going to believe that this giant firefighter doesn\u2019t just knock that woman out and run out of the room. So you need to be on the verge of collapse for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those performances are what sold it, because it could have just not [worked], and also the way Jonathan directed it. So, yeah, it\u2019s Buck\u2019s new love interest. Anyway, those kids are great. There were a bunch of twins that read, only really about six choices, though. When I saw Teddy and Lincoln, and also, Kristen was like, \u201cI think it\u2019s that kid. I think it\u2019s those twins.\u201d We did a Zoom call with the kids, and John Gray, who directed episode 17, kind of gave them some direction, and they said their little lines, but what I was noticing was they couldn\u2019t sit still, and they were just running around in the background.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like, \u201cThat\u2019s the kid. That\u2019s what\u2019s in the script. He\u2019s a little hellion.\u201d And so, I watched those scenes where he comes in, and he\u2019s blowing the chocolate milk in Buck\u2019s face, where he\u2019s ripping up the flowers, or throwing the sandwich, I\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s probably the best performance of the episode. There\u2019s no other character that feels that lived in the moment and real than what, I think that\u2019s Lincoln in those scenes, is doing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Also, they were both kind of scared when they had to stand on that electrical tower thing, which is, of course, not the electrical tower, really. It\u2019s a piece of it kind of on the ground, but it scared them both, and Oliver immediately started bonding with those kids, right? He even told me, \u201cI think these kids are my favorite scene partners ever.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cGood, because you\u2019re going to have a lot of scenes with them.\u201d Just as lucky as can be that those kids were available, because I can\u2019t, I mean, they\u2019re perfect.<\/p>\n

They are.<\/strong>
It\u2019s funny, in the scene in episode 17, in the hospital, where Diedra says, \u201cSay goodbye to Buck,\u201d and he\u2019s like, \u201cGoodbye, Buck,\u201d and then they leave. I also had him say, \u201cGoodbye, Mr. Poop.\u201d I think that was one of the first scenes we shot, and I\u2019m like, \u201cHave him call him Mr. Poop, because he\u2019s going to call him that earlier in the story.\u201d And the kid was like, \u201cThat\u2019s a bad word, I can\u2019t say that.\u201d It\u2019s like, no, it\u2019s okay, it\u2019s for the show.<\/p>\n

The dad or mom gave him permission, and then every time he said, Mr. Poop, he just dissolved into laughter. He could not stop laughing. It was the cutest thing ever. But then I said, \u201cWe should also say, \u2018Goodbye, Buck.’\u201d And then, when I put the episode together, I\u2019m like, \u201cMr. Poop, Mr. Poop, Mr. Poop, Mr. Poop, and then, he should call him Buck.\u201d So, that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n

Leaning on found family <\/p>\n

I know we\u2019re going to get some sort of role reversal<\/strong> with Eddie stepping in to help Buck with Theo. Can fans expect more parallels between them<\/strong>, callbacks to scenes where Buck was helping with Chris? We saw Kameron<\/strong><\/strong> and Conno<\/strong>r\u2019s<\/strong> deaths<\/strong> compared to Shannon<\/strong>\u2018s<\/strong> death<\/strong>; that was a huge parallel, and even Buck shielding Theo from seeing his parents, like with Chris.<\/strong>
I mean, I did that on purpose, and that was directly from the tsunami. All that was on purpose. I mean, normally it\u2019s not on purpose. I don\u2019t want to tell the ladies at The Buddie System; they\u2019re like, ah, this clearly, and then it\u2019s like, okay, sure. They notice stuff that I wish I had planned. But mostly no.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Although maybe on some level, do you know what I mean? Once you have so much canon behind you, things start to ping off each other. So often, you\u2019re setting things up. Two examples, one of my favorite multi-part stories was last year with Athena landing the plane on the freeway. I don\u2019t care, those episodes are perfect. So good. And then, we had Dennis Jenkins. He makes like a prison shiv to kind of cut open that girl\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

When I got to the end, I\u2019m like, how am I going to end this thing with the guy who\u2019s got a gun? I realized he\u2019s still got the prison shiv, and then he shives him in the nuts. So, it wasn\u2019t like, I\u2019ll set up this item early in the story and then pay it off at the climax. I\u2019m not going to say it was sheer luck because this has happened as long as I\u2019ve been writing stories, that you have set up the answer in the first or second act, and you don\u2019t even know that you\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n

Like in \u201cMother\u2019s Boy,\u201d basically what I pitched to the production was like, \u201cAnd then, Buck\u2019s being held in the shed, we\u2019ll have this big tense scene where Eddie shows up and talks to the woman, and he doesn\u2019t know that he\u2019s actually found Buck and that he\u2019s down there. She\u2019s got a gun, but he doesn\u2019t see it. He\u2019ll leave, and they\u2019ll go back to kill Buck, and then Eddie will show up because he figured it out. I don\u2019t know how any of that\u2019s going to work, but that\u2019s what it is.\u201d So I didn\u2019t know that I was setting up how Buck was going to disarm Earl with that cattle prod, but I was setting it up. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be just Eddie [helping Buck]. I think it\u2019ll be Chris, obviously, Hen; they\u2019re all parents, except for Buck.<\/p>\n

Yeah, it\u2019ll be nice, especially with Maddie seeing<\/strong> Theo and remembering a younger Buck.<\/strong>
That\u2019s why I really felt like Maddie had to be the one to show up at the hospital, because what there wasn\u2019t room for, but what we had written, was a scene where Maddie finds out about Theo. I\u2019m like, we\u2019ve got to somehow read Maddie into Buck\u2019s story, and we have to do it quickly and efficiently. So she walks in, and he\u2019s like, \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d \u201cOh, Chimney told me,\u201d and it was really important that she look over and see the kid in the distance, and go, \u201cIt\u2019s little Buck.\u201d She doesn\u2019t say that specifically, but that\u2019s the idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

You see it in her face.<\/strong>
Yeah, because Jennifer Love Hewitt is a fantastic actor.<\/p>\n

I just think the way she played that was<\/strong> incredible.
<\/strong>Oh, that\u2019s Jennifer in every scene. Every scene, she just knows what to do. She knows what I wrote. She will just always give you the thing.<\/p>\n

Exploring Eddie\u2019s faith<\/p>\n

I can only think that Eddie getting stabbed in the chapel is not going to make his faith any stronger, outside of the fact that he did survive, at least. That was a miracle in itself. But can you walk me through the decision to have that be an ongoing struggle for him throughout the show rather than only a one-season arc? <\/strong>
There\u2019s little bits of me in all the characters; that\u2019s just how I always conceive that character. Eddie\u2019s the one character, well, maybe not the one character now, Maddie, too, I guess, that I just created because I felt like we needed a character. So in season one, we were all kind of working on the show: Ryan Murphy, me, Brad Falchuk.<\/p>\n

Then, season two came along, and Ryan was like, \u201cHere, just take it.\u201d So I just took over in season two, and I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do an earthquake, and I\u2019m going to do big disasters,\u201d and Ryan was like, \u201cDon\u2019t do that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do it.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cIt will just look terrible. It\u2019ll look like you\u2019re dropping stuff in front of the lens and shaking the camera,\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not.\u201d So I did it, and not only did I do it, but that first earthquake was supposed to be one episode, and then I realized it was going to be long, like everything else.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat if I just write some more scenes, and we just keep shooting? And then, we\u2019ll have two episodes instead of one,\u201d which would be great because I don\u2019t know what episode three is, so this will give me some time to figure that out. What I discovered was that when I make those disaster episodes multi-part episodes, it brings the costs way down.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

It\u2019s much cheaper to amortize over one, two, or even three episodes. And so, it\u2019s literally the only way for me to do it. I would not be able to afford to do half the stuff on the show if I didn\u2019t do that. So I brought in Eddie in season two, and I just kind of always knew who he was for me. Now, it\u2019s been a challenge because for the longest time, he was the hardest character to kind of get into other stories, which I think now, partnering him with Hen, it\u2019s becoming easier, but it sure has taken a long time.<\/p>\n

Were there any alternatives to Eddie being alone in the elevator? Was it always going to be just him, or were you thinking of sticking him with another character in there?<\/strong>
Well, I mean, the trick with that one was I didn\u2019t want to fall into the trap of giving anyone short shrift. I would say, like, in the season seven finale, the house burned down, and then Athena kind of goes off, and everyone\u2019s at the hospital going, \u201cOh, we\u2019re so worried about Athena.\u201d I always thought that was a pretty disappointing finale, because people didn\u2019t have anything to do except for Athena.<\/p>\n

So I didn\u2019t want that to happen again. But then, I remembered back, I\u2019m like, oh shit, am I making a mistake by setting another finale in a hospital waiting room? Everybody needed something to do. But I\u2019m like, it\u2019s Harry\u2019s mother, so I don\u2019t think I can have Buck and Eddie team up and become, like, Die Hard boys because then Harry\u2019s going to end up being a third wheel, and I can\u2019t do that to Harry\u2019s character. I\u2019ll put Ravi with May, and I\u2019ll cut them off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give Hen and Chimney a life to save, but what the fuck am I going to do with Eddie? I didn\u2019t really have something to do with him, but I\u2019m like, I do definitely want to scene, like in Die Hard, where Bruce Willis runs into the villain, and he\u2019s like, \u201cYou got a cigarette?\u201d They talk, and you\u2019re like, \u201cDoes Bruce know that that\u2019s the bad guy?\u201d So I definitely wanted that scene, which is where that chapel scene came out of. I\u2019m like, \u201cOh shit, Eddie doesn\u2019t have anything to do. I think I have to stab him, trap him someplace, and just let him bleed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

It was a way for him to have something to do on screen that wasn\u2019t the exact same thing as what the other characters were doing, because really, it only took two guys to go in the basement and shut off the power. I mean, if you think about it, not a lot happens in that episode.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the tension that\u2019s building.
<\/strong>It\u2019s the tension. I was saying before that I got the first cut of it, and I\u2019m like, \u201cUh oh, uh oh, we\u2019re in big trouble. This is so fucking boring,\u201d and it was. It was so boring, and I\u2019m like, \u201cWe have to pull everything up, right? We have to pull everything up.\u201d I don\u2019t know where that beat with Anatoly in the waiting room was originally, but it wasn\u2019t in the first act. I made it the act break.<\/p>\n

Eddie didn\u2019t get stabbed until the end of act two, and Anatoly didn\u2019t even shoot the guy and break into the ICU ward until like the end of act three. I\u2019m like, \u201cAll this needs to happen an act earlier. We got to pull it all forward.\u201d I was worried because you absolutely need these flashback scenes with The Godfather, and you need the scene in Hooks\u2019 kitchen with Anatoly because we don\u2019t even know who this kid is. I was very worried that I\u2019m going to have three scenes with Hooks in it before we even get to the action.<\/p>\n

The audience is going to be like, \u201cWhere are the characters?\u201d So I really went back and forth on that first act many times. I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat if this scene came at the end? I don\u2019t know, let\u2019s try this.\u201d I tried a bunch of stuff and then sort of landed on the structure that it ended up as, which is not all that different from the script, except that I pulled everything forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

For instance, in that first scene in the waiting room, where Hen sits down and says to Eddie, \u201cI know what you\u2019re thinking, this is our fault. She\u2019s going to pull through because it\u2019s Athena,\u201d that was not in that scene. I pulled that out of the waiting room scene that actually appears at the end of the act before Eddie gets up to get coffee. So I pull that into the first scene; you can\u2019t tell at all because it\u2019s all in the same place. It used to be we go into the waiting room, we would play this long waiting room scene, May would show up, and then they would repeat all the information that we already know, and I\u2019m like, \u201cJust get rid of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It cut to Athena waking up, but then you reveal she\u2019s still in surgery, and that was the end of the first act. I\u2019m like, that needs to happen in the middle, not at the end, and I need a transition to get to Athena waking up. I pulled the exchange between Eddie and Hen from later in the story, pulled it up into the first act, so that I could have her say, \u201cShe\u2019s going to pull through because she\u2019s Athena,\u201d cut to Athena wakes up. That\u2019s why I pulled that up there.<\/p>\n

I just made sure that not all the Hooks scenes were clumped together because I think after that is when I reveal she\u2019s in surgery, then I reveal Hooks coming into his kitchen and running into Anatoly. The problem was it kept feeling like Anatoly was teleporting into the waiting room. So I kept trying to get that kitchen scene further away from the ending. I\u2019m like, I think maybe if it comes right before and we put in a couple of drone shots of the city with some ominous music, that\u2019ll feel like a time passage.<\/p>\n

Instead of trying to get it further away, let\u2019s get it closer together, so it becomes the penultimate scene of act one. This is all the nuts and bolts of why things are the way they are. I\u2019ll just hammer at it in the editing room until I feel like I have the right order, and the scenes are in the right place. It usually works out, sometimes not as well. But here, there were very few choices in some way.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

It was always going to be the first act was going to be the trick, and then I\u2019m like, if I can stab Eddie in the middle of act two, then every time I cut back to boring scenes in the waiting room where people are going, \u201cWhat\u2019s her status?\u201d They won\u2019t seem like boring scenes, because the audience would be like, \u201cHe\u2019s bleeding out, where are you going? Pick up your phone!\u201d So I knew that that would just juice up everything that came after it.<\/p>\n

Athena\u2019s detective journey <\/p>\n

Speaking of Athena, we started the season with her grieving Bobby, but we ended with a huge career move: her becoming a detective. Is that part of her moving into a new chapter for herself? Not forgetting Bobby, but going forward.<\/strong>
Yes, 100%. You know, it\u2019s funny in \u201cPick Your Poison,\u201d where we first meet Hooks, and we kind of first hear about Nikolay Caster, and at some point he says, \u201cNext time, get yourself a detective shield.\u201d I remember, I think Christina Smith, who\u2019s an executive at the network, she was like, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind if she did,\u201d and I\u2019m like, \u201cAre you sure?\u201d Because we\u2019d had this conversation before, where I wanted to make Athena a detective, and there was some pushback against it because that would take her out of her uniform, and she would no longer be on a car crash scene or something, interacting with the 118.<\/p>\n

But I think we all felt like, now it\u2019s time. And so, in that episode, the reason the guy who was poisoned is looking for her specifically is because I had done this thing so many times where this patrol sergeant is a detective all of a sudden, and she\u2019s working a case. I couldn\u2019t justify it one more time. I\u2019m like, \u201cThere needs to be another reason.\u201d When I was on The X Files, it was always like, okay, you don\u2019t want to reveal what the paranormal thing is necessarily in the cold open, but you need a reason for Mulder and Scully to latch onto the case, so how do you do that without giving away the ending?<\/p>\n

How do you start it? It has to be Mulder going, \u201cWell, everyone thinks it\u2019s this, but I think it\u2019s this,\u201d and then he can be wrong, but close. So there always needs to be a reason that Athena suddenly becomes a detective. So that\u2019s why I had that guy come to her specifically, and also, it\u2019s as old as time. It\u2019s a movie called D.O.A., which is also remade with Dennis Quaid in the \u201980s. But it\u2019s a classic \u201940s noir where this guy comes into a police station, he\u2019s like, \u201cI want to report a murder, mine. I\u2019ve been poisoned, and I have this long to live.\u201d So, it\u2019s about solving your own murder before the poison takes effect.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s sort of what that was based on. But I just didn\u2019t want to do that again, where it\u2019s like, oh, she\u2019s being a detective because I need her to be. What if she really becomes a detective? That\u2019s kind of where that idea started. The whole thing with Hooks and Nikolay Caster, that was just for that episode. He wasn\u2019t dirty.<\/p>\n

Really?<\/strong>
I was like, \u201cWhat if he was the bad guy at the end? What if he is dirty? What if we\u2019ve been setting up the finale this whole time and nobody knew it?\u201d So, yeah, that\u2019s where that came up, because the thing I had going into the finale was Die Hard in a hospital. I don\u2019t know what that means, but there\u2019s this great hospital location, and we can get it for like a week because all that was shot in a real hospital. None of those were sets, and because I have this scheduling issue coming up with Angela, I need to come up with a story that makes it feel like she hasn\u2019t disappeared off the show. And so, basically, necessity is the mother of invention.<\/p>\n

The Diaz family <\/p>\n

There\u2019s one scene in the finale that really stuck with me, which is when Eddie tells Chris that he doesn\u2019t want him sitting up all night at the hospital, only for Chris to say, \u201cWhy not? You did it for me.\u201d Now that Chris is growing up, how are we going to see their dynamic change moving forward? Are there any aspects that you\u2019re specifically excited to explore? I mean, it\u2019s obviously the most important relationship in Eddie\u2019s life.<\/strong>
Yeah, I mean, it\u2019s interesting that you\u2019ve mentioned that scene, because I added that at the last second. The last second. So, there were a whole bunch of other scenes in the original draft, and it was like Eddie at Gabi\u2019s office, and they\u2019re talking about the migrants. Then, there was like Buck with Maddie, and he\u2019s like, \u201cThat poor kid. I wonder if there\u2019s anything I can do,\u201d and I knew, just in looking at everything that had been written, I\u2019m like, first of all, we\u2019re not going to fit all of this into the episode.<\/p>\n

We just got to get rid of something. Then, there was Athena coming home, and she\u2019s going to rehab, but she\u2019s back at home with her kids. It did all culminate in the baby Nash birthday party, and there was that giant scene that I took out, where they\u2019re doing this Korean ritual where you could put a bunch of items on the floor, and the thing the baby crawls to that\u2019s going to be their future. So we shot that, but the baby didn\u2019t crawl, the baby didn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

It was like the third baby, because the baby that we had in the middle of the season, every time Jennifer Love Hewitt picked it up, it would scream. So we had to get a new baby. At least this one didn\u2019t scream, but it also wouldn\u2019t do anything. Anyway, I took out that scene, and then I added an ADR line for Sue when she comes in, she\u2019s hugging Hen, and there\u2019s an ADR line where she goes, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t miss baby Nash\u2019s birthday.\u201d Like, no one\u2019s going to know whose birthday this is because we took out that scene, and there\u2019s no shots of the baby.<\/p>\n

So I added that in there. But after I went through the act where Anatoly gets busted, and they find Eddie in the elevator \u2014 that was the other thing, the biggest part of that puzzle was I did not have an act three break. I pulled everything up because all that action of them turning off the power, that was all in act four, and it was a 15-minute act. I\u2019m like, well, obviously, we\u2019re going to have to pull something up, because this is too long.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m like, what\u2019s the act break? There\u2019s no moment for the end of the act, and I\u2019m like, wait a minute, I think when I wrote that thing in the elevator, I said that Eddie looks into a middle distance and his eyes become fixed, like he\u2019s dying. I\u2019m like, \u201cCan we look at the dailies of that?\u201d We go back and looked at it, and I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat if that light he\u2019s staring at starts to\u2026 we should just try to make it seem like Eddie\u2019s dying at the end of act three.\u201d So that gave us an act break because I really did not know what the act break was going to be.<\/p>\n

I mean, it was an even bigger puzzle when I was putting together episode four with the flashbacks to the \u201990s because I wrote all that stuff separately, and then I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019ll figure it out in the editing room.\u201d So I\u2019m like, I think there needs to be a scene with Buck and Eddie, post him being stabbed. We have to have it. We can\u2019t just skip over that. The audience will kill me. Well, The Buddie System <\/strong>will kill me.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

We need that scene. So I wrote that scene, I\u2019m like, \u201cBrad, what are you shooting tomorrow? Because I need a scene where Eddie is recovering, and we see that he\u2019s going to be okay. I think Buck needs to be in it. And then, I\u2019m going to call casting and see if I can get Pepa. I wonder if she\u2019s available tomorrow.\u201d So that\u2019s what I did. I just wrote that, and then I came up with The Shining joke.<\/p>\n

And then I\u2019m like, I think I need to see Chris with his dad. He got stabbed; it\u2019s a big deal. So, I wrote that at the last minute, and then I called casting, and then I called Alayna, and I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I know you don\u2019t have any time to do any fittings, but I might need Pepa tomorrow.\u201d She was great. She\u2019s like, \u201cShe often wears her own clothes, so I think we\u2019re fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

So we called that night, she came in the next day, and we shot that the next day. But the other thing I felt it needed to do, it was there for another reason, and the other reason was that you need a downbeat where everything feels like the danger has passed before you see Hooks pull up to the hospital and go in to assassinate her. So that\u2019s really what it\u2019s there for, just structurally, but then it\u2019s there for other reasons, too.<\/p>\n

It does three things. It simply services the need to kind of see him after he\u2019s found bleeding out. It\u2019s not enough to [have him be] off camera, and someone\u2019s like, he\u2019s going to be fine. You need to see it. I think you need to see Christopher, and I knew that the audience would love to see Pepa, because it just makes things feel more real and lived in. It needs to be a downbeat before the Athena finale part. But you need to see Buck reacting to the father and son, and that\u2019s why Pepa says, \u201cTry to keep those two apart; you\u2019ll lose.\u201d He\u2019s thinking about Theo, and you can tell. Like, that\u2019s important. That\u2019s what that was all for.<\/p>\n

\"\"Disney\/Christopher Willard<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the future <\/p>\n

Actually going off of Pepa, I do have to ask you, selfishly because I want to see it: is there any chance of Eddie\u2019s sisters visiting for a future arc?<\/strong>
Sometimes I\u2019ll watch The Buddie System live reaction, and somebody in the chat did mention that, and it struck me as a good idea. I mean, look, I usually try to avoid the old saw of, like, \u201cOh, my no-good brother is showing up for this episode.\u201d Now, I\u2019m not above it. <\/p>\n

I introduced Bobby\u2019s mother and brother, but I mean, I did introduce them in a flashback in the previous years, so I kind of felt like it\u2019s not exactly out of the blue. I have been known to do it, and, you know, it\u2019s like, oh, here\u2019s Chimney\u2019s half-brother from Korea. It\u2019s so sitcomy, but I\u2019ve done it. I have seen evidence of his sisters; we\u2019ve mentioned the sisters before. You sort of see them at a barbecue in season two, in the finale. They had more to do in that scene originally, but I had to trim it down. So Eddie\u2019s sisters are not a terrible idea.<\/p>\n

The last question has to go to May because you touched on this a little bit, but she\u2019s going into nursing. Does this mean we\u2019re going to get more of the medical field first responders? I feel like the potential is also there for when a member of the 118 gets hurt.<\/strong>
Yeah, I mean, for sure. I think it gives you a look into the hospital element. It\u2019s not going to turn into Grey\u2019s Anatomy or something, but I do think it is an area we haven\u2019t really had one of our characters in. We sort of teased it with Hen\u2019s going to become a doctor, ha ha, just kidding. I would love to bring back Ian. I thought that guy was great and could be an interesting foil. She gets closer to him, and Ravi\u2019s like, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? What\u2019s going on at work?\u201d I think that could be interesting.<\/p>\n

9-1-1\u00a0will return as part of ABC\u2019s Thursday night lineup <\/a>this fall.<\/strong> All episodes are streaming on Hulu and Disney+.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more\u00a0News\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on Nerdtropolis. Subscribe to our\u00a0YouTube.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from Nerdtropolis – Movie News, Reviews, Interviews, and Trailers<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Minear breaks down significant season 9 moments and offers new in-depth behind-the-scenes insight. Disney\/Christopher Willard 9-1-1 explores…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":830519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[31513,8811,171,319889,173,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-830518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-9-1-1","tag-abc","tag-entertainment","tag-tim-minear","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116659051002433220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}