Warning: SPOILERS for 9-1-1 season 8, episode 16.Peter Krause’s surprise exit from 9-1-1’s intense disasters won’t wait for the first responders to finish grieving.
Even as the ensemble cast continues to struggle with their complex feelings surrounding the death of a series mainstay, the high-octane rescues and dramatic natural disasters will inevitably continue, regardless if the 118 is ready to move on or not. Following Bobby’s burial in 9-1-1 season 8, the ABC drama is ushering in the next chapter— and with it, the burning question of who will be the next captain. The LAFD offered one possibility in “The Last Alarm,” but the interim captain is a mere band-aid— a temporary solution to bide time until the true replacement comes out of the woodwork.
9-1-1 Season 8 Chooses Gerrard To Step In As Bobby's Replacement At The 118
The Face Is Familiar But Not Fondly ed
9-1-1 season 8, episode 16 takes place after a brief time-jump following Bobby’s death: two weeks after the Contagion saga, Athena (Angela Bassett) is touring mausoleums while Chimney harasses the federal government into releasing the body. The first scene at station 118’s firehouse displays a table of photographs and mementos to pay tribute to Bobby, but the fallen captain is uniquely eulogized by none other than Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson), Bobby’s former replacement and villain of the 118’s past. What’s more jarring is that 9-1-1 season 8 reveals Gerrard is the acting captain of 118.
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It’s an ironically full-circle moment, as the season began with Gerrard in charge of the core team during 9-1-1’s ridiculous beenado (bee tornado). Yet, Bobby’s death seems to have rattled Gerrard just as much as the 118, with him acting uncharacteristically sympathetic and almost contrite. During the sole emergency in 9-1-1 season 8, episode 16, Gerrard even tries to talk Chimney down after he displaces his grief and blows up at a civilian. While the Captain Gerrard 9-1-1 first introduced would have punished Chimney for insubordination, “The Last Alarm” paints him in a suspiciously good light.
Why Gerrard Is Chosen To Replace Bobby At The Firehouse & Not Anyone From His Team
The Lab Catastrophe Left Many Out Of Commission
Bringing Gerrard back felt like a baffling decision, especially considering how hard the 118 worked to trick him into swapping roles with Bobby in the early episodes of 9-1-1 season 8. However, there truly wasn’t any other option for an acting captain with the circumstances of Contagion taken into . Hen has stepped up to fill Bobby’s shoes on more than one occasion throughout 9-1-1, but she spent the time-jump on medical leave for the injuries sustained during the lab explosion. Going from healing a collapsed lung to leading the LAFD would be an unrealistic, whiplash-inducing change.
Actor |
9-1-1 Character |
|---|---|
Peter Krause |
Bobby Nash |
Angela Bassett |
Athena Grant-Nash |
Oliver Stark |
Evan "Buck" Buckley |
Ryan Guzman |
Eddie Diaz |
Aisha Hinds |
Henrietta "Hen" Wilson |
Kenneth Choi |
Howard "Chimney" Han |
Jennifer Love Hewitt |
Maddie Han |
Anirudh Pisharody |
Ravi Panikkar |
Similarly, Chimney started at the LAFD long before any of his current cohorts and has survived some of Hen’s story in 9-1-1 season 8 is resolved.
Gerrard's Time As The 118's New Captain Isn't Going To Last In 9-1-1
Bobby's True Successor Is Still Unknown
Luckily, Gerrard won’t be returning as the 118’s captain permanently. In fact, Gerrard explicitly says his role is temporary in 9-1-1 season 8, episode 16, explaining that he’s only there to act as interim captain until Chief Simpson (Richard Brooks) can appoint “a candidate more worthy” to replace Bobby. While the unsettling kindness and understanding displayed by Gerrard in “The Last Alarm” feels dangerously close to one of 9-1-1’s unnecessary redemption arcs, the former antagonist will thankfully be gone soon enough to make way for a new captain, either plucked from the existing cast or introduced as a new character.
New episodes of 9-1-1 can be streamed on Hulu the day after they air on ABC.
While the uncertainty is agonizing, the first-responder drama might take its time selecting the new Station 118 Fire Captain. With so little time remaining in 9-1-1 season 8, the vacant captaincy could be a cliffhanger that remains unanswered for months. 9-1-1 season 9 opening on the new normal with a replacement captain would be an easy narrative conceit, but it’s just as likely that the procedural introduces a new captain immediately. Now that Bobby has irreversibly been killed off, there’s no predicting what’s next for the ABC hit— but the clock is ticking for 9-1-1 to make its decision.
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- Directors
- Bradley Buecker, David Grossman, Brenna Malloy, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Jann Turner, Jennifer Lynch, Marita Grabiak, Sarah Boyd, John J. Gray, Barbara Brown, Robert M. Williams Jr., Kristen Reidel, Marcus Stokes, Tasha Smith, Millicent Shelton, Juan Carlos Coto, John Gray, Greg Sirota, Alonso Alvarez, James Wong, Kevin Hooks, Varda Bar-Kar, Shauna Duggins, Sharat Raju
- Writers
- Tim Minear, Andrew Meyers, Brad Falchuk, David Fury, Ryan Murphy, Christopher Monfette, Nadia Abass-Madden, Nicole Barraza Keim, Erica L. Anderson, Matthew Hodgson, Stacey R. Rose, Taylor Wong, Tonya Kong, Adam Penn
- Creator(s)
- Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Tim Minear
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